HARWOOD HUTTON LIMITED - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director
- Member of the Academy of Experts
Adam is an award-winning chartered accountant, corporate finance specialist and experienced expert witness, having worked in forensic accountancy for more than 25 years.
In recent years, Adam has won a string of industry accolades, starting with the Lawyer Monthly Expert Witness Award of 2017. In the same year, he accepted the Business and Tax Advisory Firm of the Year award from M+A Insider and he was named Global 100's Forensic Accountant of the Year. In 2019 and 2021, Adam won Finance Monthly's Deal Maker of the Year, and he was voted the leading practitioner of business valuation advice in England 2021 by Corporate International.
Adam read economics at Cambridge University. After graduation, he spent 14 years at Deloitte in London where he qualified as a chartered accountant. During his time with Deloitte, he was posted to the international firm's headquarters in New York.
Since joining Harwood Hutton in 2004, Adam has worked with small businesses, professional practices, financial services businesses, banks, major international clients and sovereign governments. He is also an auditor, with clients in the marketing, infrastructure, legal and charity sectors.
Adam has provided litigation support and expert witness services for more than 20 years and has given oral evidence at the family court and at the High Court. On the corporate finance side, he has helped clients with a diverse range of services, from corporate restructuring to mergers and acquisitions work.
Adam is a member of the Academy of Experts and The Expert Witness Institute. He is former chairman of the UK's Network of Independent Forensic Accountants (NIFA) and is a non-executive director of the Buckinghamshire growth hub, Buckinghamshire Business First.
Adam specialises in the following services
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Fellow of Both the Institute of Chartered Accountants
- Specialist
Anna's work keeps her on the move, supporting a number of SMEs - many of them family-owned - and owner-managed businesses in London and around the Home Counties.
Anna is a specialist in business taxation, helping her corporate clients steer the smartest, most tax-efficient course while ensuring compliance with HMRC rules and guidelines. She also represents not-for-profit organisations, including registered charities, and a number of high net worth individuals who value the thoroughness of her approach and the warmth of her style.
Anna is a Fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She speaks Mandarin and Cantonese, which is a boon to our international service London Landing.
Anna is an audit Responsible Individual and Senior Statutory Auditor, and she is on the Panel of Divorce Experts Group, a professional group that helps couples going through divorce and separation.
As well as providing practical and commercial advice on accounting and taxation, Anna takes a hands-on approach in helping clients to evaluate businesses opportunities and strategic issues. She ensures the financial information gathered from the auditing and accounts preparation process adds value and can help her clients make better business decisions.
Anna is a keen horsewoman and enjoys riding out across the Berkshire countryside whenever she can. She acts as the Treasurer for the British Horse Society Berkshire Committee.
Anna specialises in the following services
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Bedfordshire
- Head of Private Client Services
- Head of Private Client Services Find Out
Chris is our head of Private Client Services. He is a qualified chartered accountant, chartered tax adviser and trust and estate practitioner.
Chris is also Chair of the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire (BBH) branch of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). His election in 2022 came just 10 years after winning STEP Diploma for Accountants & Tax Practitioners Student of the Year.
Chris has extensive experience advising high net worth clients, property investors and business owners and helping them to preserve their wealth.
"What I enjoy most about my work is getting to know clients, understanding what they need and establishing what is important to them," said Chris. "There is a tremendous variety in what I do - and of course everyone is different - but I am typically providing guidance on three areas of tax: income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax."
Job Titles:
- Head of Tax Advisory
- Head of Tax Advisory Find Out
Cormac started his tax career as a fully trained HM Inspector of Taxes with the Inland Revenue. He joined KPMG and gained over 16 years extensive experience, becoming a specialist in tax before spending an additional two years at Grant Thornton. His particular interest is working with owner-managed businesses to minimise tax liabilities and create effective structures that make commercial sense. Exit planning, mergers and acquisitions, MBIs, MBOs, staff incentivisation and non-domiciled owners are all areas where Cormac enjoys providing solutions. Cormac is an expert commentator on tax matters for the London Evening Standard.
Cormac specialises in the following services
David is responsible for a considerable portfolio which includes clients in IT, property development, manufacturing, training, and TV production and distribution.
He has extensive commercial knowledge and experience and gives sound advice to clients on a wide range of business and taxation issues.
Over the years, David has worked closely with a number of start-ups, helping them grow into multi-million pound companies and, subsequently, playing a vital part in negotiating their sale.
