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In the last couple of years, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) has seen exponential growth in the range and quality of services provided to members. Areas like Representation, Lifelong Learning, Publishing and Tax have grown rapidly and the specialist nature of the services provided requires specialist skills. ICAI has recently announced a number of key appointments at Manager level. In this article, Norah Collender, Bryan Rankin and Sarah Lane talk to Accountancy Ireland about their decision to join the Institute.

Describing her role, Norah Collender, Tax Technical Manager at ICAI, says she is looking forward in particular to the representational aspect of her work for ICAI members, North and South, where she will interact with the other accountancy bodies through the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (CCAB-I), as well as with the Revenue and HMRC.

“Drawing on the views and experience of its 17,000 members who operate practices and businesses within the Irish and UK tax systems gives ICAI a strong mandate to lobby for fairness and improvements to Irish and NI tax policy,” Norah says.

With more than 10 years’ experience in practice, Norah has worked on compliance, tax planning, and revenue audits with Baker Tilly Ryan Glennon in Ranelagh, and as a tax consultant with both Grant Thornton and Ernst & Young.

“I have shifted my focus from the ‘micro’ tax needs of my client to a more macro approach serving the tax needs of ICAI members which is very challenging in terms of keeping up to date with Irish, UK and international tax and its relevance. I don’t think that I could identify ICAI members’ needs if I had not worked in practice myself so I do understand how the busy practitioner/financial controller/industry professional must be on top of the ever changing tax rules and regulations."

“I am also very fortunate to be involved in the development of the ICAI’s new professional ‘Chartered Tax Consultant’ qualification. My responsibilities in setting up this new qualification with Director of Life Long Learning, Becky Bristow, involve assessing what personal and technical skills the tax consultant needs and establishing a quality learning framework to encourage and develop these very skills. This is a huge opportunity for the tax profession and ICAI membership to actively influence the quality and skills of the next generation of tax advisors.” When she saw the Tax Technical Manager role advertised on the ICAI website, Norah was immediately interested:

“I really wanted to develop my technical skills and knew that I would be better placed to do that in a role that involves considering and analysing all tax updates and influencing tax policy through representationwork,” she says.

Like tax, financial services is another area where increasing numbers of Chartered Accountants are working and Sarah Lane was recently appointed FS Manager to service the needs of ICAI members in this area. With her father and three sisters allChartered Accountants, Sarah says, “You could say accountancy is a family business!” Having come 10th in her FAEs, Sarah worked as a Financial Services Audit Manager in KPMG before going on to Hibernian as a Business Finance Partner and most recently she has been lecturing in IAS 32 & 39 for the DCU Masters in Accounting students.

Asked about her new role, she explained: “Initially the key benefits for members will be providing constant financial services news updates through eNews and the financial services page on the ICAI website. Over time as the role develops, more services and products will be provided. In the short term the focus is to assist members in keeping up to date with the latest developments like MiFID, Client Assets, CRD, Solvency 2, and Insurance Accounting.”

ICAI is keen to engage on the industry’s long-term challenges, such as increasing consumer confidence in financial services and Sarah will play a key role in that area.

“After the problems with sub-prime lending, the credit crunch and Northern Rock, confidence in the financial services industry has taken a hit. We will be looking at the challenges in that area and working to provide services and supports for ICAI members. Regulation in the FS area is constantly changing as Ireland adopts EU regulations and responds to the demands of the global markets. These changes bring additional work for members. My role will be to provide support, helping members to deal with change as efficiently and professionally as possible.”

Outside of her work life and professional role, Sarah has recently completed two triathlons. Her first sprint triathlon was in Tipperary in April, and she took part in another in Derry over the May long weekend. She is also involved in sailing ‘puppeteers’ with a team in the Howth Yacht Club.

Developing new services for members is one thing. Making sure members know about them is another and that is the challenge facing ICAI’s new Marketing Manager, Bryan Rankin.

“For me, marketing is all about service, adding value for our members through the range of our strategy plans and initiatives. When I was researching the role, I was encouraged by the emphasis placed by ICAI on improving the perception of Chartered Accountancy and investing in the Chartered Accountant brand. This can be seen in our promotion of student recruitment where we focus on raising awareness of the CA brand; and in our regular communications with members through services like the weekly electronic newsletter, eNews, which is designed to add value for them.”

Bryan joined ICAI from one of the Ireland’s largest law firms, Matheson Ormsby Prentice, where he was PR & Communications Manager. Prior to that, he worked as a Marketing Executive with Golden Pages. He says: “I believe that my sales experience gave me a great insight into understanding the profit motive in business, listening rather than talking, and investing time in business development.”

“Since joining the Institute, I’ve been impressed by the scope and variety of communications activity pursued by the ICAI. So far, I’ve been involved in making presentations to final year accountancy students; working with the CPD team on the Annual Conference in Galway and on other events; supporting our HR, Member Services and other departments with communications activities, and supporting the ICAI team that went to Westminster in February to lobby for a 12.5% Corporation Tax for Northern Ireland.”

All three new Managers have found the working environment at ICAI to be very good: “There’s a great sense in the Institutethat you can make a difference, and you are given the autonomy and responsibility to do this. You find yourself dealing with the top levels of Irish industry in advising as well as serving and influencing the broad business agenda,” says Bryan.

Sarah adds: “It is a very open environment whilst also being professionally supportive. Everyone is very friendly and there are lots of sports and social events. The planned new building on Pearse Street is very exciting in the range of facilities planned for students and members and it will also be a big boost to staff morale.”

If you are interested in a career at ICAI, keep an eye out for vacancies advertised on the website www.icai.ie