Members Board – composition and current members
The Members Board aims to be representative of the ICAS Membership, taking account of factors such as geography and industry sector.
Composition
The General Regulations provide that the Members Board is made up of the following:
- A Chair, who is also a member of Council.
- Not less than two other Council members.
- The Chairs of each of any panel or body whose work is relevant to the Board.
- The Executive Director of Member Engagement & Communications.
- Up to two relevantly experienced ICAS employees.
- Such other persons as Council may deem appropriate.
Role of Members Board members
As set out above, the Members Board is comprised of a range of individuals with varied backgrounds and experience. ICAS’ Regulations do not provide distinct roles or responsibilities for Members Board members, with all members expected to:
- Engage in setting and delivering the Members Board’s objectives.
- Ensure the ongoing relevance of the Members Board’s work.
- Provide robust oversight and challenge to ICAS’ Member Engagement Team.
- Deliver effective influence in the interests of Members, Firms and the general public.
Appointments
Individuals are appointed to the Members Board by Council, on consideration of recommendations from ICAS’ Nominations Committee (with the exception of the Executive Director of Member Engagement & Communications, who sits on the Members Board by virtue of his or her employment in that role).
Appointments to the Members Board are for an initial period of three years, which may be extended for a second term of three years.
Current members
The Members Board is currently formed of the following individuals:
Members Board Members
 | MICHAEL KAY CA (CHAIR) Michael qualified with Arthur Andersen in Edinburgh, with secondments to London and Melbourne. He joined a sales promotion plc in London, before he and fellow directors established their own below-the-line agency backed by 3i. The majority of his career was then spent in financial services, with senior regional and global finance and operational roles in Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and HSBC. Michael subsequently moved to the public sector with NHS Digital, leading the Commercial function through a period of significant transformation. He is currently a senior Commercial Advisor to the Council of Health Insurance in Saudi Arabia. Brought up in Ayr, Michael is a keen Burns enthusiast, winning the “Tam o’Shanter World Championship” in 2018. He is also an Honorary Steward at the Wimbledon Championships. |
 | SOBHAN AFZAL CA Sobhan was elected unopposed to the Scotland West electoral area seat at the 2019 AGM. Sobhan Afzal is currently a senior auditor at Audit Scotland. Sobhan began his career at Audit Scotland as a trainee auditor in 2013, having graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in accounting and finance in the same year. Sobhan completed the ICAS qualification and was admitted to membership in 2017. Sobhan has been involved in financial audits and performance audits across all sectors of the Scottish public sector during his time at Audit Scotland. This include audits of charities, pension funds and government agencies. More recently, Sobhan's role has involved leading on the delivery of audits within the health and local government sectors. Sobhan joined the ICAS Council in May 2019. |
 | LUCAS ALEXANDER-CRICHTON Lucas grew up in rural Aberdeenshire and attended The Gordon Schools in Huntly. Rather than taking the traditional university route into the profession, Lucas elected to join the flagship EY School Leaver programme in September 2013, based in Aberdeen and specialising in audit. He qualified in late 2018 and was formally admitted as a member of ICAS in March 2019. During this time, Lucas was heavily active in the EY Unity Network (LGBT+ network) and held the position of Co-Chair of the EY Scotland branch.After making Audit Manager at the age of 25, Lucas sought new challenges and joined Hutcheon Mearns in January 2022 as a Resourcing Manager. In his current role, he specialises in Scotland-wide accountancy practice recruitment, as well as industry accounting roles in the Tayside area.Lucas has been a member of the ICAS Grampian Network since 2020 and was officially appointed as the Grampian representative in September 2022. He wants to bring a new perspective to the Board and represent not only the Grampian region but also the minority voice. As a champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion, he wants to ensure that the voice of the LGBT+ community is also represented. He truly believes that having a more inclusive and diverse Members Board will facilitate wider perspectives to be integrated when brainstorming, problem-solving and developing new ideas, and people can learn from each other. |
