Curiosity as a Career Path for Tom Mortimer, Orion Finance Associate

In our quarterly Shooting Star series, we profile a team member who has exemplified a core Orion value. For our fourth spotlight, Orion recognizes Tom Mortimer, Finance Associate, for his dedication to the pursuit of quality in his work on Orion’s capital management.

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Sweeping Changes

In 2012, the Olympic Games came to London, and afterwards, the UK government invested heavily in sports the country excelled at – rowing being one of them. A scouting team visited my school and said anyone tall should try out, so I thought, why not?

I started rowing and immediately loved it. I appreciated the technical component, the team camaraderie, and the experience of working towards a common goal. I got into it to the point where I moved schools and even towns to be closer to my rowing club. By the time I started thinking about university, my coaches told me I should consider attending college in the U.S. because of the opportunities it could offer.

I didn’t realize that a few months into the sport I would be so in over my head. I also knew that I couldn’t quit: for me, and for the majority of people at Orion, once we start something, we have a hard time leaving it unfinished.

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A Passion for Problem-Solving

My dad is an environmental science professor, so I think that was an early influence on me in terms of what I wanted to study in school. I have always loved numbers: when I was around seven years old, I would even create my birthday wish list in a little Excel spreadsheet with images and prices listed out. I value clear communication, so I loved being able to lay everything out to the point where I could just show people what I meant.

I ended up studying chemistry in college, which I loved because it was essentially a study of problem-solving. I learned a variety of different tools and techniques, and then I just got to apply the methods I knew to figure out the questions in front of me.

As I was studying chemistry, I started to realize that I didn’t want to work in a lab or go into academia after university. Post-graduation, I worked at a small environmental start-up before I was introduced to Orion, about three years ago. The team was looking for someone to join the finance function, and this seemed like a great opportunity for me to try something new while getting back to the analytical problem-solving I loved about chemistry.

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Early Days at Orion

When I first heard about Orion, I was excited by the idea of joining a new team early on in the company’s inception. Admittedly, we were dealing with a lot of the challenges that came with starting something new, and I loved that.

I enjoyed those days because there was just so much I didn’t know, which meant there was so much to learn, and everybody I worked with had a different specialty. One of my favorite parts of my role is being able to focus on analytical work while still constantly interacting with people.

I still remember about a year and a half ago, there was a day when we were closing both an acquisition and a significant debt raise. It was the culmination of months of hard work for the team, and it was also very early on in my career to be handling transactions worth millions of dollars. Before starting at Orion, I had never even taken an economics class, and yet I had learned enough to take on that kind of responsibility in such a short amount of time. It’s gratifying to think about how far the team and I have come since those days.

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Learning and Growing Together

Even now, I’m continuing to learn a lot, and that’s what I will always look for in my career. As I’ve grown at Orion, my role has become more focused on capital management, which includes all things debt and equity. I spend a lot of time determining both where we are now and where we want to go in terms of financing strategy, cash flow management, and overall company direction. A lot of what I do is also centered around the question of how we can give our operators the greatest runway for growth so that their companies really take off.

Now that I manage an analyst on our team, Aurelia Han, I’ve also enjoyed the opportunity to teach someone who is just starting out in their own professional journey. It’s an amazing feeling to be impressed by the person you’re managing and to think, whoa, I didn’t know that when I was in your seat. That’s a fun part of the job and something I think I will always want in my career: the ability to teach someone I’m working with. I must get that from my dad and his passion for academia.

Beyond work, I love that I’m able to call some of my colleagues my close friends. We have a tight-knit community here because everyone gets on really well. I love that people hang out together outside of Orion and are a part of each other’s personal lives.

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Committed to Curiosity

I still feel like I have a lot to learn from the people around me, but I can also acknowledge that I’ve learned quite a bit in just the last few years. As someone who didn’t study finance or economics, I’m glad I didn’t shoebox myself into a specific role based only on what I majored in at university.

Curiosity – simply enjoying learning – is a trait a lot of people at Orion both have and value. Being a curious person can make you a better employee because it helps you understand the people and situations around you.

If you’re early on in your career, I would encourage you to be open to everything. Don’t worry about the next few years. Think about the next few months. It’s important to plan your future, but people change careers all the time by learning about themselves, about what they like and dislike. Find the things you like. And then do them well.