David also oversees Harwood Hutton's outsourced services division, which includes a BACS-approved payroll unit.
David has attended international conferences on behalf of Harwood Hutton and is responsible for a number of UK subsidiaries of overseas-based group companies.
Outside of work, David enjoys cycling and has taken part in a number of charity bike rides, including the London-to-Paris event.
A native of Sao Paulo in Brazil and therefore fluent in Portuguese, David is pleased to represent Harwood Hutton at the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce.
David specialises in the following services
Jonny began his accountancy career with us, was promoted to manager in 2013, and six years later he was appointed an associate. Jonny is indeed a shining example of how talent is nurtured and flourishes at Harwood Hutton.
Jonny qualified with the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants and Association of Taxation Technicians. He has provided a wide range of specialist services to clients, gaining a breadth of knowledge across the accountancy and taxation spectrum in the process. He takes particular pride in getting to know clients to ensure he can carry out efficient tax planning for them and mitigate any commercial risks he identifies.
One of the highlights of Jonny's experience to date was an assignment in Canada where he prepared a comprehensive business report of a client's subsidiary, acquired for several million pounds, including a review of short term cash flow issues and recommendations to return the business to profit.
He also spent a year as interim financial manager for a client with a £30 million+ turnover and led negotiations during the sale of the company for an eight-figure consideration.
Jonny supports one of the two famous football clubs of his birthplace, Sheffield United, and he plays in, coaches and manages a Sunday league football team based in Maidenhead which has been established for more than 30 years.
Katie joined us as a trainee in 2010, qualified with the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants in 2013 and became a manager in 2017.
With her experience as a trainee still relatively fresh in her mind, Katie was an ideal candidate for the role of training manager which she took on in 2018. "I love working with our talented young people, supporting their development and nurturing their careers," she says.
Katie has experience in corporate assurance, financial reporting and taxation, and she works with clients in a variety of sectors, including haulage, the retail motor industry, manufacturing, communications consultancy and property development.
"One of the best aspects of my role is engaging with clients and getting to know them, their market and their business model so I can offer sound advice on a range of accountancy issues," says Katie.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- New Harwood Hutton Managing Director
Keir was appointed managing director of Harwood Hutton at the age of 39, just 18 years after joining the firm as a trainee accountant.
Keir leads from the front and for the past few years has run the largest portfolio of clients within Harwood Hutton. He has also been responsible for generating much of the new business won by the firm. He has a number of clients in the IT and property sectors, where he specialises.
"Clients expect us to truly understand their business and help them make key decisions," says Keir. "The experience I gained running a large and diverse portfolio was excellent preparation for becoming managing director.
"With the support of my highly experienced boardroom colleagues and superb team, I am building on the strong client service culture we have at Harwood Hutton, a culture established by my predecessor, John Brace, who was an inspiration."
After completing a Mathematics degree at Oxford University, Keir showed a keen business instinct. He became a computer programmer, surfed the dot-com boom and wiped out his student debts.
Keir was in the National Youth Orchestra, playing flute, piano and guitar; played badminton at county level and swam for his club. He still plays squash and five-a-side football.
Keir specialises in the following services
Keir Singleton is the new Harwood Hutton Managing director, and in this question and answer session, he gives an insight into him and the future of the firm.
Laura began her career with Harwood Hutton as a bookkeeper before switching to accountancy and finding her true vocation.
After a break of five years away from the firm, Laura returned as a manager in May 2018. Her in-depth experience means she can advise clients on most areas, be it transactional details and system design, through to overview reporting and forecasting, or future tax planning.
"I have covered the full accounting spectrum throughout my career," says Laura. "I enjoy taking a holistic approach to client matters, advising on the full range of accountancy issues. I love the variety of my work - the fact that no two days are the same."
Laura is also responsible for the recruitment and training of the accounts and audit senior team members.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director Find Out
- Member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation
Margaret specialises in helping the owners of small and medium-sized businesses to gain better understanding of their operations and their profitability.
As a Chartered Tax Adviser, Margaret is qualified to advise on corporate taxes, and she understands how all the various taxes can come together to impact on a business plan or broader strategy. She sees her main role as ensuring her clients operate as tax-efficiently as possible.
