Dame Sheila becomes Tory baroness
High-profile KPMG partner and president of the English ICA, Dame Sheila Masters, was today honoured as one of 33 new working peers in the revamped House of Lords.
The privatisation and public sector expert’s appointment as a Tory baroness comes only eight months after her selection as the institute’s first female president. She was first elected to the institute’s council in 1987 and leads KPMG’s international government practice.
Noted for her robust approach to reform, Dame Sheila was credited with introducing the internal market to the National Health Service as NHS director of finance and corporate information between 1988 and 1991.
On her appointment to head the institute last summer, she told Accountancy Age: ‘There is nothing equivalent to dealing with the complexities of management issues with doctors and nurses – the institute is a doddle by comparison.’
The UK’s representative on the public sector committee of the Federation des Experts Comptable Europeens, the 50-year old Baroness is a chartered accountant, member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and companion of the Institute of Management.
She is also a member of HM Treasury’s public services productivity panel and a governor and a governor of the London Business School.
Awarded a DBE in the 1996 Birthday Honours List, Dame Sheila joined Peat, Marwick, Itchell & Co, now KPMG, in 1970, qualified as a chartered accountant in 1973 and became a KPMG partner in 1983.
Graham Ward, deputy president of the institute, said: ‘I am delighted and certain that all members of the institute will join with me in congratulating Sheila on this highly deserved recognition of her outstanding contribution to our business, British business and our profession.’
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