ICAS Council – composition and current members

Alison Cornwell  CA - President

Alison Cornwell is a highly experienced CFO having worked in senior international roles at The Walt Disney Company and then as CFO in three successive PE backed businesses in television broadcasting (Sparrowhawk Media Group), film distribution and production financing (Alliance Films) and most recently in film exhibition (Vue International).

Prior to pursuing a career in business Alison qualified as a CA with C&L Glasgow in 1990 and spent 5 years in PwC’s Corporate Finance practice in London.

Alison has held a number of non-executive positions; She is a former Governor and Audit Committee Chair of the British Film Institute and is currently a non-executive Director of Moonriver TV, producer of the recent series A Gentleman In Moscow starring Euan McGregor.

Alison became ICAS Vice President in 2022 and ICAS Deputy President in 2023 having been an ICAS Council Member since 2018. In September 2022 she cycled 1000 miles in 9 days from Land’s End to John O‘Groats to raise over £25,000 for the ICAS Foundation. In 2023 she launched the F25 initiative where 25 CAs have been participating in a series of self chosen challenges to raise £25,000 for the ICAS Foundation.

Karen Scholes  CA - Deputy President

Karen qualified as a CA in 1988 with Whitelaw Wells, Edinburgh. After qualifying Karen returned home to manage Scholes, the accountancy practice started by her late father, she was the sole practitioner in the firm until it was incorporated in 2008. Since incorporation, the firm has seen steady growth, opening an office in Edinburgh in 2018 and most recently Aberdeen in 2022. Karen continues to retain a hands-on approach to management within the firm, working closely with colleagues to ensure the firm delivers the highest standard of professional support to their growing number of clients.

Karen is keen to enhance the engagement ICAS has with its member in practice and until 2020 was the Chair of Members in Practice Advisory Board, along with being a member of Council. Since September 2020 she has served as Convener on the Authorisations Committee and a member of the Regulation Board.

Karen is particularly passionate about supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs and enjoys nurturing young people in business through her work with Young Enterprise Orkney.

David Cruickshank CA - Vice President

England, Wales and Northern Ireland - Electoral Area members

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.

Jason Harvie CA

After having studied mathematics at the University of St Andrews, Jason qualified as a CA in 2012 with energy investment bank Simmons & Company.  After building up experience across a broad range of corporate transactions, he subsequently joined the then Aberdeen Asset Management (now abrdn) focused specifically on direct private equity co-investments.

In his current role Jason is an Investment Director at Penta Capital, a UK based private equity investor.

Jason is currently Chair of the ICAS London Area Network.

Michael Kay CA

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 of 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.

Suzy Kerton CA

Suzy qualified as a CA with Baker Tilly in 2012 and completed a secondment to the Buenos Aires office in Argentina shortly after qualifying. She became CFO of a cloud accounting software company at just 26 years of age which set her in good stead when starting her own cloud-based accountancy practice.
After a brief spell as Financial Accountant at the Cabinet Office, she embarked on a Full-Time MBA at Imperial College Business School. It was during the MBA that Suzy co founded Zyla Accountants, an accountancy practice offering a full range of accountancy services to start ups and small businesses from year-end accounts and VAT returns to R&D tax credits and SEIS compliance.  She has built Zyla to a fully remote team of 10 with over 100 clients. During Covid Suzy found herself temporarily relocated to the Middle East and in March 2021 she opened Zyla Accountants Dubai growing a client portfolio of Dubai startups and SMEs. Suzy is passionate about helping businesses understand their finances and making their accounting processes easy and efficient using new technologies. Suzy is also Chair of the Practice Board to support fellow Practice owners and the ICAS Ambassador in Dubai where she organises quarterly events to connect members.
Beyond Accountant Life Suzy is a big fan of tennis and padel, not playing so much these days since becoming a mother for the first time in 2023 and navigating caring for a baby while running a business. Suzy also speaks Spanish and Portuguese and has been learning Arabic since spending time in the UAE.

