25 May - Diversifying your career – hosted by the ICAS Lothian & Borders Area Network
Event summary
Hear from a wide range of CAs all at different stages of their careers, whose paths have included various levels of diversification and deliberate choices to achieve their aspirations. Get insights into what prompted their decisions and hear first-hand experiences of what it takes to make a big career move. They told us about how their ICAS membership and their CA qualification have enabled their professional diversity and shared advice for those who might be considering a change of their own.
(Duration: 1 hour. Originally recorded 25 May 2021)
Key themes and topics
- Making a career move
- Considering your career purpose
- Changing industry or sector
- Moving to a different-sized organisation
- How to plan a change
- How the CA qualification and ICAS Membership support a diverse career.
Who are the speakers?
- Arran Dewar CA – Fund Manager, Inspiring Scotland (20+ years qualified)
- Andy Brown CA – CFO Ooni (10+ years qualified)
- Andrew Clarkson CA – Senior Financial Controller, Cero Generation (5+ years qualified)
- Kelly Gilbert CA, Manager, European Funds Operations, Baillie Gifford (3+ years qualified)
Having started his career in the corporate and accountancy sector, Arran made a change of direction and has spent the past eight years with Inspiring Scotland, a venture philanthropy organisation whose purpose is a Scotland without poverty and disadvantage.
Andy spent much of his post-qualified career with KPMG where he was a Senior Audit Manager. In 2017 he decided to change direction and moved to Ooni Pizza Ovens, which at the time was just a start-up business.
Andrew is another CA whose career started out in one direction and then diverged to a different sector. He started his CA training with Gregor Clark & Co before completing it at BlackRock in 2012. Following a move to Lomond Capital, in 2017 he took the decision to join Green Investment Group and then, in February of this year, moved to renewables company Cero Generation.
One of the first CAs to complete the ICAS School Leaver programme, and a Top Young CA in 2018, Kelly qualified with Deloitte and went on to work as a manager in their Financial Services Audit & Advisory practice. In December 2020, during the pandemic, she made her first big career change and moved to Baillie Gifford.
(Please note that views and opinions expressed by speakers at ICAS webinars are their own and not necessarily reflective of ICAS’ views.)
Who’s this for?
- CAs considering a career move
- Newly qualified CAs
- CA Students considering their post-qualified career
- This webinar is hosted by the Lothian & Borders Area Network and is open all ICAS Members and Students regardless of location.
Counts as CPD activity
Depending upon your individual role and training and development needs, watching this webinar can count towards your annual Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirement.