On the money with Gavin Hinks
There can be few former heads of international accounting firms who get the kind of send off that Kieran Poynter did last week
Days before he was due to leave PricewaterhouseCoopers he published his
government commissioned report into the lost disc fiasco at HM Revenue &
Customs.
I say send off because as he departs (see leader opposite) the disc report
threw Poynter into the limelight. It was, in a sense, the most well-timed
presentation of a business card in UK accounting history.
So what’s on Poynter’s agenda? Well, we don’t know as yet, but we do know
what his peers have done. They have gone off to chair FTSE100 companies (Mike
Rake, once of KPMG now BT) or have become portfolio non-execs (Nick Land, once
of Ernst & Young).
Other former Big Four partners have found more colourful things to do proving
there is life after the firm, including Sir Michael Peat who is currently
private secretary to Prince Charles, or Sir Alan Reid, currently the Queen’s
keeper of the Privy Purse.
You can go into politics, of course, a la Dame Sheila Masters and Lord Colin
Sharmon, both now in the Lords for the Tories and the Lib Dems.
Of course, you needn’t do anything serious at all. You can go away to restore
historic houses and drive vintage cars in rallies to Monte Carlo (Gerry Acher),
which sounds like fun, or raising wild boars in the Highlands of Scotland (Ernie
Smart, once of Andersen).
Somehow though I doubt that Kieran Poynter will be happy getting his hands
dirty on an engine or with hog feed.
No, there’s bound to be something more dignified and distinguished coming up
for Poynter after demonstrating how reliable he can be for government. Perhaps
they have something else lined up for him.
You read it here first.
Gavin Hinks is editor of Accountancy Age