WELCOME to the fifth annual ’35 under 35 – Practice’, where we flag up some of the best and brightest accounting practice talent in the UK. Follow #AAYP on Twitter for more discussion on our Young Professionals Day.
We are also delighted to announce the second ’35 under 35 – Finance’, of the best young personnel working within the finance function. This second list will be published on sister title Financial Director tomorrow. Follow on Twitter at #FDYP.
Jennifer Allison (CA)
Age: 28
Corporate Tax Manager, MazarsACA and qualified tax professional, Jen played a key role in the set-up and growth of the Edinburgh-based corporate tax team. She is also involved in strategic national projects, helping drive income and making cost savings for the firm. A business development-focused young talent, Jen developed the firm’s Womens Network in Scotland.
David Arden (ACCA/AAT)
Age: 27
Senior Client Manager, My Accountancy Place
David has saved My Accountancy Place’s clients over £50,000 on their R&D tax claims, delivers exceptional and reassuring advice to his clients on a day-to-day basis, and has worked hard to secure generous investment opportunities for clients.
Alex Baskeyfield
Age: 34
Director, Mazars
Alex joined Mazars as a graduate and quickly progressed to director. Having won ‘Emerging Dealmaker of the Year’ in 2014, he is already a known-name in the Yorkshire area. An outstanding young talent, with an impressive business development record, Alex is fast becoming the adviser of choice in the gift and greetings sector.
Chris Bold
Age: 32
Senior Manager, EY Channel Islands
Chris was seconded to EY London’s restructuring department (2013-2015) as lead project manager in a major asset management case and complicated legal entity rationalisations of around 500 funds. In the Channel Islands advised listed funds he has helped raise in excess of $3bn with IPOs and secondary capital raisings and manages portfolios of audit and advisory projects.
Johnny Bray (ACA)
Age: 28
Audit Manager, Grant Thornton
Johnny has progressed rapidly through the firm in his six years, having been appointed manager 18 months ago. He manages one of the firm’s largest audit clients, has spent six months on secondment to another of its largest plc clients, coordinates some of our largest international assignments – running a large international audit on behalf of our Dutch firm – and leads the department’s recruitment drive.
Rebecca Burton
Age: 30
Senior Manager, Smith & Williamson
Promoted to Senior Manager in January, she runs the compliance function for Smith & Williamson’s Guildford private client tax team, plus her own portfolio of tax returns and advisory services for HNW clients. Recent projects include advising on family investment companies, restructuring offshore trusts and the sale of residential properties with land.
Elliott Buss
Age: 31
Client Partner, UHY Hacker Young
Elliott joined UHY Hacker Young in 2011 as a tax manager, quickly rising to senior tax manager a year later. In January 2016, on the back of his contribution to the growth of the practice he was appointed client partner. He has introduced in excess of 180 clients to the firm and also the creation of a ‘sports desk’ for his ever increasing portfolio of international sports stars, which includes 30 rugby internationals, two Olympians and two professional footballers. His sports work has led him to be chairman of UHY Hacker Young’s national sports group.
Omar Butt
Age: 27
M&A Deals Origination Team, Corporate Finance, PwC
Omar is ‘making waves’ in PwC, where he has been in London for two years. After working at a smaller firm in audit, he started in business recovery, where he shone on complex administrations as well as assisting HMRC in the investigation of high profile frauds. He has since moved to corporate finance deal origination where he is helping develop an M&A team. He also assists in the family business next gen programme.
Jonathan Coyle (ACA)
Age: 31
Senior Audit Manager, Sayer Vincent
After qualifying with Sayer Vincent in 2010, Jonathan quickly progressed to manager and now supports a diverse range of not-for-profit clients. Proving his commitment to the sector, Jonathan has achieved the Diploma in Charity Accounting and regularly updates staff and clients on the intricacies of charity accounting – more recently focused on changes to the charity SORP.
Resources & Whitepapers
AP The importance of UX in accounts payable: Often overlooked, always essential
Accounting Software The power of customisation in accounting systems
Accounting Firms Turn Accounts Payable into a value-engine
AP 8 Key metrics to measure to optimise accounts payable efficiency
Lindsey DeanSaffery Champness
Laura Dymott (ACA)
Age: 28
Manager, Forensic Services, RSM
Laura has risen up the ranks to become manager in Forensic Services at RSM, after time as a forensic accountant and audit senior – having qualified as an ICAEW chartered accountant in 2014. Laura Dymott is chair of the younger members’ cCommittee, part of the London Society of Chartered Accountants. She has written articles for London Accountant and held discussions in the lead up to London’s mayoral election.
Ben Edwards (ACCA)
Age : 27
Senior Manager, APH Accountants Ltd
Ben qualified as an ACCA in February 2015. Immediateley upon qualification, he was given the full responsibility of running a practice due to the absence of the MD for personal reasons. In that time Ben continued to move the business forward by increasing the turnover by £100k, dealing with staff issues, recruitment and all the technical issues that come with running a small growing business and an accountancy practic, and indeed making significant improvements to the business.
