ICAEW Appoints Alan Vallance As New CEO

 

The chartered accountant and CEO of the Chartered Insurance Institute is taking up the ICAEW leadership role in Spring 2024.

ICAEW has picked Alan Vallance as its new Chief Executive, to take over from current CEO Michael Izza from Spring 2024. Izza has been Chief Executive of the Institute since 2006.

Izza announced his intention to retire from ICAEW by the end of this year in March. He has agreed to stay in post until Vallance joins the Institute to ensure a smooth transition.

Vallance, an ICAEW Chartered Accountant, is currently Chief Executive of the Chartered Insurance Institute. He previously worked as Chief Executive of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Group Chief Operating Officer at the Law Society.

Prior to this, Vallance was the Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Head of Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the national weather agency based in Melbourne, where he spent time participating in and leading Australian delegations at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. 

He qualified as a chartered accountant at Ernst & Whinney’s (now EY) London office. He is a Fellow of ICAEW, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Korean Institute of Architects. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of York.

Mark Rhys, ICAEW President and chair of the recruitment panel, announced Vallance’s appointment as ICAEW Chief Executive after an open and extensive recruitment process. The role attracted a strong field of candidates, with Vallance the outstanding choice to take up the role as Chief Executive.

The ICAEW Board was impressed with Vallance’s track record of leading successful membership organisations and working alongside different stakeholders, and with his vision for the Institute and for the evolution of the profession. Vallance’s focus on values and the role ICAEW can continue to play as it looks to its 150th anniversary in 2030 was also an important consideration.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Michael for his leadership of the Institute and tremendous contribution to the wider profession,” said Rhys. “The changes he has led to ICAEW’s strategy and structure since he became Chief Executive in 2006 leave us well placed for future success. I am grateful for his commitment to the organisation and wish him well for the future.”

Peter Wyman, Chair of the ICAEW Board, added: “I am greatly looking forward to working with Alan in the coming years as we address together the challenges and opportunities facing our Institute in a fast-changing world. I would also like to pay my own tribute to Michael for the quite extraordinary contribution he has made to ICAEW and the accountancy profession during his long and distinguished tenure as Chief Executive.”

Vallance said: “I am delighted to be joining ICAEW. As a chartered accountant it is a genuine honour to have been asked to lead the organisation of which I am a member and to succeed Michael Izza as Chief Executive.” 

He thanked Michael Izza for his leadership and the contribution he has made to the Institute during his time as Chief Executive, and pledged to build on the foundation that Izza created over the past 17 years. 

“The accountancy profession today plays a vitally important leadership role on the key issues facing society. I am determined to make sure that ICAEW leads from the front and that this role continues, indeed evolves in the future, with an unwavering focus on the public interest so that our members play their rightful part in building a world of sustainable economies.”

Michael Izza, ICAEW Chief Executive, said:

 “It has been a huge privilege to lead ICAEW through the last seventeen years of accelerating change in business, the economy and society, and to see the Institute grow and strengthen. Our touchstone has always been the public interest, and I passionately believe in the accountancy profession as a force for good in national life and the wider world. I am therefore delighted that Alan has been appointed as my successor and I know that the vision and the energy he brings to this role will ensure that ICAEW does not rest on its laurels.”

 

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KPMG Fined £21M For Being "Exceptionally Bad"

 

Another day, another fine for a Big Four auditor.

KPMG has been slapped with a record £21 million fine by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) over its botched auditing of Carillion, the construction company that went spectacularly bust in 2018.

The FRC said that KPMG's audits of Carillion were "exceptionally bad" and that the firm had failed to "discharge its professional duties properly".

The fine is the latest blow to KPMG, which has been under increasing scrutiny in recent years over its auditing practices. The firm has been fined a number of times for audit failings, including a £14.4 million fine last year for misleading the FRC during spot checks on its audit of Carillion.

The Carillion collapse was one of the biggest corporate failures in British history. The company went bust with debts of almost £7 billion, leaving thousands of workers and suppliers out of pocket.

A public inquiry into the collapse found that KPMG's audits of Carillion were "deeply flawed" and that the firm had failed to spot a number of red flags, such as the company's aggressive accounting practices and its over reliance on debt.

The FRC's latest fine is a welcome sign that the regulator is taking a tougher stance on audit failings. However, it is clear that the Big Four auditors still have a long way to go to improve their standards.

This is just the latest in a string of audit failings by the Big Four. It is clear that these firms need to do much more to improve their standards.

Here's what needs to happen:

• The FRC needs to be given more powers to hold auditors to account. This could include the power to impose larger fines and to disqualify individuals from working as auditors.
• The Big Four auditors need to be split up. This would create more competition in the audit market and would make it more difficult for the Big Four auditors to collude.
• There needs to be more transparency in the audit process. This could involve requiring auditors to publish more detailed reports on their audits and to give shareholders a greater say in the appointment of auditors.

Only by taking these steps can we restore confidence in the audit profession and protect investors from audit failings.

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