#Meetthegravity9’ers with Rowan Wijegoonawardena

In Short : This month we continue our Meet the gravity9'ers series with the introduction of Rowan Wijegoonawardena, Finance Director based in London in the United Kingdom, the man who speaks many lauguages!
Joe Bloggs

Joe Bloggs

Managing Director

When it comes to disrupting entire industries and building transformative customer experiences you have to have an exceptional team who can and build these products at pace. Our team at gravity9 are just that, highly skilled, driven, passionate and fun to work with.

This month we continue our Meet the gravity9’ers series with the introduction of: Rowan Wijegoonawardena, Finance Director based in London in the United Kingdom.


1. What is your role at gravity9? 

I’m the Finance Director of gravity9.  As we’ve grown so rapidly, we currently do a lot of things which worked well when we were half the size, but now we’re in five different countries and at over 100 people, we need to upgrade our way of doing things to match where we are as a company.

I’m here to introduce scalable solutions for the gravity9 rocket ship and help everyone grow the company even further!

2. What do you enjoy most about working at gravity9?

I love the energy from a lot of smart, motivated, and curious people pulling in the same direction (albeit from all over the world).  We have a common drive to make gravity9 succeed and incredibly talented people always looking to improve things, making it a really exciting place to work.

3. What one piece of advice would you give to someone starting out in your line of work? 

Show interest in people and in everything around you, open up your world and listen. In finance, people can often feel that they need to solve problems all on their own. I’ve learnt so much from speaking to finance and non-finance professionals from C-suite to entry level which has given me seeds for new ideas, added context to my contributions, and to see things from different perspectives. Finally, never stop listening actively – you won’t learn much and grow if you’re the only one talking.

4. What can’t you start your day without? 

I normally walk into the office, or at least have a walk around the park near my house before work if working from home.  It makes a real difference to my day to enjoy a bit of sun (when we don’t have the British mizzle!), appreciate nature and listen to a bit of music or a podcast.

5. What do you do in your spare time?

Good question! Now I have a toddler at home, it’s hard to remember what that is! I love my football and cricket. Living in North London, I’m a big Arsenal fan and crossing everything that we can finally win the Premier League! During the summer I like to pretend that I’m lining up in the Ashes for my Sunday cricket team, though that dream soon disappears when I get the ball shooting through into my stumps when batting.

6. What is the last movie you watched? 

Ito, a Japanese comedy about a shy female shamisen player who ends up working in a maid café that I saw at the Japanese Film Festival.

7. What special skill / talent do you have (other than what you do for a living)?

I can play the Okinawan sanshin having lived in Okinawa, Japan. Back in my younger days I played in a group and performed around London.

8. What would be your dream vacation?

I’d love to go to New Zealand for the nature, and probably catch a bit of cricket, but it’s just so far away! I should’ve gone when I lived in Japan, and it was “just around the corner” … 

9. What is the last song you had stuck in your head?

Unfortunately, it’s “Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round”. I looked at my 2022 most played songs and noticed that my top ten songs were all British nursery rhymes thanks to sharing a streaming service with my family!

 

Visit our careers page to find out about current vacancies at gravity9 and the opportunities for joining our global team.

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