Profile: Eamonn Rice
Author:
Eamonn Rice
[Fulltext] Accountancy is in my blood. I was inspired by my father, a certified accountant with a good-sized, Belfast-based practice, which specialises in providing accounting, audit and tax advice to SMEs. Dad is tremendously charismatic and has succeeded in building a very successful business, while enjoying life to the full. His example provided the impetus for all three of my brothers to follow in his footsteps, becoming partners in the family business.
Although my father did not exert any pressure on me, he was my role model. This, coupled with a desire to travel and work with major global businesses, led me to the conclusion that Chartered Accountancy would provide me with the opportunity to do both. With this in mind, I studied for a BSSc in business administration at Queen's in Belfast, going on to take a post-graduate diploma in professional accounting. In 1985, I joined Arthur Andersen's Belfast office as a trainee Chartered Accountant, blissfully unaware of the eventful few years which were to follow.
Shortly after joining, the De Lorean scandal broke. Arthur Andersen - who were the beleaguered company's auditors - pulled out of Belfast, leaving me to finish my training in their Dublin office. Qualifying two years later, I decided to fulfil my ambition to travel and headed across the pond to join Price Waterhouse in Los Angeles. I tried to push to the back of my mind concerns that I might be spotted by a movie mogul and be forced into making a difficult career choice between chartered accountancy and acting stardom.
Maxicare
Instead, fate decided to intervene. PW had just won a major new assignment with Maxicare, at that time the largest health insurer in the US. Without any previous experience, I was pitched in at the deep end, spending the next few years working in the financial services industry on a range of audit and consultancy projects. After a year of trading in difficult market conditions, Maxicare filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The rest of my time in Los Angeles was spent helping management work their way out of bankruptcy. In a short space of time, I learned a lot about the financial services industry and, in particular, regulation, risk management and business strategy.
Goodbye surfboard, hello kilt
In 1990, fate stepped in again when PW were appointed auditors and advisers to Scottish Widows in Edinburgh. They needed financial services specialists to service this venerable institution, preferably of Celtic stock. An Irishman living in California was the best solution they could find. So putting my surfboard in storage and taking my kilt out, I transferred to Edinburgh.
I spent the next decade with PW, latterly PwC, working - in addition to Scottish Widows - with organisations like the Royal Bank of Scotland, Scottish Amicable, Barclays Bank and Britannia Building Society. Just before my 32nd birthday, I became PW's youngest ever European partner.
Two years later, I was appointed global leader of its compliance risk management practice which resulted in considerable part of my time being spent in New York, helping build an insurance regulatory consulting practice.
New challenge
A new challenge presented itself in January 2000 when I was headhunted by Arthur Andersen to set up a Scottish financial services consulting business. I quickly settled into an entrepreneurial role, building a strong team of Scottish- based consultants, focused on the needs of Scottish-headquartered financial services businesses.
Andersen collapse
With a team grown to 15 professionals and fees well ahead of our business plan, all seemed to be going well - until Enron. The collapse of Andersen's business meant deciding whether to follow the rest of the UK practice into Deloitte & Touche. After much consideration, I joined Ernst & Young, together with 14 of my former colleagues.
Key factors in this decision were Ernst & Young's commitment to investing in its Scotland and Northern Ireland financial services practice, the good cultural fit and its brand image in the marketplace. My team complemented Ernst & Young's already sizeable financial services practice, bringing with it in-depth expertise of developing solutions for Scottish and Irish clients in risk management, regulation, internal audit and organisational transformation.
Joining Ernst & Young provided us with a very exciting opportunity to continue contributing to the remarkable success enjoyed in recent years by the major Scottish banks, insurers and asset managers. Now, the largest team of Scottish-based advisers, our objective is to become the preferred supplier of advisory services to the financial services sector in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Limited Liability Partnerships
As a former partner in Andersen - and someone who may still be personally subject to lawsuits arising from Enron - I was relieved to discover Ernst & Young is a limited liability partnership (LLP) in the UK, having had the insight to take that step as soon as the law passed onto the UK statute books in 2001. This status gives the LLP partners some degree of protection from catastrophic lawsuits with the potential to wipe out a firm and bankrupt all traditional partnership members.
Under LLP legislation, only the partners directly involved in a negligence claim face the possibility of personal bankruptcy. The legislation removes the concept of joint and several liability, which holds all partners of a firm responsible, even those not directly involved in negligent work.
Accountancy Ireland Vol 34 No 6 December 2002