Olivia Cameron’s career started when she was 14 years old, flipping burgers at her local McDonald’s in Mooloolah in southern Queensland. And she’s stayed with the company ever since, working her way up the corporate ladder through more than a dozen roles to become the Financial Controller for McDonald’s Australia, with the aspiration of becoming the CFO one day. 

“I love walking into a McDonald's restaurant and I see where it really started for me; the work ethic, the camaraderie we had in the restaurants and the support that we gave each other. It was very much a healthy, competitive environment,” Cameron says. 

When she was a teenager and then at university, Cameron had no clear vision of where her career would take her. “It still blows my mind to think about starting out working on the floor every day as a crew person, serving our customers, and then going through a number of different opportunities in the head office. I never expected to be here where I am 23 years later.”

“It still blows my mind to think about starting out working on the floor every day as a crew person, serving our customers, and then going through a number of different opportunities in the head office. I never expected to be here where I am 23 years later.”

Following the footsteps

To get a job at McDonald’s, Cameron had followed in her brother’s footsteps and then, because she loved maths and analytics at high school, she followed him again into an accounting degree at the University of Southern Queensland. 

Soon after graduation, McDonald’s offered her a role as an assistant accountant in their national corporate headquarters, so she took the leap from her childhood home in a rural area of the Sunshine Coast south to Sydney. 

Since that career move, Cameron has consistently sought feedback from her peers and managers. 

“No matter what role you're in, what level of the organisation, you're always wanting to learn more and find more opportunities, and I continue to look at my own development thinking what can I do to make a better me,” she says. 

Showing leadership

As Cameron’s moved to more senior roles, became more multidisciplinary and dealt with a range of stakeholders in the organisation, she’s realised that it's less about your knowledge base and rather how you portray yourself as a leader that counts.

Nurturing and mentoring her team of 40 is also important to her. “I continually reinforce with my leadership team, how they build talent underneath us so that we can get the best results,” she says.

As she aspires to be McDonald’s CFO one day, Cameron is exploring what professional development courses she can take to become more strategic in the organisation. “My focus needs to be on my leadership competencies. I also continually surround myself with good mentors who teach me great things all the time,” she says.

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