#AAYP: The 35 under 35

ACCOUNTANCY AGE and Financial Director are proud to present a cross-section of the UK’s brightest accounting talents. From practice to business, and the public sector, the 35 under 35 for 2012 showcases a wide variety of achievements and skills held by the next generation of managin partners, CFOs and entrepreneurs.

 

Baron Anyangwe CA

Age: 29

Job title: Commercial finance manager, Everything Everywhere
Previously a trader at spread betting company IG Index and a tax consultant at KPMG.  Anyangwe has also volunteered at Accounting for International Development. He worked with two small grassroots organisations in Burundi – Friends Women’s Association (FWA), and Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities (HROC) – whose aims are to help develop local communities in the post-conflict environment in Burundi.
He was responsible for building their financial management capacity by providing impartial, one-to-one support to local staff on all matters relating to finance.
He is now based in London working for mobile phone operator Everything Everywhere.

 

Jonathan Bass ACA MABRP
Age: 28
Job title: Licensed insolvency practitioner, Harris Lipman
Having joined Harris Lipman straight from university in 2006, Bass trained with Harris Lipman and achieved his ACCA qualification within three years.
He immediately looked at ways to further develop his career and decided to train as an insolvency practitioner. Bass passed his Joint Insolvency Examinations Board exams and is now a licensed insolvency practitioner and about to take his first appointment. Bass is considered by the firm’s management to be a rising star for qualifying as a chartered accountant and as an insolvency practitioner – in the space of just six years.

 

Tom Beagent ACA
Age: 35
Job title: Senior manager, PwC
Beagant is a senior manager in PwC’s fast-growing and award-winning Sustainability and Climate Change team and has led pioneering work to measure how environmental impacts can pose a threat to business. His role focuses on measurement and management reporting, and he led the work on the world’s first environmental P&L account for Puma.
He is an alumni of PwC’s award-winning global leadership programme Genesis Park – which is only offered to the top 2-5% of the highest potential, highest performing senior managers who are on track for partnership.

 

Gary Bell ACA MAAT
Age: 29
Job title: Designated member, Faust Loveday Bell
Having established an accountancy practice at the tender age of 25 in September 2008, the height of the recession, Bell has continued to grow his portfolio organically year on year at an astonishing rate given the economic climate.
His acctuancy firm, Faust Loveday Bell, has made two successful acquisitions during the past three years which have included staff, premises and a strong client base. Having specialised in the employment and recruitment sector, Bell is now the lead partner at the firm for a number of multi-million pound businesses ranging from construction companies to IT recruitment.

 

Emma Blake ACMA, CGMA,
Age: 33
Job title: Director, Deloitte Consulting
Blake has 12 years’ experience in finance having worked in both operational and consulting roles. She has fast tracked her career from graduate to finance director within a FTSE 100 company and most recently as a director at Deloitte leading its CFO advisory practice.
Emma is currently mentoring several small and medium sized businesses, and providing venture capital funding for new start-ups aimed at women in business.

 

Indi Bola ACCA
Age: 32
Job title: Energy trading financial accountant, Centrica
At Centrica, Bola works within the commodity trading area, which procures over 50% of the UK’s gas and power needs. He works within SPE Luminus in Brussels, their Belgian subsidiary. Bola looks after the wind farm business and deals with financial acquisition and disposal models, debt financing and credit risk.

 

Sarah Campion ACCA
Age: 31
Job title: Business advisory services manager, UHY Hacker Young
Sarah works as a manager in the business advisory services department for UHY Hacker Young and is involved with the ACCA London regional panel, as well as ACCA’s Leaders of Tomorrow programme. She focuses on audit, accountants preparation, management accounts, and support work for small and medium sized businesses. Campion began her accountancy career shortly after leaving school at 18 when she joined a small firm in a junior position before moving onto the ACCA Qualification after completing her AAT course.

 

Gary Critchley FCMA, CGMA
Age: 34
Job title: Head of shared service performance, Qatar Foundation
Gary recently left M&S where he was head of business services and information and moved to Qatar. At M&S his department played a pivotal role in making financial information – headline figures such as revenue, payables and net assets- transparent and meaningful to other parts of the business. Working with all departments the Business Service Centre helped to deliver cash flow of £185m over this critical period.

