ACCA strengthens executive team
ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), the world's largest and fastest-growing professional international accountancy body, has made four new director appointments.
They are:
Director of Education - Clare Minchington
Director of International Corporate Development - Laurie Gillow
Director of Marketing - Neil Stevenson
Director of Training and Development - Stephen Heathcote
Allen Blewitt, ACCA Chief Executive said:
"All of these posts are critical to ACCA achieving its goal of being the number one global professional accountancy body in size, influence and reputation.
All four roles have immediate priorities. Stephen is leading the roll-out of ACCA Realise, our comprehensive Continuing Professional Development global programme. Laurie will be positioning and developing ACCA appropriately on a national, regional and international basis in many key markets. Clare is at the centre of ACCA 2007, our syllabus review, and Neil will be leading the promotion of our services to members and students in all our markets."
For more information please contact: Ian Welch, ACCA Head of Corporate Communications 020 7396 5729 /07739 862928
Brief CVs
Director of Education - Clare Minchington
After graduating from Oxford University in 1988 with a degree in Chemistry Clare qualified as an accountant with Price Waterhouse in Birmingham, UK. She then spent four years with ATC, a private accountancy tuition company, becoming Director of their Birmingham centre, before entering the University sector in 1995. Her first academic post was as a Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance at Manchester Metropolitan University teaching on both degree and professional accountancy courses. Prior to joining ACCA she was Chair of the MBA Financial Strategy elective at the Open University Business School.
Clare Minchington was appointed as ACCA's Head of Education in February 2000. She is responsible for the academic aspects of all ACCA qualifications. This includes the syllabus, exam content and determination of the level of exemptions given to qualifications awarded by other bodies.
Director of International Development - Laurie Gillow
Laurie Gillow has nearly 15 years working for international professional bodies. She joined ACCA in 1997 becoming Head of International Corporate Development in 2002. During her career at ACCA Laurie has travelled extensively directing and managing ACCA's outward facing activity in Africa, parts of South Asia, Caribbean, South America, Vietnam and Cambodia. In this role she had an oversight of ACCA's business functions and how ACCA's strategy may be developed and applied to markets across the world. Laurie also sits on IFAC's Developing Nations' Task Force which is charged with supporting all countries where the accountancy profession is developing or where the profession may not formally exist, particularly in developing nations and economies in transition.
Previously, Laurie worked for the Royal Academy of Dance, a professional membership organisation for dance teachers operating in over 78 countries where she was responsible for devising and delivering international education and training programmes.
Director of Marketing - Neil Stevenson
Neil Stevenson has 10 years' experience in financial and professional services marketing. He has been head of marketing at ACCA since 2001, establishing ACCA's first integrated marketing and promotions team in the corporate headquarters. At ACCA, he has developed a new corporate advertising strategy and campaign, established marketing measurement and customer satisfaction programmes and launched a number of new qualifications and services, including the new CPD scheme, ACCA Realise. Before ACCA, Neil worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, marketing human resource and tax & legal services in a number of roles at regional and global level.
Director of Training and Development - Stephen Heathcote
Stephen is a qualified accountant with extensive experience in accountancy and training. Before joining the ACCA he was a senior manager at KPMG, where he provided bespoke assurance services to global organisations and developed the firm's global assurance methodology and service offering. He was selected by KPMG for a 2 year secondment to the International Federation of Accountants, where he headed up a team to revise auditing standards to focus on risk assessment.
Stephen Heathcote joined the ACCA in 2003 to establish and head up a new Training and Development Department. The department was created to maintain quality standards and to provide training services to students, employers and members.