After receiving a devastating brain tumour diagnosis in 2006, Marnie McLaren found a new perspective on life which pushed her from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat and compelled her to make choices and start living the best life she could.
“I’m incredibly thankful and I feel incredibly blessed for having had this experience. It changed my life in incredibly positive ways. At a very young age I got to get a level of perspective that most people don’t get until they’re on their death bed. I got to actively make choices about my life,” she said.
So, make choices she did. “I live my life. I live my life to the very fullest. That’s as a result of having gone through this experience,” said Marnie.
Marnie’s new found perspective meant that opportunities, passions and relationships came back into focus in her life.
After enduring eight surgeries, the brain tumour was successfully removed and Marnie started to make choices about her life.
As BT Financial Group’s Head of Investment Research and Governance, Marnie has primary responsibility for monitoring and oversight of approximately $100bn of investments across BT’s Platform, Superannuation and Asset Management businesses and says she’s incredibly motivated in her job.
“I am responsible for people’s financial futures and I’m really passionate about it. I turn up to work each day and do the best job I can,” she said. Her experience has taught her not to sweat the small stuff and she feels in doing so she is far more considered and better at her job.
Marnie says she travels “like a bandit” having visited 87 cities in 23 countries in the last five years.
Wanting to give back, Marnie founded FICAP – the first charity within Sydney’s financial services community, which has since helped fund over 13 Australian charities to the tune of $1.5m.
Marnie also made the choice to become an advocate for causes she strongly believes in such as gender equality in particularly male dominated sectors such as the financial services industry.
“It’s up to me as a senior female in the industry to pave the way for young women in our industry and make sure they make it further to the top,” Marnie said.
Lastly, she combined her lifelong passions of rugby and sports photography and now has a second job as a sports photographer.
Marnie was the guest speaker at the St Margaret’s Anglican Girls School’s Professional Women’s Network breakfast held on Thursday 12 October.
The St Margaret’s Old Girl who graduated in 1991 implored the audience “Don’t wait. Get out there, live your life, actively choose to sit in that driver’s seat. Don’t let life happen around you.”
Her parting words were that of an old Chinese proverb: “The best time to plant an acorn was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”