What is your role within RG?
I am a Senior Manager within the Audit and Assurance service line.
Tell me about your career to date..
This is short and sweet! I graduated from Northumbria University in 2012 with a First in Accounting and then, having decided that three years of studying accounting wasn’t enough fun, I joined RG on a graduate training contract to become a Chartered Accountant. I qualified in 2016 and was promoted to senior manager in 2021.
What does your current role involve?
I work closely with a portfolio of clients, the majority of whom are corporate entities and owner managed businesses, in the delivery of our technical services. This includes audit, accountancy and tax.
For the most part my role involves managing audit teams and reviewing the work of other staff, discussing issues with clients, and ensuring compliance deadlines are met as efficiently and smoothly as possible.
I’m also part of the Transaction Support Services team, which provides financial and tax due diligence services, so I get involved in lots of interesting and unique projects.
What makes RG different?
Our clients are at the centre of everything we do, and we strive to build long term, trusted relationships with specific points of contact across all service lines. I’m proud to say that I work with clients today that I’ve been working with since I started training with the firm almost ten years ago.
We are genuinely interested in our clients, and we have the technical knowledge and experience across all of our service lines to provide clear and tailored solutions.
My 3 most notable achievements to date would be…
I was the first in my family to go to university, and I graduated with a First Class degree, so that should probably count!
I also won four regional prizes whilst qualifying as an ICAEW Chartered Accountant (ACA). It’s pretty hard work becoming a Chartered Accountant full stop, so to qualify and also win several prizes felt like quite an achievement.
When I was younger, I played a game of football at St James’ Park in Newcastle, which was a reward for our team winning a cup the previous year. As a local lad this was a pretty cool experience and judging by their recent results, I’d say our team could run Newcastle United close in a game today!
Tell us about your day so far…
Today started with an early morning session at the gym. I’m not really a morning person but the gym is much quieter in the morning and it’s a great way to kickstart the day. Getting out of bed on a winter morning is a bit of a challenge though!
The workday begins at 8am in my ‘home’ office, which is starting to feel like the norm after 18 months or so. I cleared down some emails and organised my to do list for the day ahead. I also had a phone call with a client to organise an upcoming audit, which we will hopefully be able to do ‘in person’ this year.
Most of the morning was spent working on the consolidated accounts of a group of companies. The client has been very active in the year, with lots of acquisitions, so this is a technically challenging and very interesting piece of work.
This was interspersed with a few Teams calls with colleagues in the audit team discussing technical issues on ongoing jobs. Collaboration within our team, and with other service lines, is a big part of the RG culture.
The afternoon was spent working on a financial and tax due diligence report, which involved analysing the historical results of a company that our client is looking to buy. This is very different piece of work from this morning and being part of the Transaction Support Services team offers opportunities to be more of a business adviser, and not just an auditor.
I rounded off the day with a Teams call with our VAT consultant discussing a client’s proposed VAT registration in the EU. Just what we all need at the end of the day….a chat about VAT and Brexit!
What do you enjoy outside of work?
I’m a big sports fan and still get involved with my local football team, although sadly my playing days are now behind me. I’ve also recently taken up golf which, for someone with a six-foot eight frame, has been interesting to say the least!
My wife and I also enjoy visiting new places and eating good food. We have an ever-growing list of countries and Michelin Star restaurants to visit, and we’re hoping to tick some of these off in 2022.