The Professional Speaks

David is the CFO for Novosound, which is an award-winning sensors company specialising in the design and manufacture of innovative ultrasound sensors.  He recently had his first short book published, titled 'Boardroom lessons: Mistakes I made as a CFO so you don’t have to.’ which covers lessons learnt through his experience as a finance professional over 40 years. The link to it on Amazo...

Carolyn Bowie is a legal Partner specialising in immigration law for businesses and individuals at BTO, which is a full-service legal practice in Scotland.    Topics discussed include her different route to the legal world and partner, encouraging others to be confident and why imposter syndrome isn’t a bad thing. Outline of episode: 00-05:17: Carolyn’s background and non-traditional rou...

In this episode I am joined by Ross Stupart who is Regional Managing Partner for Scotland & Northern Ireland AND Regional Head of Tax at RSM - a global audit, tax and consulting professional services firm.   Topics discussed include what his steepest learning curves have been, what targets he set himself as a tax leader and what skills the senior tax leaders of tomorrow should have. Outli...

Lynne Walker is CEO of Johnston Carmichael, which is a UK Accountancy firm of just under 1,000 people. Unlike many CEOs of such a business, she lives in a town of 10,000 people in the north of Scotland. Topics discussed include how she manages work and life whilst leading and driving the business forward, how the role of CEO has evolved over the last 5 years and her advice on opening&nbs...

Andrew Holloway is a Tax Partner & Head of Equity Rewards & Venture Capital Schemes at Cooper Parry which is a UK-based advisory and accountancy firm, backed by US private equity firm, Lee Equity Partners. Interestingly, he was employee no.1 of the firm in Scotland (which at the time had over 2,000 employees based in England) but that was nearly a year after he had turned down an offe...

Melanie and Tom had been working together for years under different companies and then they decided to take their effective working relationship into their own hands and launch their own corporate finance business, Quantify Advisors. In their first year, Quantify advised on 14 completed deals with a cumulative deal value in excess of £150 million.  This episode discusses their evolving person...

Iain Wright decided to launch his own tax consultancy rather than pursue the next career milestone in professional services as a Partner. He was questioned and faced doubters, but he backed himself and launched Claritas Tax in 2012 with a dream of growing it into a larger business. Regarded as the UK’s largest independent tax consultancy, it now has over 70 employees, which will increase after a r...

Jamie Grant is Managing Director and Head of Corporate Banking for Scotland at Barclays Bank. He is also a Non-Executive Director (NED) for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.   In this episode, we hear how Jamie took an opportunity to be part of growing Barclays in Scotland over 20 years ago, when it barely had a presence in comparison to having 7,000 employees now in Scotland. He discusses...

Catherine McManus is a Tax Partner and Head of Tax at UK Accounting firm, Wbg, who were backed by private equity firm N4 Partners in 2024.   Topics discussed include advice for public speaking at events, her journey to being a female leader and why there needs to be equality at all levels, not just at senior levels. Catherine also discusses the transition from working for an independent compa...

Jack Bonehill has a successful podcast dedicated to tax professionals and he also offers tax technical training but this is not his full time job. As well as this, Jack works as an Employment Tax Director for PKF Smith Cooper in their Birmingham office.   In this episode, we find out more about how he manages to juggle having a side hustle whilst being a tax advising leader as well as some in...

Investment Manager, Duncan Thorburn, discusses his career journey from banking to corporate finance and most recently into private equity, working for Foresight Group which invests up to £15m in companies across all sectors, stages and transaction types.   We cover a lot in this discussion such as the importance of mutual transparency between a company and an investor, the importance of...

Graham Marjoribanks is Head of Audit and Assurance and also Vice-Chair of Johnston Carmichael which is a large UK Accountancy firm. In this discussion, Graham talks about how luck and working hard led to his career progression to Audit Partner and how he wants to encourage others who might not have their career planned out. We also discuss how saying YES to opportunities can really develop you and...

Craig Morrison is Head of Financial Planning and Analysis at Zonal, a successful technology supplier to UK pubs, restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality businesses. He talks about his career journey from Audit to finance and his goal to reach the C-suite.   Other topics discussed include being the first in his family to go to University, his approach as an effective and supportive leader t...

Tsvetelina and her husband worked full-time when they co-founded their business, Thankbox, an online card and cash collection service. What started as a small project, developed into a part-time business and they then committed to working on it full-time.   Her career started in Audit, training as a CA and moving into finance progressing to Head of Financial Planning & Analysis at Blackci...

Ex-big4 Director, Roger Mayor, joined an independent advisory business earlier this year as a Corporate Finance Partner focusing on lead advisory. His career to date has largely been working in corporate finance and in professional services which we discuss further.   Topics discussed include the skill of being commercially curious, corporate finance as a career, some highlights of deal compl...

James Edwards decided to quit his job and set up on his own during the 2020 pandemic. Starting from scratch, he had to create the company and find business but he took confidence from the fact that his competitors were also giving tax advice from their house!   Now a Tax Director and co-founder, James talks through the journey of launching his own professional services firm and all the ups an...

Melanie Clark recently joined a new independent Accountancy group backed by private equity as a Corporate Finance Partner. This is not her first time as a Partner and she discusses her career journey, which has always been in corporate finance.   Topics discussed include her love and enjoyment of corporate finance and why being emotionally invested in clients means she can’t and doesn’t want...

Stuart Brodie is currently a VAT Partner for a tax consultancy and he possesses a wealth of experience working in professional services across the big4, mid-tier and independent consultancies. As a VAT specialist, Stuart has advised many businesses and he covers some of the positive impacts his advice has had on clients.   Topics discussed include his love for moulding the future which is why...

In this episode, Craig answers your questions about the podcast, wrapping up season one of The Professional Speaks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris Docherty spent 13 years at big4 firm, EY, achieving Audit Partner after 12 years. However, after only a year in post, he left the firm and Audit to pursue an opportunity as a Partner in the global accounting and advisory business, CFGI, as their lead for Scotland and additional UK Partner. We discuss his journey to Partner at EY and CFGI as well as topics such as the stigma around being an A...

Bruce Cartwright is currently the CEO of ICAS and had previously spent 30 years in big4 restructuring with many of those as a Partner.   We discuss the importance of ethics, especially as an Accountant and how to respond if faced with pressure to act unethically. Other topics include why and what he enjoyed about working in restructuring and professional services including some interesting st...

As CEO of Entrepreneurial Scotland, Sean discusses his current role and the organisation’s flagship programme designed to find, grow and connect students with the ambition and potential of becoming future leaders for Scotland, called The Saltire Scholar Programme.   We discuss his career from Sales and working for the likes of Red Bull to Accounting & Finance where he trained in the big f...

With over 22 years of experience in Tax and a current Tax Partner, Alex talks about how growing up in a family of self-employed entrepreneurial people has helped her enjoy working as a private client tax advisor but also how it has helped her be an effective advisor to clients.   Other topics discussed include how some difficult life changes for Alex have impacted her career, making her a bet...

Allan Dowie is a Partner in the private equity firm he co-founded called N4 Partners. In his career, he has held board positions including CFO and CEO across a variety of sectors and he has also worked in professional services and consulting.    Allan talks about his entrepreneurial ventures, the life plan he set out to achieve early on in his 20s, the opportunity to upskill whilst...

James Taylor is the CFO of Rangers Football Club. His first year at the club has so far included a change of Football Manager and a trophy for the Men’s team with a lot more to play for before the season ends.   However in this episode, we explore more off-the-pitch aspects such as his career goal to be a CFO in the world of sport, why finance professionals should understand marketing and com...