Jonathan Mills CA

Jonathan is an Assistant Director at Deloitte and serves a range of global clients, in particular international financial institutions. He graduated in Economics from Durham University in 2014 and qualified as a CA in 2017. He now sits in the Deloitte Equity Capital Markets practice, supporting clients preparing for and undergoing initial public offerings (IPOs) in various industries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Jonathan has held various non-executive roles including as a voluntary financial adviser to the Board of Trustees of a charity and to a start-up technology business. A passionate supporter of ICAS, Jonathan has been a member of the London Area Network since 2019 and served on the ICAS Young Leaders Network from 2017-2019.

Tracey Rob Perera CA

Scotland North - Electoral Area members

Emily Kennedy CA

Emily Kennedy, CA is an Associate Director at KPMG within their Consulting department – DealConnect. DealConnect work with mid-market privately owned and Private Equity backed businesses to develop and execute their value creation and value protection plans. Emily brings together and leads multi-disciplinary teams from our Deal Advisory and Consulting practises to help clients solve problems and capitalise on opportunities. Experienced in identifying pragmatic business solutions, understanding markets and positioning companies, and growing businesses. Emily focuses on the ENR sector.

Emily also has experience in financial due diligence, vendor diligence, and strategic support on several high-profile transactions across the UK. Emily has been involved in deals across a wide range of sectors including oil & gas, food & drink, retail, healthcare, leisure and insurance.

Furthermore, Emily is the Chair of the KPMG Neurodiversity Network.

Emily has taken an active interest in ICAS, and is the Chair of the ICAS Grampian Area committee.

Emily graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 2014 with a first-class honour’s degree in Accountancy and Finance. Upon graduating, Emily joined AAB LLP in Aberdeen where she completed her CA training, qualifying in 2017. During her training contract, Emily managed a diverse client base having gained experience in Audit and Tax from small owner-managed businesses to large corporates..

Gavin MacKenzie CA

Gavin MacKenzie has considerable experience as a commercial CFO and director across several sectors with particular exposure to complex family businesses and their governance. He has a joint degree in Accountancy & Computer Science from Heriot-Watt and qualified with EY. He then moved internally to corporate recovery, gaining experience of a wide range of businesses. After a period of working in a legal firm he moved to a diverse London based group with interests in property development & investment, leisure operations and international investments.

In 2001, as FD, he led a buy-out of the Scottish cinema, restaurant and leisure businesses and remains involved to date. In 2012 he took on the CFO role at the Meallmore Group, Scotland’s largest independent care home operator and has been a key part of the growth story of that business.

Gavin has held several non-executive and advisory roles the including a UK and Ireland wide Digital Funding Partnership, a pension fund, a college, a software company and various charities. Current roles include membership of the audit committee and Scotland board of the Home Group (a housing association responsible for 55,000 homes) and a Family Office.

He has been involved with ICAS committees for over 20 years, having served on the Highland area committee (including as chair), members in business committee, technical policy board, member engagement board and ICAS council (2008-2014). Currently he is acting chair of the Highland area network.

Outside of work Gavin enjoys rugby, cycling, skiing and hill walking, for the last ten years he has led a week long activity and leadership course in the Cairngorms for 60+ young adults as part of Rotary’s RYLA programme and volunteers supporting vulnerable people in the late-night economy.

Scotland East - Electoral Area members

Margaret Bunyan CA

Margaret is an Associate Director at Drummond Laurie Chartered Accountants.

Margaret is responsible for a diverse portfolio of clients, predominately OMBs within the SME market; although specialises in advising clients within the agricultural sector.

As part of the Senior Management team she is involved in making key decisions within the practice. She is also the company’s ICAS Counselling Member and one of their Money Laundering Officers. She is a great ambassador for the firm.

Qualified in 2009 she has had a successful career to date in practice.

Margaret is a hardworking, driven individual who is passionate about her work. She is always willing to take on new challenges. She is the Treasurer for an agricultural show and has been for many years. She has held the Scotland East Electoral area seat since 2020 and is part of the ATO focus groups within ICAS.