Faye Everard (ACA)
Age: 25
Audit Manager, BDO
Faye joined BDO as a school leaver. She progressed rapidly, leading her first audit aged 20 and was fast tracked to manager four years later. Her professional maturity and client skills made her stand out from the outset and she now has responsibility for significant projects such as all the European audits of a major NYSE-listed business. In addition to consistently delivering quality work to her clients, she also plays an active role in recruiting, counselling and mentoring members of staff, particularly those that like her, have joined on the school leaver programme.
Sarah Fenelon-Rhodes (CA/CTA)
Age: 26
Audit Assistant Manager, KPMGSarah is primarily responsible for the day to day on-site management of a number of key clients including co-ordinating the global group and the highly complex and fast moving audit of FTSE 250 group turning over in excess of £4.5bn. Outside of the audit room, she has taken a lead in presenting at recent high profile audit tenders as well as organising a highly successful North Best British Mobile event for local tech start-ups, networking with business leaders.
Christie Higgs (ACA)
Age: 31
Senior Management Consultant, BDO
Christie has been deployed to the Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO), an Arms-Length Body (ALB) established under the Defence Reform Act 2014 to establish rigour and value for money in single source defence contracts. She’s experienced in working with finance directors of FTSE 100 firms and was the author of the reporting regime, and its guidance, to both industry and the Ministry of Defence. Over the last year she has demonstrated her ability to work consistently at a very senior level, give sage advice and prepare briefing notes for ministers.
Laura Hinsley (ACCA)
Age: 26
Audit Manager, Midlands Public Sector Assurance Team, Grant Thornton Since qualifying in 2014, Laura has received three promotions within quick succession to become audit manager for a varied portfolio of clients across the NHS, not-for-profit and local government sectors. Laura is also one of the managers on Europe’s largest public sector body, Birmingham City Council. Laura’s cross-sector experience allowed her the opportunity to undertake a nine month secondment to Grant Thornton’s national healthcare advisory team.
Catherine Hodge (ACA)
Age: 29
Audit Manager, BDO
An audit manager in the natural resources team, Catherine manages the delivery of audits for some of the firm’s largest and most complex listed mining and oil and gas clients. During her first year as an audit manager, Catherine led the audit of one of the world’s largest gold projects in Africa. This is a complex audit, dealing with huge capital expenditure and operational accounting complexities, and reporting as significant component auditors to two of the world’s largest US and UK-listed gold mining groups in under a month from year end.
David Kendrick
Age: 34
Corporate Finance Partner, UHY Hacker Young
David started his professional career 13 years ago in a boutique accountancy firm, specialising in the automotive sector. Since joining UHY Hacker Young, David has personally delivered corporate finance fee income in excess of £1m over the last 12 months alone. He was made equity partner at UHY Hacker Young in April 2016. Already in 2016 he has been responsible for the completion of eight substantial corporate finance transactions in the automotive sector. He chairs UHY Hacker Young’s national automotive sector group and is driving its national automotive service offering.
Fergus Lemon
Age: 31
Manager, Banking & Capital Markets, PwC
Fergus has worked in numerous roles across PwC in assurance, commercial innovation, deal origination and he’s now part of the team leading the Fintech team in block chain and bitcoin tech to clients. He’s fast become an internal and external authority on it and is helping clients to understand and benefit from this new technology.
Nathan May
Age: 27
Manager, ReSolve Partners
Nathan is one of our rising stars at ReSolve. In the last 12 months Nathan has passed his ICAEW Certificate of Insolvency with flying colours. More importantly, he has stepped up to take control of several demanding administration cases, including the sale of a national chain of laser tattoo and hair removal clinics, which resulted in 85 jobs being saved.
Mariam Moi (CTA)
Age: 31
Senior Manager – Private Client Tax Advisory, KPMGMariam provides tax advice to one of London’s largest landed estates and is currently advising on the largest restructuring of a londoneEstate in a generation and is widely recognised for being at the forefront of this market. She is spearheading the firms’ focus on private clients from the Middle East and is a vocal advocate of KPMG’s diversity programme and has pioneered positive practical changes to make our practice a more inclusive environment.
Claire Monaghan (CA)
Age: 33
Partner, RSM
Claire joined the firm as a graduate in 2004 and was promoted to partner in 2016. She is responsible for RSM’s corporate audit portfolio in Edinburgh. Claire specialises in the food and drink, manufacturing and retail sectors, sits on RSM’s Scottish food and drink group. She was key to integrating a new staff team following the firm’s latest merger, making sure that all new team members had a detailed understanding of the firm’s audit approach and were able to challenge clients’ results to ensure a consistent audit quality across the team.
James Morris
Age: 34
Job title: Partner, RSM
James joined RSM in September 2014 and is a partner in RSM’s Preston office where he leads a tax team of 25 people. He acts for a number of entrepreneurial businesses and has led the provision of buy and sell-side tax advice on a number of high profile transactions including the recent acquisition of healthcare specialist Vernacare by Manchester-based Palatine Private Equity. He also actively assists growing businesses understand the tax implications of operating outside of the UK.
