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Last week the Manchester Chartered Accountant Students’ Society (MCASS) hosted their ‘Path to leadership’ event.

MCASS Path to leadership event panellists 2025
Joined by a panel of senior leaders from across practice and industry, the event gave attendees valuable insights into the career path and journeys taken to reach their current positions.

Panellists included:

  • Luke Greasely - M&A Lead, Lad Bible
  • Alice Clementi - Chief Executive Officer, Charterpath
  • Alex Marsh - Chair of the Board, Salad Money
  • Fiona Creswell – Partner (Tax), S&W
  • Hayley Brightmore-Cox - Partner (Transaction Services), Saffery
  • Tehseen Ali - Partner (Audit), EY 

It was a brilliant experience helping to organise and participate in this event with other MCASS committee members. I am sure the insights and advice shared by panellists will be beneficial to all attendees”

Ebube Anaduaka, MCASS General Secretary

Personal stories and overcoming challenges

The discussions covered a variety of topics, including personal stories of career paths to date and navigating challenges throughout their journey. One highlight was sharing a piece of advice for your younger self – a really interesting topic of discussion with a broad range of answers! This was really great to hear and take onboard as advice to consider throughout the ACA student journey and future career.

A key piece of advice was: ‘Be bold and back yourself, work smarter not harder to achieve the same outcome, your career is a marathon not a sprint, invest in your network, enjoy what you do, find a specialism and recognise that you control your destiny.’

After the panel discussion attendees enjoyed the opportunity to network, speak directly with the panellists and meet fellow ACA students from across Manchester.

This event was a great opportunity for MCASS to expand the way it supports its members and leverage its strong connections with qualified professionals across Manchester with the support of the ICAEW. It was great to hear about the experiences from our panellists throughout their careers and also how they’d overcome challenges they’d faced along the way. The discussion was insightful, and attendees came away feeling inspired by the panellists.”

Miles Dolman Chair of MCASS