Effective 1 June 2019 Dimple is the Managing Partner for People & Purpose of Deloitte North and South Europe (NSE) responsible for our people agenda and the impact we have on our clients and society at large. She is also the Deputy CEO in the UK. Her previous roles include Global Leader of the Organisational Transformation & Talent Practice in consulting and member of the consulting leadership team in the UK. Dimple joined Deloitte over 15 years ago and became a partner in 2009. She works with consumer business clients on organisational transformation issues. She advises clients on the future of work, responding to the business opportunities and challenges as a result of the changing dynamics of society, organisation and talent. She supports and mentors women and is a great advocate of the girl child. She is passionate about photography and loves travelling the world immersing herself in different cultures.

Claire is the head of ACCA UK, responsible for leading ACCA’s activity in the UK in representing professional accountants and those aspiring to work in the sector; building and maintaining relationships with government, businesses, employers, universities and learning providers. In the UK ACCA’s 84,000 members and 80,000 students represent a broad and diverse range of businesses and the public sector. Claire’s specific interests include social mobility and diversity in the workplace, the skills agenda for the UK with a focus on the role of technology on the profession. She can be contacted on claire.bennison@accaglobal.com

Helen Brennan is a Director in KPMG’s Audit Quality & Risk Management department, where her role includes planning for changes to audit regulation in the post-Brexit environment. She has extensive experience of financial statement audit and non-financial assurance and is known as a persuasive communicator on the future of audit and audit quality, with a reputation for technical excellence and clarity. Helen is an elected member of ICAEW Council, the Chair of ICAEW’s Diversity Advisory Group and a member of ICAEW’s Audit and Assurance Innovation Panel. From 2018 to 2019, Helen was President of the London Society of Chartered Accountants, representing 37,000 members of the ICAEW living and working in London. Helen trained as an auditor at Shipleys and joined KPMG in 1999. She is Chair of the Audit Committee of Stella Maris, a maritime welfare charity, a member of the Board of Governors at Bishop Challenor Catholic Federation of Schools and a member of the senior leadership team at Our Lady & St Joseph Church, Kingsland.

Maggie is a co-founder of EOS Deal Advisory Ltd, a global business bringing a different way of doing deals - based on an inclusive culture, leveraging technology and senior experience. The Eyes Wide Open approach focuses on how the future state of the business will be delivered in real life. Maggie was a partner KPMG, leading the UK Transaction Services business. She has over 20 years of working on transactions for both private equity and corporates, working on both sell side and buy side. Maggie also led the bid services team which focused on plc takeovers and defence. Her clients include GKN, Smiths Group plc, BAE Systems, UPS, BT, Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Ahold and Prudential. Maggie was also on the Board of KPMG LLP, a member of the remuneration and nomination committee and then Chair of the Audit Committee.

Rebecca started her career as a management accountant at a Lloyd’s of London managing agent (SVB Syndicates Ltd) in 2000. After two years she won a place on Ernst & Young’s graduate tax rotation scheme. She worked in various teams including expatriate tax, employment tax, tax policy and tax disputes. She helped project-manage one of HMRC’s largest Code of Practice 8 (COP8) enquiries under the Litigation and Settlement Strategy which involved working at the client to review all the documentation and email correspondence in relation to setting up various transactions and deciding what to provide to HMRC based on relevance and legal privilege. In 2008 Rebecca moved to Alvarez & Marsal Taxand LLP, specialising in Code of Practice 9, COP8, New Disclosure Opportunity and Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility enquiries. She managed one of the largest disclosures to HMRC under the NDO of over £1 million and the LDF of over £3 million. She left A&M in 2012 to set up Watt Busfield Tax Investigations LLP with Andrew Watt. She loves working closely with clients to understand their tax affairs and enjoys the satisfaction when the tax issue has been resolved. Qualifications and additional information Rebecca received a bachelor’s degree (2:1) in Geography from Oxford University. She is a qualified Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) and member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT). She received a distinction in her Association of Tax Technician (ATT) exams. Rebecca is also part qualified with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). Rebecca is a member of ICAEW’s Tax Investigation Practitioners Group (TIPG) which meets regularly to discuss current HMRC practice and policy. Rebecca undertook a six month secondment at The Prince’s Trust in 2006 in the business development team, and completed their 270km Coast to Coast team challenge raising over £4,000. She also completed the London Marathon in 2007. She is a supporter of the National Trust and Landmark Trust and enjoys keeping fit and gardening in her spare time.

