Alison Crealy - Fail Forward: Career Pivots, People & Culture, and Building Long-Term Wealth

In this episode of the Grow Your Wealth podcast, host Travis Miller sits down with Alison Crealy, a financial services leader with 25+ years across audit, M&A, and corporate leadership. Alison shares her journey from a KPMG cadetship to a decade in Belgium working on pan-European deals pre-GFC, and later returning to Australia to lead as CFO and GM of Capital Markets at iPartners. She unpacks personal lessons on embracing failure, navigating pregnancy bias, and building resilient teams through culture, training, and continuous improvement. Alison also discusses philanthropy and community service and offers clear, practical advice on risk, consistency, and avoiding greed when building wealth. [00:00:00] - Cold Open: “Don’t be afraid to fail” - why risk and resilience matter [00:01:29] - Introduction & Bio: Alison’s role at iPartners and career overview [00:02:26] - Early Years: Sydney upbringing, selective school, and the KPMG cadetship [00:03:53] - Europe Chapter: Belgium, languages, and moving from audit to M&A pre-GFC [00:05:19] - Tennis Foundations: Family coaching, Australian Schoolgirls tour, and competition [00:07:20] - Working Trilingual: Navigating Flemish/Dutch, French, and English in business [00:17:33] - GFC & Pregnancy: Job loss, overcoming bias, and landing a pivotal project role [00:20:45] - What Drives Her: Team first, continuous improvement, and better processes [00:21:41] - Play to Strengths: Passion, mentors, and handling toxic workplaces [00:32:20] - Defining Success: High-performing teams, family, wealth tips on consistency and risk iPartners Website: https://www.ipartners.com.au Register Here: https://ipartners.iplatforms.com.au/register/register-as-wholesale/ iPartners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ipartners-pty-ltd