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