A chartered accountant with extensive senior level experience in both the public and private sectors. Kathryn was chairman of the Financial Reporting Advisory Board to HM Treasury from 2010 to 2016 and was Chairman of the ICAEW Financial Reporting Committee for 10 years up to the end of 2017. Her past roles include as a project director at the UK Accounting Standards Board (now the Financial Reporting Council) and for many years as the consultant accountant for an international law firm. Kathryn currently holds a number of non-executive, trustee and advisory appointments most notably as a member of the External Audit Committee at the International Monetary Fund, a non-executive director at Highways England and a member of the Group Audit and Risk Committee at the Department for Transport, a non-executive director at the UK Supreme Court, a non-executive board member and member of the Audit Committee at Companies House, a Non-executive director at The Property Ombudsman and as a trustee of Royal British Legion Industries.

Having nearly 30 years of accounting and IT experience, in 2007 Elaine Clark gave up her blue chip past to launch CheapAccounting.co.uk. Not only was CheapAccounting.co.uk one of the very first online accountants in the marketplace but Elaine took the bold step of disrupting the accountancy space by offering low fixed prices for accountancy services. Elaine has become a regular contributor to the press, most notably Radio Four's Money Box, where she addresses tax issues; great recognition of the respected position Elaine holds in her specialist field of accounts and tax for contractors, freelancers & micro businesses. Earning herself a reputation as a disrupter, Elaine is more than happy to continue to challenge the traditional accountancy model strongly believing that the use of technology should be seeing a significant downward push on accountancy fees; particularly in the contractor, freelancer and self-employed accountancy space.

ACCA International Assembly Member and Most Outstanding Professional 2018, Xero's Most Valued Professional (MVP) 2017, Multi award winner, All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Advisor for Tech in 2018. Being at the front end of change is exciting, exhilarating and creates enormous potential to bring together the essential ingredients for success. With a background as an accountant working with some of the most agile and progressive small businesses in the UK, what has been amazing to see is how technology and entrepreneurship have accelerated what is possible. Not just for my clients, but also for my profession. Supporting businesses and accountancy firms globally to make this change is my passion.

Talita is an experienced C-Suite executive, non-executive director, entrepreneur, consultant, published author and international speaker with more than 22 years of corporate experience with global brands, including KPMG, Investec Bank, and BMW. As an experienced Chief Financial Officer, Talita understands the financial language of business, strategy, and risk, and balances this with her experience as Director of Human Resources. Talita has been an executive board director for over 10 years and is the former CFO and CHRO of BMW UK Ltd. and BMW Financial Services UK Ltd., has worked in both the Automotive and regulated Financial Services Industries, in four countries South Africa, Germany, England and Ireland and has led and implemented award-winning cultural transformation programmes in multiple industries. Talita is a NED of Ford Credit Europe Bank PLC in the UK and launched an online CPD accredited training programme for finance professionals – ‘Finance Inspired 4 Success’- in December 2018, focused on leadership and people dynamics. Talita published her first book, ‘The Authenticity Dilemma Resolved®’ in November 2016 and as a consultant helps various organisations, locally in the UK and internationally, to transform their leadership and cultural approaches. Talita is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). Talita is passionate about developing the next generation of Finance Business Leaders to be more conscious, connected and prepared for the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Jodie Gill is an executive and charity leader. She works as Engagement and Communications Director at CABA, the charity that supports the wellbeing of ICAEW members and their families across the globe. Jodie has extensive experience of working with the accountancy profession and financial institutions through her role at CABA where she is responsible for managing key operations across the organisation including business initiatives and partnerships to drive engagement and support for the accountancy community as well as corporate communications and marketing. Jodie is an experienced Chartered Marketer. She is also a Trustee for the Association of Charitable Organisations.

Peter was Managing Director of Price Bailey for 12 years to 2013 and oversaw the transformation of the firm from a regional practice to an award winning top 30 firm, recognised throughout the UK with offices in East Anglia, the City of London, Mayfair and Guernsey. After retiring from Price Bailey, Peter successfully established a consultancy business providing advisory services to accountants and law firms.

Jane is a partner in the Global Commercial Disputes Group at Reed Smith LLP. She has more than 20 years' experience as a commercial litigator, with a particular focus on professional liability work for a wide range of leading professional firms. Best known for her work for the larger accountancy firms and international networks, she looks after the full spectrum of their legal needs. This includes defending claims and handling regulatory and disciplinary matters. Her primary driver is to help her clients achieve their objectives with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of specialist sector knowledge. In recent years, Jane has acted for two-thirds of the top 20 accountancy firms (including three of the Big 4) and for 13 of the top 25 international networks of accountancy and business advisory firms. Her full understanding of these networks extends to advising on all areas of governance and to working with clients to establish or remodel existing structures. Inevitably, many of the matters Jane works on have an international or multi-jurisdictional dimension. In addition to her in-depth legal and sector-specific know-how, Jane is praised for delivering on other key aspects of outstanding client service, namely accessibility, affability and speed of response. These qualities are acknowledged by clients, as can be seen from her directory testimonials : Jane “always demonstrates considerable knowledge and experience, is always tremendously supportive and really rolls her sleeves up and gets involved” (The Legal 500 2018); she demonstrates a “professional and analytical approach” and is “pragmatically solution driven” (The Legal 500 2014); and she delivers a “top quality service” (The Legal 500 2015). Jane has a keen interest in helping to further the careers of female professionals and served as Diversity Partner at her previous firm where she designed and implemented their agile working policy. She continues to actively mentor others and is actively involved with Reed Smith’s WINRS initiative (Women’s Initiative Network of Reed Smith).