Natalya Naryshkina (ACCA)
Age: 33
Assistant Manager, EY (Aberdeen)
Natalya joined EY after qualifying with ACCA and having spent several years developing her career with another Big-4 accounting firm in Russia. She has recently been promoted to Assistant Manager at EY. At different stages of her career she was a member of due diligence teams, facilitator of internal trainings, and successful leader of the project teams working on audits of clients from a variety of industries. Her project management skills as well as coaching of younger generation of accountants have always been appreciated by internal and external stakeholders.
Victoria Niven (CA)
Age 28
Audit Senior, Campbell Dallas
Victoria started as a trainee at Campbell Dallas in 2010, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 2013. She has cemented her position as one the firm’s senior auditors, working with a range of both private and listed clients. She was recently awarded the firm’s annual staff excellence award and is also part of the CA mentoring programme and mentors four students.
Marie Pegram (ACA)
Age: 30
Associate, UHY Hacker Young
Marie began her career at UHY Hacker Young in August 2008, qualifying as a chartered accountant in September 2011. In the autumn of 2013, Marie worked alongside Stuart Hutchison, director, on an innovative project offering services to the recruitment industry, which now acts for over 70 recruitment businesses and continues to be one of the fastest growing services at UHY Hacker Young.
Joshua Schwartz (ACA)
Age: 28
Assistant Manager, Audit, Deloitte
Joining Deloitte in 2013, Joshua works as an auditor for a number of technology and retail sector clients. He was shortlisted for an internal Deloitte award after developing a technology programme to automate repeat routine audit tasks. Having taught himself to code, his new programme that is now being rolled out has cut down the time required for mechanical aspects of the audit process. Activities that would have previously taken over a week can now be performed in just three minutes.
Sarah Sherlock (ACA)
Age: 29
Audit Manager, Mazars
Sarah has been instrumental in developing its financial services offering in Milton Keynes. She is building a team to manage clients and in her first year as a manager helped the firm win a £200k pa audit fee for a global group, co-ordinating teams across 10 countries, including US, Japan, Hong Kong, France, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
Mark Smeaton
Age: 31
Partner, EQ Accountants
Mark specialises in supporting agricultural clients, and qualified in 2009. His role includes tax planning, as well as guidance on finance and business structure, and Mark is a fantastic “all-rounder”. He is also accredited with LANTRA to deliver whole farm review services through the Scottish Government’s Farm Business Adviser Accreditation Scheme for Scotland (FBAASS), as well as being a qualified accountant. Mark is a regular author of articles on the agricultural sector in the local and trade press, and also finds time to maintain a close involvement in his family farm.
Holly Szoke (ACA)
Age: 26
Audit Senior, Smith & Williamson
A top-scorer in the West of England in two of her final ACA papers, Holly became an ICAEW member in January this year. A fluent French speaker, she has secured clients for the firm with her language skills. She has excelled since joining the firm after completing her Modern Languages and European Studies degree and built a great reputation among her clients and the teams she leads.
Chris Vines (ACCA)
Age: 31
Assistant Manager, Price Bailey
Chris is an advocate of cloud-based accounting and has a passion for proactive accountancy that uses real time information. He specialises in the solicitors market and chairs the ACCA Norfolk Regional Network Panel.
George Walker (CTA)
Age: 32
Senior Manager, Global Mobility team, PwC
George joined PwC in 2007, established a reputation for building trusted client relationships and took on the global mobility regional leader role. He uses extensive technical, people and leadership skills to advise on large mobility programmes, residence/domicile matters and the effectiveness of mobility programmes in relation to clients wider business strategies.
Genevieve Watson (CA/CTA)
Age: 31
Director, Tax Management Consulting, KPMG
Genevieve has gained significant experience in advising clients on processes and controls, along with system and technology design, and recently presented at KPMG’s Global Indirect Conference on how to build an indirect tax function fit for the future. Genevieve has secured successive promotions at KPMG.
Daniel White (ACA)
Age: 29
Senior Manager, Bishop Fleming
Daniel’s strong people skills along with his experience with OMB’s means he has a close relationship with clients as well as staff. Daniel is passionate about the local business community and sits on the Plymouth Waterfront Partnership Board, where he uses his experience to help and support business to achieve their goals.
Harry Walker (ACA)
Age: 30
Associate Director, Corporate Finance Lead Advisory, Grant Thornton
Harry has been with the firm in Bristol office for six-and-a-half years. He previously worked in agriculture and trained with corporate audit before transferring to corporate finance lead advisory where he was promoted to associate director in January 2016. Engagements have included an acquisition search for a specialist care business, buy-side work for specialist care, the valuation of an asbestos services business, the sales of a petroleum distributor, a medical scanner distributor, a medical products manufacturer and management advisory on the MBO of a medical devices business.
The 2015 35 under 35 is available here
The 2014 35 under 35 is available here
The 2013 35 under 35 is available here
