As I write my last article for AB as president, I’m thinking back over an extraordinary year. Despite so much global upheaval, it has been an honour and a privilege to hold this position, serving members and future members.
I took over the baton from Jenny Gu with the hope that Covid-19 would soon subside. But as a finance professional working in the UK’s healthcare sector, I knew from my medical colleagues that this would be unlikely. So it proved, and the disruption continues.
Thankfully we’ve seen a cautious return to normality in many countries and jurisdictions, but it’s clear the pandemic’s aftershocks have been turbulent and unnerving.
As with Jenny’s presidency, the pandemic has made my term an unusual one, to say the least. But it has also made it highly memorable, and an experience I will remember with great fondness.
I have been overwhelmed by the resilience of our members and future members during times of immense change
I will particularly value the connections I have made during my presidency. Because the pandemic has forced us to live and work in a virtual world, I have managed to connect with more members and future members than perhaps I normally would.
It has been a pleasure to attend virtual roundtables, debates and meetings, and to engage with our global community. I have been overwhelmed by the resilience of our members and future members during times of immense change.
It’s also been a particular pleasure to attend new member ceremonies online around the world. These are hugely important occasions, landmark moments of recognition that students have worked hard to achieve. Quite rightly, their families and friends are proud of their success in achieving membership, and they are often part of these events too.
Your ACCA needs you
My first new member ceremony was for ACCA Sri Lanka, and many followed. At each event, I’ve made the following points about the contribution all members can make in building our profession, and in making ACCA stronger, more influential and more effective.
Part of being a member is about being an advocate for ACCA and the accountancy profession in your workplace, community and life. Members are living examples of what it means to act ethically at all times, with the highest integrity, and with a sense of the public good in all they do. It’s this commitment and these values that set ACCA members apart and make ACCA the world’s leading accountancy body.
We can play our part by serving as mentors to younger accountants. We can represent ACCA at community events, in schools and colleges. We can raise our voice to advocate for the importance of a strong, ethical and honest accountancy profession whenever and wherever we can.
Advocacy also means getting involved in ACCA – from voting in elections for global Council to attending ACCA events and taking part in your local network. There’s a role you can play, and I urge you to find out what that might be.
ACCA speaks with a powerful and influential voice in the world, and that’s because members make such a unique contribution to building prosperous and sustainable economies and businesses.
I wish my successor Orla Collins all the best for her presidential year. I know that I am passing on the baton to safe and capable hands, and I am sure that, like me, she will find the role rewarding, engaging and inspirational.