Ina Kjaer is the co-founder of EOS Deal Advisory, a disruptive deals company focused on future value, leveraging deep technology, and senior experience. Alongside co-founder Maggie Brereton, she is bringing different ways of working, flexibility and inclusive culture. Brazilian native with over 20 years of experience of managing cross-border integrations and carve-outs globally, she is fluent several languages, including English, Portuguese, French, Japanese, and Danish. Her areas of expertise include identifying, delivering and tracking revenue, and cost synergies, and complex cross-border integration and separation projects. Previous clients include Shell, Nestle, McCormick, ADNOC, and KKR.

Divinia Knowles, currently exec coach, start up advisor and Founder of the London COO Roundtable, a group of 300+ C-level execs active in the London digital start-up scene. Significant experience as a business operator; COO/CFO/CEO/HRD and board member for Pact Coffee, the largest D2C speciality coffee subscription business in the UK, prior to Pact part of the founding team at Mind Candy turning it from what was a small start-up based in Battersea to the 250 person company that developed the global kids phenomenon with over 100m registered users, Moshi Monsters. Moshi generated sales of over $100m digitally and $1bn at retail globally over a period of 5 years. Chartered Management Accountant, Assoc CIPD, ICSA ACIS (in training), Advanced Diploma Coach-Mentoring (EMCC).

Zoe is the Event Director for the Accountex portfolio including the flagship London expo which is the largest event dedicated to Accountant professionals in Europe. In 2018 she launched the successful Accountex Manchester Summit and Accounting Insight News. She has spent the last 5 years working with the top influencers, accounting associations and the leading technology providers to develop the most important networking event in the Accounting calendar. Passionate and determined to promote diverse opportunities within the accounting profession, she recently has been campaigning to encourage woman have more of a voice as well as building confidence to speak. With incredible support from woman accountants, Zoe successfully launched the “Woman speak up” campaign in 2018 as well as a Woman in Accountancy group on social media. Because of this movement she was able to create the most diverse speaker programme at the show last year, which received positive recognition - but there is still much more than can be done! She is a regular contributor to panel discussions, blogs, interviews and is delighted to be selected as a judge on numerous awards. Zoe brings a different perspective to the judging panel, utilising her influential “outsider” role within the industry.

Francesca Lagerberg is the Global leader – network capabilities for Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL) and a partner in Grant Thornton UK LLP. Her role is to help the 140 plus Member Firms in Grant Thornton grow and thrive, organically and via strategic mergers, working with a team that spans the globe. The aim is to ensure the network remains compelling to clients and our people, both now and for the future. She sits on the GTIL Global Leadership Team. Francesca was previously the Global leader – tax and during her five years in that role the service line grew to exceed US$1 billion in revenue for the first time and became the fastest growing service line in the network. Francesca is a past-Chairman of the Tax Faculty of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and a past- Council member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. She has been involved in committees with Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs in the UK and the Confederation of British Industry. Francesca writes about global matters regularly for the professional and world-wide press and lectures extensively on topical issues impacting on clients and professional services. She is also a regular commentator on radio and TV and the sponsor for Grant Thornton’s annual Women in Business report and speaks on Grant Thornton’s International Business Report. In 2016 she was awarded the International Accounting Bulletin’s Personality of the Year award. 

A chartered accountant with over 20 years’ experience in professional practice, Bobby trained and qualified with BDO. He then spent five years gaining valuable commercial experience as a finance director for multinational organisations in the PR and Marketing sector. He was the driving force behind the development and growth of the first multi award-winning UK-focused owner managed business outsourcing team at Shelley Stock Hutter before their Acquisition by Blick Rothenberg in December 2017. Bobby provides consultancy for fast-growing businesses, assisting with start-ups and helping to get struggling companies back on track. He was voted No. 1 in the Top 50 most influential sources of finance news and information on social media by Economia in 2016 and 24th in the SAGE top 100 global business influencers for 2017. Bobby is a regular speaker at conferences and a contributor to many trade and national media titles including The Mirror, The Times and Economia, and previously BBC Radio London’s Business agony uncle. He is a regular judge on the Drapers Independents Awards and The Footwear Awards. Bobby has a large international network and was formerly a member of the Global Advisory Board of Abacus Worldwide. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Bobby was also formerly a trustee and the treasurer of The Patients Association and is currently a trustee of Grief Encounter.

