Accountancy Age Awards - Roll call of excellence.

After sifting through scores of entries, only the very best candidates are now left competing in the first Accountancy Age Awards of the new millennium.

In less than seven weeks the winners of the awards, the only event that recognises exellence across the whole accountancy profession, will mount the rostrum at the Natural History Museum. This stunning setting will again host the ceremony on 1 November 2000.

The shortlist reads like a roll call of the leading lights of the accounting world. Will Ernst & Young, KPMG or PricewaterhouseCoopers, walk off with the Big Five award? And will Craig Bennett, Kevin Greehalgh or Phil Pacey pick up the FD prize?

While some names are less well known than others, all deserve their place.

But whatever the category, the judges were all looking for the same qualities: excellent user and customer focus, dedication and achievement above and beyond the call of duty.

From accounting software to finance team, small firm to trainee accountant of the year, all the shortlisted candidates have demonstrated these qualities in abundance over the last 12 months.

This year’s winners will be kept under wraps until the evening of the ceremony itself. But there remains one category where the winner has yet to be decided. Accountancy Age readers and visitors to AccountancyAge.com can vote for the Personality of the Year Award and have until 6 October.

You can vote for chief executive of online bank Smile Bob Head; Arthur Levitt, chairman of US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission; Rover finance director John Millett; head of venture capital company Alchemy; Ernst & Young partner Ann Redston; the Audit Commission’s Wendy Thomson; Accounting Standards Board chairman Sir David Tweedie; or PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Peter Wyman.

There are more detailed biographies of the candidates on our website.

By visiting AccountancyAge.com, make your vote count. Vote now and you will be entered into a draw to win #100 in Oddbins vouchers.

SPONSORS OF NEW ACCOUNTANT OF THE YEAR

SHORTLIST

Big Five Firm

– Ernst & Young

– KPMG

– PricewaterhouseCoopers

Medium Firm

– HLB Kidsons

– Mazars Neville Russell

– Solomon Hare

Small Firm

– Ford Campbell

– Rabjohns

– Robert James Partnership

– Williams Allan

Trainee Accountant

– Stephanie Andrieux, PricewaterhouseCoopers

– Stephen Deering, HLB Kidsons

– Helen Lillington, District Audit

Accounting Technician

– Carol Creeggan, Sussex Careers Service

– Colin Stewart, Jackson Stewart & Co

– Clare Wand, Eltham College

Business Accountant

– Tracey Marshall, Benfield Greig Group plc

– Rita Purewal, Wolverhampton Wanderers

– Lewis Taylor, Global Home Loans

Finance Team

– The Caudwell Group

– The Post Office

– Reed Business Information

Public Services Achievement

– David Allcock, Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust

– David Gallagher, Intervention Board

Financial Director

– Craig Bennett, The Caudwell Group

– Kevin Greenhalgh, Capital Interactive

– Phil Pacey, Great North Eastern Railway

Annual Reports and Accounts

– British Land Company plc

– Leeds City Council

– Merchant for Trinity Mirror Group

Recruitment Advertisement

– Hays Accountancy Personnel for Department of Trade & Industry

– Legal Services Commission

– Michael Page Finance

Accounting Software – Off-the-Shelf

– Dosh Software for DO$H Cashbook

– PAS for P11D Organiser

– TAS Software for TAS Book-keeper

Accounting Software – Mid-Range

– Access Accounting for Horizons

– Exchequer Software for Enterprise

– Navision Software for Navision Financials

Accounting Software – Enterprise Systems

– Adaytum for e.Planning

– Agresso

– Open Accounts

JUDGE PROFILES

Chairperson: Damian Wild, editor, Accountancy Age

David Brooks

Corporate finance partner David Brooks has been with Grant Thornton since 1975. He has held positions on the National Management Board, as a marketeer and as an audit partner. He currently heads the firm’s corporate finance lead advisory team covering London and the South East.

Sarah Wood

Sarah Wood has been finance director at Birmingham City Council since April 1997. She is ACCA and CIPFA-trained with an MSc in Public Policy.

Wood, who says she is passionate about local government, has worked for Scotland’s biggest council as well as England’s biggest. She says the challenges of local government are immense because of the requirement for openness with the public.

John Whiting

Long established as a media commentator on tax issues, John Whiting is also deputy president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, due to become president in 2001. He joined PricewaterhouseCoopers from college in 1972, and now has a number of high-profile roles as a partner in its tax division.

Ken Wild

Ken Wild is the National Director of Assurance and Advisory Services at Deloitte & Touche. Author of ‘GAAP 2001’, Ken is a member of the Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Reporting Advisory Board to the Treasury, and sits on the Business Law Committee of the English ICA.

Peter Williams

Selfridges finance director Peter Williams has led the leading London department from strength to strength since it demerged in 1998 with the Sears Group in 1998. The 47-year old, Anderson-trained chartered accountant joined Selfridges in 1991, from Freemans. He is also chairman of the British Retail Consortium’s Euro working party and is a member of the Economics Affairs Committee.

Grenville Johnston

President of the Scots institute, Grenville Johnston, qualified as chartered accountant in 1970 while working as an apprentice at a small firm of practitioners in Glasgow. He subsequently returned to the family firm W D Johnston & Carmichael in the Scottish Highlands becoming senior partner six years later.

Teresa Graham

The vice-chairmanship of the Better Regulation Taskforce has given Baker Tilly partner Teresa Graham a platform to pursue what she describes as her passion for small business. A robust character who is more than willing to put her head above the parapet, last year she was appointed an OBE for her services to small business.

SPECIALIST JUDGES

Annual report & accounts and financial director categories only

Andrew Sawers, editor, Financial Director Recruitment category only

Dick Phillips, partner, Phillips & Carpenter

Penny Winters, divisional director, Parity Group

Sotware judging panel

Chairperson: Alex Miller, IT correspondent, Accountancy Age Damien Harte, head of Channel 5 Interactive, Channel 5 Broadcasting Ltd

Dennis Keeling, chief executive, BASDA

John Oates, national director of IT Services, HLB Kidsons.