 | LISA BLUM Lisa grew up in Germany and after finishing school she spent two years working and travelling in Australia and New Zealand before moving to Edinburgh to study International Business Management and French at Edinburgh Napier University. Lisa completed her ICAS training contract with Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) after being awarded the ICAS Gold Medal and was formally admitted as a member of ICAS in November 2023. During her time on the LBG graduate programme, Lisa has gained experience in various areas of the Group, including financial reporting, regulatory control and finance business partnering, before securing a role as Finance Manager in Analysis & Insight, Retail Finance in June 2023. Lisa represented ICAS at the inaugural Chartered Accountants Worldwide Global Young Leaders’ Think Tank in Dublin in January 2024. Outside of work Lisa is a competitive powerlifter and also spends her time volunteering at various Scottish Powerlifting competitions. |
 | LYNDSAY BROWNE CA Lyndsay was appointed to the Capita plc Board in 2019 as an Employee Non-Executive Director, following a highly competitive process to bring increased diversity to the Board and amplify the voice of the company’s 55,000 employees in decision making. Also serving on the Remuneration Committee and attending the Audit and Risk Committee, she has directly influenced strategic decisions, entity level risk management, corporate purpose and balancing the needs and interests of multiple stakeholders. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG in Glasgow in 1996, Lyndsay spent 3 years with KPMG in Bermuda working in the insurance and reinsurance sector. She returned to the U.K. in 1999 and has held senior Finance roles in Airtours and Capita plc, based in the North-West of England. She has considerable experience delivering complex transformation, M&A, financial control assessment and improvement and client partnering. An advocate for Board diversity, Lyndsay was invited to address the All-Parliamentary Group on Corporate Governance in the House of Lords in 2020 and was interviewed by the FRC to inform their S172 guidance. She recently completed her term on ICAS Council. With two grown up children, Lyndsay enjoys family holidays, long walks with the dog and is proud to have completed a Snowdon midnight challenge for The Alzheimers Society. |
 | ALAN BURNET CA Alan qualified with Deloitte Haskins & Sells in Edinburgh, spending 3 years in Sydney, before returning to work in London. On leaving the profession, Alan returned to Edinburgh as Head of Financial Reporting at Scottish Widows and has spent the majority of his career in financial services, with senior roles in HSBC, E&Y Consulting and most recently as part of the Management Team at NatWest Trustee & Depositary Services, with responsibility for strategic and product development. Alan is a member of the Lothian & Borders Area Network Committee and was previously Chair and Trustee of the Scottish Chartered Accountants Benevolent Association. Alan is also a member of the Soundhouse choir, regularly singing and supporting fund raising events at places such as the Usher Hall and St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. He remains a keen golfer and is a former winner of the St Andrews Boys Open Championship. |
 | KEN CROARKIN CA Ken Croarkin is an audit partner with EisnerAmper LLP and leads services to the insurance industry. Ken has been resident in the USA for over 25 years. He originally qualified with what was then Kidsons Impey in Glasgow, before working with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, both in Glasgow and the USA for several years. He also worked in industry with the Marsh & McLennan Companies in New York. Ken is the Member Representative for ICAS and a board member of Chartered Accountants Worldwide Network USA. As well as a CA, he is also a licensed Certified Public Accountant. Ken is married with 2 children and lives in a suburb of New York City. |
 | SAMANTHA FROST CA Samantha provides consultancy services on Risk, Audit and Corporate Wellbeing, leveraging over 20 years’ experience in audit and risk management. She works with companies of varying sizes, across diverse industries and geographical locations. Samantha lived and worked in Australia for 15 years and relocated with her husband and children back to the UK at the end of 2018. Since then, her work has increasingly focussed on helping organisations to enhance their understanding of what wellbeing should ‘look like’ and ‘how to get it right’. Samantha is passionate about mental health. She sits as a school trustee, and is a mentor at Exeter University for current and recent graduates. She is also a mentor on the ICAS mentoring platform. These roles stem from a deep desire to have a good understanding of the issues facing the next generation, so we can best equip them to realise their full potential. Samantha has supplemented this personal interest by becoming an accredited adult and youth mental health first aider. This underpins why Samantha has been so interested in following the work ICAS is doing in the wellbeing space. She believes there is a wonderful opportunity for ICAS to be a thought-leader and she is hugely excited to have the opportunity to help make that happen. Samantha also sits on ICAS Members Board, the Presidential Nominations Committee, and Chair of the Constitution Panel. |