Margaret works closely with the Harwood Hutton teams producing monthly management accounts for her clients so she can feed back to the owners on key performance indicators and areas that may require attention, sometimes urgently. "They appreciate and value the proactive guidance," she says.
Margaret is a licensed practitioner for ATOL reporting work, making her the prime contact for travel companies. She also works with solicitors handling Share Purchase Agreements for their clients, where her knowledge of tax helps ensure the tax warrantees and tax covenants are correctly drafted and offer adequate protection for the client.
As a child growing up in Poland, Margaret developed a talent for speed skating and she enjoys taking her two children to the local ice rink but confesses she has to fight the urge to pick up the speed and start carving her way through the crowd.
Margaret is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, the leading professional body in the UK for advisers dealing with all aspects of taxation whose primary purpose is to promote education in taxation with a key aim of achieving a more efficient and less complex tax system for all.
Margaret specialises in the following services
Job Titles:
- Chartered Tax Adviser
- Head of VAT and Indirect Taxes
- Head of VAT and Indirect Taxes Find Out
- Member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation
Michael started his career in HM Customs and Excise (as was) before joining the profession and passing his tax exams. He worked at a Big 4 firm and for the past 12 years has been a director at a Top 10 firm.
Throughout his career Michael has worked with owner-managed businesses and has undertaken a great deal of work with other professionals, as well as with a number of property and construction companies.
He has sat on the Land & Property Liaison committee with HMRC and was involved in the discussions with HM Treasury that led to the new rules on VAT and Vouchers.
Michael has been involved with one of the large advertising and media organisations for a number of years, providing advice as well as regular updates for staff on indirect tax. He has worked with several clients involved in the international supply of goods and services, and he has recently been looking at the effect that the introduction of VAT in the Gulf region will have on storing and selling goods within that area.
Michael is a Chartered Tax Adviser as well as a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers. In his spare time Michael is trying to improve his running and goes to the gym a few times a week.
"VAT can be a highly complex tax, especially in the property sector where similar transactions may have differing VAT liabilities, depending on the background and the facts," says Michael. "In the international field, it may be necessary to register for VAT if you make supplies to customers in a country, even if you do not have a permanent establishment there for direct tax purposes. There are a number of interactions between VAT and Customs duty, and post Brexit, there may be further changes introduced to our VAT system."
Michael is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, the leading professional body in the UK for advisers dealing with all aspects of taxation whose primary purpose is to promote education in taxation with a key aim of achieving a more efficient and less complex tax system for all.
Michael specialises in the following services
Peter is what you might call an ‘old school' accountant and business adviser, one who has built his reputation helping ambitious business leaders achieve their goals.
Peter's relationship with Harwood Hutton stretches back more than 30 years, and in that time he has guided scores of entrepreneurs, skilfully managing their transition out of accountancy firms that lacked the specialist knowledge required to take them to the next level of growth and profitability.
"I enjoy helping my clients increase their productivity and build value in their business," says Peter, who has overseen many highly successful exits in the course of his career.
Job Titles:
- Payroll Manager
- Payroll Specialist
Sue is a payroll specialist with more than 30 years' experience. She has looked after clients in both the private and public sectors. Sue believes the secret of running a successful bureau operation is to ensure people are paid accurately and on time and that there is flexibility to respond to individual needs. "Quite often, clients are relying on you to come up with the right answers to matters they hadn't anticipated, and that's where the payroll bureau can really demonstrate its worth," says Sue. "We can also help clients deal with the increasing level of reporting that is required as well as auto enrolment."
Job Titles:
- Business Development Director
Tom knew a great deal about Harwood Hutton before he joined us in the summer of 2018. That's because for many years he had been introducing clients to us for specialist advice in his capacity as a commercial banking relationship manager at two global banks.
"My previous roles at RBS and HSBC allowed me work very closely with a number of Harwood Hutton directors, and I was always impressed with the way they handled my clients and the quality of the advice on offer," said Tom. "So when the opportunity arose to join a firm I admired very much, I was very pleased to take it."
Tom's knowledge of the commercial banking sector and his impressive connections in the field of corporate finance will be a major boon to Harwood Hutton clients considering their options for financing and ongoing support.
"I'm also looking forward to revisiting some of the contacts I've made over the past 12 years in the UK and abroad so I can introduce them to the wide range of services provided by Harwood Hutton - services that can help accelerate their business growth."
Tom has a degree in business management and is a keen sports fan, especially football and rugby.