CA magazine: July/August 2023
By Sarah Speirs, ICAS Executive Director of Member Engagement and Communication
6 July 2023
Entrepreneurs are known for embracing challenges, being innovative thinkers and questioning standard practices. That’s why, in a time of economic uncertainty, it’s encouraging to see that entrepreneurialism is alive and kicking within our profession.
In this combined July and August edition of CA magazine, we delve into the highs and lows of entrepreneurialism.
This month the rainbow flag will fly outside our headquarters to celebrate Pride month. By showing support to LGBTQ+ members of our global professional community, we make a clear and visible statement about ICAS and its values. Our Championing Unique Perspectives series on icas.com has provided a platform for our increasingly diverse membership to share stories and advice on how to successfully integrate equality, diversity and inclusion into a firm’s working practices.
Making accountancy open to everyone, irrespective of sex, race or background, is part of “sustainability at our core”, one of the five key pillars of the ICAS 2030 strategy that were unveiled at the AGM, and our commitment to having a future-facing, 21st-century professional body.
ICAS recently signed up to the Women in Finance Charter. We currently have 67% female senior managers within the organisation versus 33% male; our executive team is 60% female to 40% male. Our aim is that the number of female senior managers does not fall below 50%. Attracting people from a broad cross section of society into the profession is the theme of Clive Bellingham CA’s first column as President, in which he shares a personal story that will chime with many of our members.
Some came into the profession as much by luck as design, but countless others chose a different career because they didn’t realise the range of opportunities that comes with being a CA. By way of example, our special report features CAs working in the fast-growing space sector.
This month also sees the release of the International Sustainability Standards Board’s first set of reporting standards. You can read a report from ICAS’ recent summit, bringing together national and international experts on this pressing issue.
I hope you enjoy the issue.
Read our report on sustainability reporting