 | DAVID GREEN CA David has worked in professional practice for the last 35 years in various client service and leadership roles predominantly as a Partner with PwC. During that time, he has worked in many European and African countries and has lived in Scotland, Zambia, Slovakia and Poland where he is currently based. In 2023 he retired as a Partner in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) firm of PwC. In his final role he was Assurance Leader for CEE covering a region of 27 countries including Poland, Russia and Czech Republic. In that role he was a Board Member and contributed to the firms strategic development as well as having to make difficult decisions and execute on those. Since retiring as a Partner, he has taken on consulting roles for other PwC Member firms and is presently the Audit Quality Leader for PwC Finland and PwC Francophone Africa. Having worked almost continuously since he was a teenager focusing predominantly on his own career and family (which includes a tax advisor Polish wife and two daughters both still in full time education), he’s now at a stage in his career where he is looking to contribute to the broader society in a voluntary capacity. |
 | SEAN GRUBB CA Sean Grubb was born and raised in Dundee where he attended school, University and completed his ICAS training contract with EQ Accountants LLP. Since qualifying in 2020, Sean has moved into industry and now holds the position of Finance Director at Double A - John Deere, Scotland’s leading supplier of ground care equipment. Within this role Sean is responsible for the finance, import & export, HR, and IT functions of the business. In addition to his role at Double A, Sean is also a dedicated member of the ICAS Members Board where he was appointed in 2019 to represent the interests of the student members. Sean is also a Trustee of ICAS Cares where he provides guidance on the operational and strategic direction of the charity to ensure its run in the best interest of the beneficiaries. Outside of work, Sean is also a proud mentor of the ICAS Foundation, having been a student of the foundation himself. In his spare time Sean enjoys playing golf from a scratch handicap and spending time with his family. |
 I | RAHUL HANDA CA Rahul is the Head of Commercial Finance for a private equity owned services company that operates and maintains water infrastructure for cities & businesses, serving over 4m customers. Rahul started his career at Arthur Andersen UK (now amalgamated with Deloitte) in Audit & Corporate Finance. He worked on a number of transactions and was lead worldwide instructor on private equity deal modeling. From there, he joined a client’s internet startup, before moving to Xchanging, a global BPO company launched by General Atlantic & McKinsey, where he led the commercial finance department in Europe and the USA executing over $1.4Bn/ yr in contracts and a number of digital transformation initiatives. He is passionate about lifelong learning and was recently awarded Stanford University’s “Financing Innovation” award under their Corporate Innovation LEAD Executive Program. In his spare time he enjoys playing with his 2 year old toddler, running and yoga. |
 | DOUGIE HAWKINS CA With over 25 years experience, Dougie has spent his career in the private equity industry. He was a partner at Clyde Blowers Capital for 10 years after spending 8 years as Managing Director at RBS’ private equity business. Before joining RBS, he was employed at Bank of Scotland for 12 years, half of which he spent in leveraged finance after starting his career in retail and small business banking. For a period during this time he also operated his own M&A advisory business. He is now CEO of Newlands (Elgin) Holdings Ltd, the Robertson family investment office. Dougie is a CA, having trained under the TOPPS scheme with Bank of Scotland and also a Member of the Chartered Banker Institute. |
 | FRASER HIDDELSTON CA Fraser Hiddelston was Executive Director and Head of Governance Services at Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited until 31 March 2023. Leading the Governance Services division at Northern Trust which comprised the Board Servicing, Corporate Secretarial & Listings, Commercial Client Compliance and Investor Due Diligence teams and also acted as a director on a number of Northern Trust client fund Boards. He is now actively seeking Non-Executive Director positions and providing governance training and consultancy services in Guernsey. Fraser trained with Milne, Craig and Corson in Paisley and qualified as a CA in 1994 then relocated to Guernsey in 1995 to work for PKF specialising in the audit of financial services clients. He left in 2005 and worked as an Assistant Director at Aon Captive Insurance Services for 3 years before joining Northern Trust as a Senior Relationship Manager developing the strategic relationship for a wide variety of clients with open-ended and closed-ended funds in the traditional, alternative asset and property fund sectors. Fraser was also Treasurer of the Guernsey Society of Chartered & Certified Accountants for 12 years and formed part of its Executive Committee to promote the accountancy profession on the island and act as a voice for industry. |
 | KAREN MCBRIDE CA Karen has been with JC since 2013, although this includes the short spell in industry, first of all progressing to Audit Senior Manager with a client facing role. Karen has since moved into an Operational role within the firm and leads the operations for the Audit Business Line, alongside Graham Marjoribanks, Head of Audit. A key part of her role is ensuring operational processes and controls are effective, and that the right reporting and people are in place to maximise operational efficiency, manage risk and meet growth objectives. |
 | IAIN MCMICHAEL CA Iain qualified with PwC, working in Assurance for 2.5 years before moving to the newly created Data team in Edinburgh. Alongside his work at PwC, he founded a company specialising in marketing and booking software for restaurants, nightclubs and bars across the UK. As his career progressed with PwC, he seconded to London, and spent 3 years working on national and international transformation programmes. Following the secondment, he returned to Edinburgh to help grow the ‘channel 2’ data practice in Scotland. He left PwC at the end of 2019 to grow his own consultancy business...3 months before a global pandemic. He remains certain this was the worst timing possible. However he continues to run this business, focusing on marketing and sales acting as Fractional Sales Director and advising the boards of several clients on strategic direction. He is the CEO at RISE311, an artisan plant-based protein powder brand committed to integrity and excellence. In his spare time, he enjoys the gym, walking his dog Brodie and spending time with his young family. He loves wild swimming, watching rugby and enjoys the odd dram of uisge-beatha (though his wife has implemented a one in, one out policy on whisky bottles in the house). |
 | DAVID WILSON CA David is Chief Financial Officer at IfATE, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, and a member of IfATE's Executive Leadership Team. After training as a chartered accountant with Grant Thornton in London, David led cross-functional teams to deliver strategic projects with a global scope and advised clients in countries including Canada, Oman, Qatar, the UAE and the UK. Following a successful career in professional services, David decided to enter public service and joined the UK Civil Service in 2021. David has taken an active interest in ICAS, sitting on the ICAS London Area committee since April 2022 and is a member of the ICAS Sustainability Panel. His voluntary activities have included serving as a charity trustee and he currently sits on the Alumni Council of Cambridge Judge Business School. David received a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Cambridge and holds a BA (Hons) in Accounting from Abertay University. |
 | CHRIS WONGSOSAPUTRO CA Chris grew up in Indonesia and Singapore before moving to London to study Economics and Statistics at UCL. Subsequently, he started his career at EY Audit team in the Edinburgh and London offices while pursuing the ICAS qualification which he completed in 2018. After spending 5 years in Audit, Chris moved to the Transaction Diligence team at EY, performing Financial Due Diligence as part of M&A deals. This was followed by 2 years of working in Strategy Consulting at EY-Parthenon and PwC Strategy&. He is currently working as a Strategy and Performance Analyst for The Go-Ahead Group. Outside of work, Chris is active in politics and serves in a few roles within the Labour Party. He stood as the Party's candidate in Torbay for the 2024 General Election. Chris has been an active ICAS member, having served as a London Area Network committee member since 2021. He looks forward to his role on the ICAS Members Board to represent members' views to ICAS. |
