I’m a working-class lad from Stoke with a burning desire to succeed, and a hunger to look back and think… wow, did we really do all that?
I joined Cooper Parry in 2003. In 2012, I was appointed CEO. And in the first few years after that, we brought our three East Midlands offices under one ‘Google-esque’ roof at East Midlands Airport. We strengthened our international reach through the PKF network. We opened our West Midlands office in Solihull, which The Telegraph called one of the “coolest” in the UK. And we were dubbed “the rebels of accountancy”.

A lot’s changed since then. But my ambition hasn’t. In 2019, we broke away from the geographical restrictions of the PKF network to open offices in London, and by 2025, I want to have realised the 10-year vision we set in 2015: to grow the business from £15m to £150m turnover. To be #1 in every market we operate in. And #1 in The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For list.

Anyway, enough of the ‘what’. It’s the ‘why’ that matters to me.

I’d worked at big firms. I’d experienced the bureaucracy. I’d been hit slap-bang in the face with the red tape. And when I arrived at Cooper Parry, a lot of the partners had jumped the corporate ship for the same reason. So, we set out to build a business we’d all love to work for.

You can’t change a company’s culture overnight. It took years of work and some really tough decisions. There were highs. There were lows. But above all, there was learning. And together, we stuck to our purpose: to DISRUPT the industry and smash every accountancy stereotype to smithereens. To LEAD the way in everything we do. And to MAKE LIFE COUNT for our people, our clients and our community.