 

Laurie Cunningham ACCA
Age: 32
Job title: Finance manager, Liberata
Having started her tenure at Liberata as accounts payable supervisor in 2002, is now company finance manager.
She has held various management and financial accounting roles for both external clients and internal functions. During her time at Liberata – which provides revenue and benefits services to companies – she completed her ACCA qualification.

 

Rachel Eden ACMA, CGMA
Age: 30
Job title: Local council cabinet member and BPP tutor
Eden qualified with CIMA while working at software company Sophos, where she got to work with senior management quickly. She then joined BPP as a tutor, and in 2009 was also selected by the Labour Party to act as their candidate in the 2010 local elections for Whitley ward, Reading. Eden was elected and has served as a councillor since then. She serves on the council’s cabinet with particular responsibility for housing and neighbourhoods.

 

Daniel Ernst CA
Age: 35
Job title: Director, Fruitful Office
After spotting a gap in the market Ernst, a chartered accountant at PwC, set up his own business Fruitful Office with his investment banker flatmate. The idea for the business came in 2005 when both their employers started providing fresh fruit for staff, but the quality and delivery was unreliable. Ernst found there was no suppliers exclusively providing fruit to offices, so he decided to focus on this market.
From a start-up business with just Ernst and his partner, Fruitful Office now has 17 staff with a £1m turnover.

 

Alastair Goddin FCCA
Age: 32
Job title: Head of risk, Omega
Goddin has a BA Hons in business administration and human psychology from Aston University. The advice that Goddin at insurers Omega gives has a direct impact on the organisation, and he has built up the skills and experience so that people trust and listen to what he advises. He also sits on ACCA’s global forum for accounting and business.

 

Annie Graham CA
Age: 34
Job title: Partner, Ernst & Young
In January 2008 Graham became the youngest person to make partner in the Scottish practice of Ernst & Young (E&Y) and one of the youngest in the UK firm. Having worked with E&Y for ten years in assurance and advisory business services, Graham now leads parts of its financial reporting practice. She also focuses on the retail and entrepreneurial markets and has been involved in internal and external secondments.

 

Ian Graham ACA
Age: 31
Job title: Partner, Kingston Smith
Graham joined Kingston Smith in September 2002 as a trainee. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 2005, and was promoted to manager in 2007. He became a partner in 2010, aged 30.
In addition to looking after clients’ audit, tax and accounts, Graham regularly advises on business issues including financial due diligence, valuations and employee incentives for clients ranging in size from AIM and Plus listed groups to start-ups and sole traders. He managed the production of Kingston Smith W1’s authoritative annual survey on the Financial Performance of Marketing Services Groups in the UK.

 

Sarah Griffiths ACMA, CGMA
Age: 24
Job title: Consultant, Deloitte
Sarah has been on secondment from Deloitte to the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) for the past two years where she is a financial planning analyst. She works in the financial planning team, focusing on different revenue streams, including ticket sales and sponsorship.

 

Peter Hackleton ACA CTA
Age: 34
Job title: Senior manager, Saffery Champness
Hackleton has provided tax advice to top flight sports businesses over the last six years, including The FA, The England & Wales Cricket Board, The Premier League, and the Rugby Football Union He has also provided tax advise  on exemptions for the 2012 Olympics and the 2011 Champions League Final.

 

Amandeep Jhaj ACCA
Age: 30
Job title: Senior financial analyst, Bupa Health and Wellbeing
Jhaj has a BA Hons in Economics from Kingston University. Her role at Bupa involves looking after the sales finance function in the UK. Jhaj’s team support the sales teams in forecasting and reviewing sales volumes for all products lines within Bupa’s sales channels. Previously she worked at British Airways as a business analyst and is also involved in ACCA’s corporate sector network.

