First female ICAEW president - Sheila Masters

Sheila Masters was born in 1949 and went to Eltham Hill Grammar School. After graduating in law from the University of Bristol she joined Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. (now KPMG) as an articled clerk in 1970. She qualified as a chartered accountant in 1973 and was seconded from 1979-81 to HM Treasury to act as accounting and financial adviser.

She was a partner at KPMG from 1983 to 2000, specialising in public sector issues. In 1988 she was seconded for three years to head financial reforms in the NHS. In 1991 she returned to the firm and took up chairmanship of KPMG’s international government practice. During the 1990s she also became a non-executive director at the Court of the Bank of England. In 1996 she was awarded a DBE.

Baroness Noakes was a member of the London Society of Chartered Accountants from 1984-1988 and served on ICAEW council from 1987-2002. In 1999 she became the first female president of ICAEW in its 120 year history, promising to modernise it for the new millennium.

In 2000 she was made a life peer. Offices held in the 2000s include Conservative front bench spokesman in the Lords for Health and for Work and Pensions and Shadow Minister in the Lords for the Treasury and for Work and Pensions. She is now a backbench Conservative peer. She has held non-executive directorships at a number of organisations and continues to do so.

Further reading

'Mastering a new role', Accountancy, July 1999, Vol. 124 Issue 1271, p.12, 1/3p. (1 Black and White Photograph)

ICAEW Past Presidents 1880-2005 - article on past presidents by accounting historian Peter Boys, written at the time of the 125th anniversary of ICAEW.

Since Baroness Noakes, the ICAEW has had three more female presidents, with a fourth due to take office this year: