Awards 2001 - Rachel Smee, BOC Group - CIMA New Accountant of the Year
A consistent record of excellent exam results helped Rachel Smee achieve CIMA's new accountant accolade
Twenty-five year old Rachel Smee is the winner of this year’s CIMA New Accountant of the Year Award.
Smee was elected to CIMA membership in February this year, following a consistent record of excellent exam results. In fact, her overall scoring was higher than any other UK Chartered Management Accountant elected to membership this year, and she received CIMA’s third prize for her final exams in May 2001. When she first learned about her award, Smee was in disbelief. ‘At first I was shocked and then I was honoured,’ she says.
However, Smee is modest about her achievements, pointing out that her high scores were over the three years rather than on any individual exam.
She says: ‘I had a lot of help because of the training scheme I was on. I got an awful lot of support from the management team.’
Smee is currently working at BOC Group as a planning analyst. She loves this, her first job as an accountant. She is currently working on group planning, helping with the finance director’s presentations.
She got the job through the company’s graduate training scheme and says she has benefitted enormously as a result of the placement. Her group planning role has given her excellent hands-on experience.
In the future Smee says she would like to go into business operations.
Currently, she works from head office in Surrey, but she would like to go on to business operations locally. Smee decided to become an accountant after getting a masters degree in business from Oxford University. ‘I wanted to work in industry and I wanted some relevant training schemes,’ she says.
She chose CIMA because she believes management accounting is more relevant to industry than the qualifications offered by the other accountancy institutes in this country.
The winner of the award, selected by CIMA, is chosen from those UK resident members elected to membership within the past year who have performed exceptionally well.