THE new president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, Mike McKeon, says he will focus on future education of the professional body’s students, highlighting more emphasis on ethics, technology and “business acumen”.
Mr McKeon, who was confirmed as president at ICAS’s annual general meeting on Friday and succeeds Sandy Manson of accountant Johnston Carmichael in the role, said: “The business and accountancy world are facing unprecedented challenges, and an important focus for me during my term in office will be to work on rebuilding public trust in our profession.
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“ICAS and its 21,000 members are playing a central role in this regard.”
Mr McKeon, who retired as chief financial officer of FTSE-100 water company Severn Trent in 2015 after nearly 10 years in the role and will be ICAS president for one year, added: “Another area I will be focusing on is the future education of our students, as we work on redesigning the CA qualification to have a greater emphasis on ethics, technology and business acumen.”
ICAS chief executive Bruce Cartwright said: “Mike is an accomplished business leader and his talent and experience will be a tremendous asset to ICAS, our members and our students.”
Catherine Burnet, senior partner of KPMG in Scotland, has been appointed deputy president of ICAS. Bill Drysdale, who worked for KPMG and has served as an adviser to former Bulgarian prime minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, has been appointed as vice-president of the professional body.
Mr McKeon has also held senior roles at Rolls-Royce, CarnaudMetalbox, Elf Atochem and Price Waterhouse.
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