Olympian wins race for Personality of the Year award

Olympic-bid finance director Neil Wood was presented with Accountancy Age’s Personality of the Year at our annual ceremony last night.

In a close run category, readers voted for Wood from a shortlist of five that included Hundred Group chairman Jon Symonds, cabinet secretary Gus O’Donnell and BDO Stoy Hayward’s Jeremy Newman.

Deloitte partner Wood, 40, played a key role in the capital’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympics, as interim FD of the London Organising Committee of the Games.

Retiring chairman of Ernst & Young, Nick Land, also picked up an award for his outstanding contribution to the profession. He steps down next June after 11 years at the helm.

PricewaterhouseCoopers was awarded the Big Four Firm Award in a year that has seen it widen the gap on its nearest rival Deloitte.

BDO Stoy Hayward won Large Firm of the Year, Adler Shine won Medium Firm of the Year and FPM Accountants Small Firm of the Year.

More than a thousand representatives of the profession from both business and practice attended the black-tie awards, held at the Battersea Park Arena in London.

Judges included chairman of HM Revenue & Customs David Varney, BBC business journalist Paddy O’Connell and finance directors from some of the UK’s largest businesses.

Conrad Hall, who turned around the accounts of the London Borough of Lambeth, was the ‘runaway’ winner of the Accountant of the Year Award. The judges said: ‘Conrad was the leader by a million miles. He showed huge initiative and leadership.’

Other winners included WPP for the best Business Annual Report, the British Library for Public and Voluntary Sector Annual Report, the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames as Public Sector Finance Team, and Baxter Storey as Business Finance Team.

To read about all the Accountancy Age Awards winners, click on the links below:

Outstanding contribution Nick Land, chairman Ernst & Young

Personality of the Year Neil Wood, FD London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games

Big Four Firm of the Year PricewaterhouseCoopers

Large Firm of the Year BDO Stoy Hayward

Medium Firm of the Year AdlerShine

Small Firm of the Year FPM Accountants

Finance Team of the Year - Business Baxter Storey

Finance Team of the Year - Public & Voluntary Sector Richmond upon Thames

Corporate Finance Deal of the Year PricewaterhouseCoopers for Interflora

Annual Report of the Year - Business WPP

Annual Report of the Year - Public & Voluntary British Library

Blue Chip FD of the Year Andrew Macfarlane, Land Securities

Growing Business FD of the Year Joanna Dennis, Blackwood Distillers

Public Sector FD of the Year Nathan Elvery, London Borough of Croydon

Accounting Technician of the Year Catherine Thompson, OTM Consulting

Accountant of the Year Conrad Hall, London Borough of Lambeth

Enterprise Software of the Year Coda Financials

Mid Range Software of the Year Access Dimensions

Small Business Software of the Year Mamut

ACCA achievement of the year Amy Yung

Recruitment Consultancy of the Year Nicholas Andrews

Employer of the Year BDO Stoy Hayward