After a turbulent 2023, it’s good to focus on the positive. One way we’re doing this in AB this month is by taking a look back at the ACCA members we have profiled this year, including Rahman Amoadu FCCA, managing director of Miami-based gold company Newmont, and Katarina Kaszasová FCCA, head of Slovakia’s Auditing Oversight Authority. All around the world, our members are working hard to deliver innovation, integrity and professional excellence, and this is our celebration of some key proponents of these core values; we look forward to showcasing more in 2024.
One such finance director profiled in the UK edition (all regional editions of AB are accessible via the drop-down menu at the top right of each AB page) is Hambledon Vineyard’s Joe Jeffers FCCA. He had been in the role only a few weeks when the biggest deal in the sparkling wine producer’s history came up: an acquisition by famous wine merchants Berry Bros & Rudd and Portugal’s Symington Family Estates, owner of brands such as Graham’s and Cockburn’s. Read how Jeffers helped land the deal, and about his hands-on approach to managing the business of wine.
While on the subject of celebrating members, ACCA recently recognised two advocates for the accountancy profession in North America. Greg Powell FCCA, principal at The CFO Center in Canada, and Thomas Finn FCCA, CFO at Rhodian Group in Chicago, both show how they made a real difference in their workplace and their communities, including working to nurture and encourage the next generation of talent.
Private credit is currently having a moment as businesses struggle to raise finance in the wake of the banking crisis in the US and Europe earlier this year. The gap has increasingly been filled by private lenders – wealthy individuals, pension schemes and sovereign wealth funds – with funds that have roughly doubled in size over the past five years to US$1.6 trillion in the US and US$400bn in Europe.
In other news, we learn about some of the steps companies can take to address supply chain woes, which, we hear, should be viewed as the new normal and not just an operational blip.
Finally, an end-of-year warning to ensure you and your clients have adequate internal controls in place. As the first line of defence, internal controls not only assist in preventing and detecting fraud, hence controlling potential losses; they also bolster operational efficiency and effectiveness. Yet their importance is often forgotten or neglected by management.
On that note, here’s to a less turbulent and more prosperous 2024!