 

Chris Lamont ACA
Age: 31
Job title: Partner and office managing director, Lamont Pridmore
Lamont has gone from a career in the pharmaceutical industry to a becoming partner in a family accountancy firm. He has a medical science degree from Brunel University. He worked for Wyeth International before switching to accountancy in 2003. Lamont joined Wilkins Kennedy and qualified in 2007. He returned to the family practice in 2008 in Cumbria becoming MD of its Carlisle office. Since then he has been responsible for transforming the Carlisle office from a sole practitioner practice with no staff, to one with 22 staff and growing fee income tenfold, through personally managing the acquisition and integration of four practices and attracting 179 new clients with fees of £392,501.

 

Julia Macdonald ACA CA(AUS)
Age: 31
Job title: Director, Alix Partners
Working as a director at the global turnaround and performance improvement firm, AlixPartners, MacDonald was acutely aware of the benefits of inspiring leadership and its impact on the success of the business. The firm is very supportive of her participation in the ICAEW’s Women in Leadership programme.

 

Kevin Macdonald CA
Age: 34
Job title: Joint MD, Macdonald Morton
Chartered accountant Macdonald is joint managing director with the accountancy practice Macdonald Morton. He is also founding member, lead piper and managing director of acclaimed bagpipe rock band Red Hot Chilli Pipers. The band’s annual turnover recently swelled to £800,000. Macdonald has travelled the world with the group, which has released four albums to date. He successfully juggles his practice work with his musical exploits, as well as three children.

 

Claire Mascarenhas ACA
Age: 32
Job title: Member, Kinetic Partners
Mascarenhas has focused exclusively on advising the asset management industry, developing expertise across the full range of the sector’s taxation needs including UK and international corporate tax, migration of operations and start-ups, personal tax matters for the principals, transfer pricing and risk and investigation work for the last ten years. She is the youngest ever person to become a member at Kinetic Partners. She has established its highly respected investigations service offering and has negotiated and won successful HMRC settlements.

 

Anna McKay CA
Age: 31
Job title: Head, Spinach Health and Wellbeing
Anna is a CA who qualified with Ernst & Young in 2007. She now runs Spinach Health and Wellbeing- experts in corporate health packages.
In late 2009, Anna McKay, a successful City management consultant with Ernst & Young, began running fitness lessons for colleagues. Just 18 months later she was on her own, pursuing a burning ambition to build a personalised health service, targeting the time-poor, generally sedentary industry she had left.

 

Alastair McMillen CPFA
Age: 32
Job title: Finance manager, Edinburgh City Council
McMillen is involved in the procuring of PPP contracts for Edinburgh City Council and is a fully qualified CPFA. McMillen is the current CIPFA Scotland Student Society chair and is the Vice-Chair of the National Student Forum.

 

Meeten Nathwani ACA CTA AAT
Age: 32
Job title: Partner, Hillier Hopkins
Nathwani consistently comes up with innovative and tax efficient corporate structures that numerous clients have benefited from and been completely delighted with. He is fast developing a fantastic reputation amongst our banking community and professional contacts as the ‘go to’ person for sophisticated tax solutions for owner-managed businesses. His client portfolio includes individuals, owner-managed businesses, AIM listed companies and subsidiaries of UK and overseas quoted entities.

 

Myfanwy Neville ACA
Age: 32
Job title: Partner, Berg Kaprow Lewis
Neville joined BKL as a graduate ACA trainee in September 2001 after completing a mathematics degree at Imperial College. She qualified in 2004, was promoted to senior manager in 2008, and appointed partner in 2010, aged just 30.
Within the audit/business advisory arm of the practice, Neville specialises in dealing with the complex commercial, tax and accounting issues associated with property transactions, and advises owner-managed businesses in a variety of sectors from art galleries and PR companies, to fast-moving IT/web-based businesses. She also works internally on developing the social media side of the practice.

 

Oliver Newbold ACA FMAAT
Age: 31
Job title: Client director, Randall & Payne
Having decided university was not for him Newbold wanted a job with further training so he could develop additional skills. He completed his AAT in 2001 and went on to complete his ACA in 2005. He has since risen to the role of client director at the firm specialising in corporate finance. He turned around a £20m business by refinancing it at the peak of the credit crunch and negotiating temporary credit terms.

