It is such a pleasure and an honour to write this, my first AB magazine column as ACCA president. There’s no greater privilege in our profession than to serve in this role, representing our amazing members all over the world. It’s incredibly exciting and an opportunity I am truly looking forward to. I can’t wait to throw myself into it with all my energy and enthusiasm.
The thing I am looking forward to most is meeting members and hearing your stories – about how ACCA and a career in accountancy has impacted people’s lives in all kinds of extraordinary and unexpected ways.
My first engagement as ACCA president was a council event where we thanked my brilliant predecessor, Ayla Majid, for her service. In my remarks I shared a memory of a new members’ ceremony that I went to in Glasgow in Scotland. Here, I met a family: two young men in their 20s, their mother in her 50s and their grandparents. But it was not the young men who were the new members; it was their mother.
It is that capacity to impact lives for the better that is the genius of ACCA
She had chosen ACCA to gain an education that had been denied her when she was younger. Her sons and her parents shared in the sense of achievement and the same deep appreciation of the opportunity provided by ACCA. The impact resonated through their family. It is that capacity to impact lives for the better that is the genius of ACCA, and that’s what I will champion in my year as president.
Passion for inclusion
The ACCA qualification is open to anyone and everyone with talent and ambition – whoever and wherever they are in the world. In that spirit, I am keen to take every chance to talk about ACCA’s passion for inclusion.
We can give people two priceless gifts – hope, and the opportunity to make that hope a reality
It’s one of our greatest assets. It means that we are dedicated to giving everyone the chance to gain the professional education, the career and the future they dream of. It’s immensely satisfying and inspiring that we can give people two priceless gifts – hope, and the opportunity to make that hope a reality.
I will end with a word of thanks for Ayla. She represented us brilliantly over the last year. She has served as an inspiration, not least to young women with aspirations to pursue a professional future, especially in her home country of Pakistan.
The great tennis champion Billie Jean King talked about the power of female role models in helping girls to visualise and realise their dreams. She said: ‘If you can see it, you can be it.’ Ayla has shown them the way, and that, with accountancy and with ACCA, there is no ceiling on achievement.
