CIMA new accoutant: John Hunter Brown
John Hunter Brown has been chosen as this year's winner of the CIMA New Accountant of the Year award.
John Hunter Brown has been chosen as this year's winner of the CIMA New Accountant of the Year award.
Hunter Brown, 25, was elected to CIMA membership in March of this year, less than two months after he received his final level exam results. He had previously undertaken the arduous process of qualifying for CIMA in under two years, a remarkable achievement, especially given the high level of his exam results. Hunter Brown has the Royal Bank of Scotland’s training arm, which is a certified CIMA Quality Partner, partly to thank for this, for supporting him ably throughout his two years of training.
Hunter Brown said on learning of his award: ‘I was very pleased and obviously surprised. The idea of getting an award had never really crossed my mind.’ This surprise was of a similar level to that when he discovered his exam results. Like many others he didn’t think he had done particularly well in his exams until the results came out.
Hunter Brown is currently working as an analysis manager for NatWest Retail Marketing, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. He previously worked as a project manager within Coutts Group, another RBS subsidiary.
In fact Hunter Brown’s first job since graduating from Oxford University with a physics degree was as a management consultant at NatWest Consultancy, and he has progressed within the Royal Bank of Scotland Group ever since.
His current role within NatWest Retail Marketing involves providing an analytical perspective to the management of the premium and private banking channels within the NatWest Retail marketing group. Hunter Brown wants to develop himself further within NatWest by gaining more experience in the analytical, marketing and management fields.
After this, the 25-year-old said he eventually wants to set off on his own and start a business. All he has to do before that, he said, is to come up with a brilliant business idea.
Hunter Brown was chosen by CIMA for the New Accountant of the Year Award for the excellent results he achieved throughout the two years it took to complete the qualification process.
He said that the reason he decided to qualify through CIMA was because it is a flexible qualification that has helped to develop both his analytical and his general management skills. Certainly in the role he is currently filling these qualities will be very important and provide a good grounding.
‘I never needed the qualification to do any of the jobs I have done but the skills I’ve learnt have certainly helped me,’ said Hunter Brown.