Top 50 Women in Accounting, Business Women In Beauty Award, MK Women’s Leaders finalist Business Award, MK Women’s Leaders finalist Community Award. Ria-Jaine is owner of a digital accountancy practice, with the beauty industry as her primary focus after setting up practice at the end of an 8 year career at Deloitte LLP. Ria-Jaine works closely with the beauty industry to help educate training academies and beauty brands on the social and professional responsibility they and new beauty businesses have to ensure new and existing beauty businesses comply with HMRC tax obligations. She also offers traditional accountancy services bespoke to each client which includes periodic reviews to assess the performance of the business whilst reviewing strategic goal planning. In her spare time and after 12 weeks of training, Ria-Jaine volunteers as a family support worker for Home Start Charity to help mums and families with children under 5, a role that is very personal as she uses her diverse experiences from her past living in a refuge with her young son to help her in the role. In her spare time Ria-Jaine is a regular columnist for the UKs largest Nail magazine Scratch and Lashed, and has been invited to speak at the UK’s largest beauty show, Olympia Beauty for the last two years on the topic of accountancy and best practice. In addition to the magazine column and speaking gigs at beauty conferences and workshops she also actively supports two other campaigns, one charity event hosted by Beautiful Minds raised over £20,000 for mental health awareness this year and another campaign called Behind The Mask featured on BBC News offering free training for salons on how to signpost victims of domestic abuse, something very close to her heart that she was humbled to be involved in at the early stages. During her studies Ria-Jaine was awarded the PQ student of the year award, finalist for the student in a million award by The Student Room and front cover of the AAT magazine edition on Adversity. As a wife and mother to three boys she is passionate about helping and inspiring other women in business.

Mandy Mitten Mandy Mitten is the managing director of award-winning Mitten Clarke Limited, business advisors and chartered accountants based in Stoke on Trent. She advises a varied portfolio of clients ranging from high net worth individuals to group companies. She started her business from scratch, leaving a high profile job in industry to create Mitten Clarke 20 years ago. She now has a number of other companies, including a family business specialising in large scale dance and gymnasium mirrors. An entrepreneur with strong leadership and motivational skills, she has proven expertise in growing businesses, along with a wealth of experience gained from working in industry. Greatly admired throughout the local professional community for her commitment to both the business community and local charities. She was part of the Great Britain Team in the 2015/16 Round the World Yacht Race, racing over 9,000 miles from the UK to Rio de Janeiro non-stop, and then from Rio to Cape Town.

Carl is a school drop-out turned entrepreneur. Carl initially dropped out of school at the age of 15 and has since then grown an impressive empire! His story is incredibly inspiring and motivational. Carl is a business expert, qualified accountant and the founder of the #BeYourOwnBoss movement. He’s also chairman of an accountancy firm, d&t, which has over 2,500 clients in the UK, and director of 3 other businesses. He’s a business author (written 2 business books with another in the pipeline), has advised thousands of businesses and even has his own business podcast (link in my signature) where he gives advice and guidance on how to start, grow and build a business. He has over 125k followers across social media platforms, and regularly keynotes on small business topics.

Kevin Reed is one of the UK's most senior accounting and finance journalists. He has written for, edited or managed various business and finance titles for VNU, Incisive Media, and Contentive since 2000 - and is now a freelance journalist and consultant. A regular columnist, he is known for his views on practice management issues. Kevin has chaired the judging and presented the British Accountancy Awards and Business Finance Awards for several years, and also judged for the CICM Awards. He has served as a chair or panellist on many B2B events.

Heather has over 30 years’ experience, most recently as a partner at Pinsent Masons and prior to that as the head of tax at a FTSE 100 company, an anti-avoidance adviser at HMRC and a partner at a Big 4 accounting firm. She is a member of International Tax Review’s Global Tax 50 2017, recognised for her work in setting up the ‘Women in Tax’ network and regularly speaks and writes on tax matters. Heather is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and of the Chartered Institute of Taxation; she has a long-standing interest in tax policy and has previously been a member of the CBI Tax Committee for a number of years, and is a former chair of the Chartered Institute of Taxation’s technical committee. Heather is an experienced speaker and media commentator and frequently comments on topical tax issues on BBC radio and TV as well as at professional and academic conferences. Heather lives in Macclesfield on the edge of the Peak District so is a weekly commuter to London. As well as spending time with her family and dogs, Heather enjoys singing and the theatre (particularly Shakespeare). She and her husband are close to completing the restoration of an ex-BR steam engine and hope that it will shortly be back in running order!

David is a Chartered Accountant and a former Council Member at The Association of Corporate Treasurers. He has eight years experience as Audit Committee Chairman at two companies and has previously held CFO roles at several listed PLCs.