Andrew is a portfolio Finance Director and consultant based in South Wales, focussing principally on owner-managed businesses. He qualified with Deloitte, Haskins & Sells, before moving to work in the oil, engineering and aerospace sectors including three years as General Manager in the USA and seven years as Finance Director in the UK. Andrew is also Managing Director of his own accountancy practice specialising in the outsourcing of finance departments.

Alice is the Finance Director of Brown & Bright Holdings which runs crabbing vessels in both the UK and Netherlands. She is also an ICAEW younger member, having qualified in 2018. For the 2022 / 23 year, she is the Deputy Chair of ICAEW South West.

Aneka is a Portfolio Manager within the discretionary team at Julius Baer International. She is responsible for global multi-asset class mandates and for fundamental equity research within the Global Equity Income team. Her career began in 2008 with Pictet Bank & Trust in the Investment Strategy team, and she joined Julius Baer in 2013. Aneka completed a bachelor of commerce degree (Economics) from McGill University in Montreal, with distinction. She is a CFA Charterholder, holder of the Investment Management Certificate and the CFA UK Certificate in ESG Investing, and also a member of and volunteer with CFA Society UK, Past President of CFA Society The Bahamas and a member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments. In 2023, Aneka was named as one of the PAM Next Generation Leaders in the UK.

Starting her career with KPMG and then Lloyds Banking Group, Beth’s professional career has taken her through financial services & law firms before settling on SMEs, she is passionate about using her skills to support fast growing tech businesses. Beth is currently CFO at Flexys Solutions, a startup FinTech company disrupting the debt management and collections space. Beth is a member of a number of industry communities such as StartupCFO, Innovate Finance, TechSpark and she is a prominent advocate for women in tech and leadership roles.

Chris is a specialist in the performance management of collaborative innovation and ecosystem creation and has published world leading research in this domain. Prior to his return to academia in 2012 Chris worked as a Corporate Recovery Specialist for Deloitte, then spent 15 years running his own international mountain bike travel and training company working around the world with multiple partner organisations, whilst operating at the highest level in outdoor and coach education, and leadership development for two national governing bodies of sport in the UK. Chris has several advisory roles that connect to government and business, including Cabinet Office Policy Fellow advising the Cabinet Office Open Innovation Team. He previously served on the ICAEW Business and Management Faculty Board as an Academic Adviser.

David joined the Bouygues Group in the UK over 20 years ago as a newly qualified Chartered Accountant. During this time, David has moved across the group, working in a number of different industries such as waste management and building services. He became Financial Director of the Facilities Management business in 2001 and later moved to the role of Chief Operating Officer, before becoming Managing Director in 2009. David was appointed CEO for Bouygues Energies and Services in January 2016. He is an ICAEW Council Member and was the former Chair of the ICAEW Business and Management Faculty Board.

Gareth has been involved in professional education since qualifying and has strong relationships with the major UK accountancy awarding bodies. He has been involved in the roll-out of the accountancy apprenticeship standards as well as apprenticeship policy discussions with multiple stakeholders. He is now involved in the design and development of post-qualification education programmes for finance professionals, covering rapidly emerging skills in digital finance and data analytics as well as interpersonal skills in leadership and management. Gareth is an ICAEW Council member, a member of the CBI East of England Regional Council, Chair of the ICAEW East of England Strategy Board, Chair of the Skills Group of Cambridge Ahead, a member of the ICAEW Education & Training Board and co-chair of the Institute of Director’s Education Special Interest Group.

Born in London, the foundations of George’s accountancy career were laid in the East Midlands, where he trained with PwC, before moving to Rolls-Royce in Derby, in late 2015. George spent time overseas as Business Manager at Aero Gearbox International SAS, a JV-owned group of companies headquartered just outside Paris, France, before returning to the UK as Finance Business Partner for Purchasing. George has had a long history of volunteer involvement with ICAEW, having previously served in the student society in Nottingham, and is a Past-President of the Nottingham, Derby and Lincoln Society of Chartered Accountants.

Jo trained as an auditor and in 2016, moved 8,000 miles to be Financial Controller for the National Development Agency and Tourist Board in the Falkland Islands, supporting growth of the local economy. Back in the UK, she has focused on supporting companies with building and improving their company processes with a focus on decarbonisation decision-making and data analytics. Jo is currently the Finance Lead for digiLab, a tech start-up building digital twin software and supporting the integration of AI into all sectors. She is Chair of the ICAEW Southern, Wales and South West Sustainability Committee, supporting regional members with practical advice on sustainability matters.

Karen runs the finance team in family-owned Johnston’s of Elgin, a textile manufacturer and retailer with international operations. She is a law graduate, Chartered Tax Advisor and studying for an MBA at the University of Strathclyde.

Mike started in sales for American Express before training as a Chartered Accountant with Landau Morley. He has spent 22 years in the FMCG / CPG sector, initially for Kerry Foods and then The Tetley Group / Tata Global Beverages in roles including, Group Financial Controller, CFO for Tetley USA and Operations Finance Director. Mike joined Coca-Cola Enterprises in 2011 as Commercial Finance Director and then became VP Finance Strategic Initiatives leading the finance function’s change initiatives and strategic direction. From 2016, he was CFO for Great Britain within Coca-Cola European Partners, leading the finance function and delivering record results. Mike now leads finance strategy and transformation for Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, looking to the future for finance and bringing together the European and Australia, Pacific and Indonesian finance functions.

Neil is a Transformation Director with Oracle Corporation Incorporated, one of the largest tech firms. Qualifying with PWC, he then moved into global finance leadership roles with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Mars and Jacobs Solutions Incorporated. Neil spent 17 years at Jacobs (a Fortune 250 company), where he was Vice President of Finance. His experience included Divisional CFO, International Accounting Director and Transformation Director. In addition to his international career, Neil has been an active volunteer for ICAEW, including being a member and President of the West of England Board, Chair of the Aerospace & Defence CFO Forum, a member of the Business Committee and in 2023, was elected to ICAEW Council.

• View his recent ICAEW article

Roger has spent most of his career in the Asia-Pacific region since qualifying in 1988. Originally working on insolvency and administration assignments in Australia and London, he joined LVMH in 1995 after moving to Hong Kong SAR where he spent 20 years working with the fashion businesses both as CFO and COO in countries including Singapore, Guam and Japan, before joining DFS as Managing Director. He was responsible for managing their duty-free partnerships and securing new business opportunities in China, Vietnam, Japan, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. For the past seven years he has worked at Mayapada Group as an advisor to the owners with responsibilities as COO for Mayapada Healthcare Group and latterly, CEO of Bloomberg Technoz. Roger is the Chair of the Stakeholder Advisory Board for ICAEW Indonesia.

Vivek is a Chartered Accountant (ICAEW/ICAI) and MBA (Finance) from India with 20 years of leadership experience and a track record of driving business turnarounds, corporate strategy, finance transformation & supply chain in high growth consumer, pharma, and e-commerce businesses. He started his career with General Electric in their leadership development program, then spent a decade at Unilever in roles including supply chain, management accounting, divisional CFO before moving to London as part of their Global FP&A team. He then joined Snapdeal as VP Finance where he led the business turnaround towards sustainable and profitable growth. Vivek is now the Divisional CFO at Convatec Group plc for their Advanced Wound Dressings business managing Europe and North America. He is also on the board of Convatec Ltd (UK subsidiary) and recently acquired Starlight Sciences UK.