Research Tutor, Psychology Department, School of Human Science, University of Surrey, UK

After getting a history degree from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (part of the University of London) I trained and qualified as a chartered accountant with PKF – now merged with BDO - in the audit and assurance department, ending up as a manager.  Highlights included auditing a diamond mine in Siberia and a three month secondment to Sydney.  My clients were mainly owner-managed businesses, groups, and charities.  They included a theatre and an art college as well as a company manufacturing plastic bottles, one making machine that vacuum pack your cheese, a hot air balloon company that did aerial photography for films and a posh ice cream distributor. I also had a number of solicitors’ accounts rules audits.

During my time at PKF I became involved in internal training and decided that I would like to do that full time.  I become a tutor at Kaplan in 2005 teaching auditing and financial reporting for the ACCA and ICAEW professional exams.  This was very rewarding – especially seeing students progress to the next stage of their careers.  I taught at the Business School on the Liverpool John Moores/Kaplan BA (Hons), BSC (Hons) and MBA programmes and mentored students doing the Oxford Brooks/ACCA BA (Hons) degree in Applied Accounting. The down side was a lot of evening and weekend classes, although the long holidays were a plus point.

After seven years at Kaplan I went to work at Smith & Williamson, another top twenty firm of accountants, as a technical manager in the National Assurance Technical Group (NATG).  This involved lots of different activities including dealing with ad hoc accounting, auditing and ethical queries, undertaking technical reviews of IFRS financial statements for AIM clients, undertaking regular quality monitoring reviews, reviewing and update the firm’s audit methodology, and writing and presenting material for internal and external training courses, amongst a mass of other things. 

In 2014 I came to work at the University of Surrey as a senior teaching fellow.  I work in the Surrey Business School teaching various financial accounting undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.  I use my experience in practice to help students understand the real-world application of accounting standards and concepts as they relate to companies, accountants and auditors.

positive change, post-traumatic growth, PTSD, unaccompanied refugee minors.