 

Michael O’Brien ACA MAAT
Age: 31
Job Title: Partner, Reeves
O’Brien started his accountancy path by joining the firm on its AAT programme, which after completing he then went onto studying for ACA before qualifying in 2006. During that time he progressed through the ranks at the firm and his entrepreneurship led him to be made a partner in 2008, aged just 28.
Since then O’Brien has built a portfolio of clients specialising in the media and technology sector and also overseas companies that are looking to set up and develop their businesses in the UK. Michael also speaks regularly at seminars around the world on the attractiveness of setting up businesses in the UK.

 

Sonal Patel ACCA
Age: 30
Job title: Finance analyst, UBS Investment Bank
Patel has a BSc in business management from Kings College London. She works within the strategic cost management team in HR. The main objective in her role is to provide financial support to the HR business divisions and hold monthly forecast meetings to proactively challenge its spend and headcount.

 

Darren Rajanah FCMA, CGMA
Age: 31
Job title: Group finance director, The Hut
Online retailer The Hut Group has built a turnover of £24m by 2008 and £86m by 2010. Rajanah attributes its rapid success to a robust cash generative model. As well as having its own websites, The Hut Group also provides online retailing platforms to the likes of Tesco, Asda and WH Smith.When he first joined there were just 50 people, now has a team of more than 500. Previously Rajanah worked on Caudwell, parent company of Phones4U, where he learnt the backbone of the business is accountancy.

 

Graham Seddon ACA MAAT
Age: 34
Job title: Partner, Menzies
Seddon joined Menzies in 1996 at age 18, from Godalming College. He completed AAT in 1998 and qualified ACA in 2001. A year on from qualifying, he was made a manager at Menzies’ Solent office and successfully built a reputation for leadership excellence and a portfolio of owner-managed businesses, from start-ups and solicitor practices through to large corporates. He was appointed a Partner in 2006, aged 29.
With a group of other younger partners he recently completed a study into how accountancy practices will operate in 20 years’ time, which has informed the firm’s long term strategy.

 

Greg Smith ACA
Age: 33
Job title: CFO, IP Group
Greg joined IP Group in 2008 from Tarchon Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar hedge funds business. At Tarchon, Smith had day to day responsibility for building and managing the operations and accounting team as well as covering external operational due diligence on all current and prospective investee hedge funds. Greg moved to Tarchon in early 2005 following more than 4 years in KPMG’s financial services practice where his major clients included Old Mutual and Prudential. Greg is a Chartered Accountant and holds a degree in Mathematics.

 

Laura Strain CA
Age: 34
Job title: Director of investments, EMI Music
Strain started her career training with PwC in both Glasgow and London. She now runs the Investments team at EMI Music. Strain and her team look at all the investments EMI is making around the world, (including new artist deals) not only to process them, but to ensure the terms agreed are in tune with EMI’s overall strategy. EMI is in the process of evolving from ‘a record company’ to ‘a global rights management company’.

 

Navin Waghe ACA
Age: 34
Job title: Director economic & financial consulting, FTI Consulting
Waghe joined the economic and financial consulting practice of FTI after qualifying as a chartered accountant in PwC’s audit practice. He progressed rapidly to director within five years and is now known both as an emerging expert witness in commercial disputes as well as a regular contributor to academic conferences. Waghe now has responsibilities for both staff development and enhancing the firms’ reputation in the areas of international arbitration and disputes within the financial services sector.

 

James Wild ACA
Age: 30
Job title: Associate director, Baker Tilly
Wild achieved a BSc Hons at Sheffield university and passed his ACA exams 22 months ago. He is Young Deal-maker nominee – leads on AIM market deals and multi-million pound corporate finance deals. He is currently being groomed for full partnership at Baker Tilly.

 

Matthew Williams ACCA
Age: 32
Job title: Client relationship manager, Critchleys
Matt joined the accountancy profession in 1998, starting in a small one-partner firm in Oxfordshire and completed his AAT through a modern apprenticeship scheme. He joined Critchleys as an accounts senior in 2005, and completed his ACCA with them.
He has since been promoted to client relationship manager, looking after a growing client base of 150 SMEs in the local area. He sits on the Fredericks Foundation lending panel, a charity which supports and develops new business and growth opportunities for people from a disadvantaged background.