Niall McCallum CA

Niall qualified as a CA with KPMG in 1999, having read Accountancy & Finance at Heriot Watt University.  Following seven years in Corporate Finance with KPMG, in 2006 Niall joined the private equity team at a major bank which was subsequently spun out with investments across a range of sectors where he was an investment director.  In 2013 Niall joined Capita plc as finance director of a large JV and then as divisional finance director of its high growth commercial division.  Niall joined Element Materials Technology in 2017, a global testing business, as Group Finance Director and latterly as interim CFO.  From late 2020 to 2023, Niall was CFO at BrewDog PLC, leading the transformation of its finance / IT operations.  In 2024 Niall joined the global assurance advisory group LRQA as CFO, responsible for transforming the finance teams following the private equity investment to drive organic and M&A growth.

Scotland West - Electoral Area members

Bernard Dunn CA

Bernard Dunn CA is client director and Head of Office for T L Dallas in Glasgow and provides insurance and risk management advice to a wide network of corporate clients, including owner-managed, family and VC-backed companies. He also leads T L Dallas’s insurance due-diligence service in the UK.

He has advised family businesses for over 30 years on their risk and insurance programmes, and indeed T L Dallas Group was founded in 1919, and is now in its 4th generation, as one of the UK's leading independent insurance brokers.

Outwith the “day job”, and family, Bernard’s other interests include: Former chair, and current area committee member of ICAS, Chair of trustees of the Ethiopia Medical Project charity, and Volunteer on hospital radio for Hospital Broadcasting Service Glasgow (HBS).

Dalvir Singh Johal CA

Open seat members

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.

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.

Jonny Jacobs CA

Jonny is a purpose lead business leader and has been a Finance Director at Starbucks since 2020, where his role covers the diverse markets across the EMEA region. In addition to his core role, Jonny's passion for people development, diversity & inclusion and sustainability, results in him leading other areas such as being the EMEA wide Sponsor of Starbucks' Wellbeing Blend Network, an employee resource group.

Prior to Starbucks, Jonny was Head of Food Finance at M&S Foods, and before that he spent eight years at international snacking brand, pladis, with most recent roles including Strategy & Transformation Director and interim CFO for North America. He has a wealth of experience across commercial, operational and group roles where he has delivered significant value driving change and transformation programmes. He trained with KPMG and qualified as a CA in 2006.

His passion to drive broad positive societal change is championed through his many roles across non-exec platforms including a Trustee of the Mental Health Foundation, Non Exec of Mental Health at Work, One Young World Ambassador, Goalkeeper of the Bill & Malinda Gates Foundation, and One Young Chartered Accountant of the Year 2017. In 2022/23 he received a number of industry leading awards for his role as a senior leader driving positive change.

Louise Page CA

Louise trained and worked in practice for 9 years, training in a small firm which gave her exposure and experience in a wide range of activities and providing broad base of experience to her early on in my career. After practice, Louise moved to financial services where she gained experience in private equity, asset management, fund finance, governance, global operations, and marketing operations in small organisations as well as large global organisations.

After 15 years in financial services Louise chose to move to the not-for-profit sector and became Chief Financial Officer and Director of Corporate Services for the National Trust for Scotland, a Charity registered in Scotland ensuring the organisation was financially secure through the pandemic. She then broadened her experience as CFO of a legal and financial services firm, CFO and Compliance Officer for a private equity firm and is currently CFO at The John Muir Trust.

Jim Robertson B.Acc CA CTA FCMA

Jim is currently a member of the ICAS Qualifications Board and Devolved Taxes Committee. He was the inaugural chair of the ICAS Equality Diversity & Inclusion Committee and of the Scottish Tax Policy Forum, a joint venture between ICAS and the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT). He chairs the academic board of the Advanced Diploma in International Tax of CIOT and is a member of its Climate Change and Diversity & Inclusion groups. He is a non-executive director in the Scottish Government, Chair of the Government's Audit & Assurance Committee and member of its Global Climate Emergency Programme Board, Exchequer Board, People & Place Board and Information Governance Board.

Internationally, Jim is a Senior Fellow of the International Tax & Investment Center, an education foundation based in Washington DC. In that role he delivers capacity-building programs to tax officials in developing countries together with the IMF, World Bank, OECD and UN. He is a member of the UN Subcommittee on Extractive Industries Taxation Issues for Developing Countries, the UN Subcommittee on Environmental Taxation, the OECD Policy Dialogue on Natural Resource-Based Development and the advisory board of Crystol Energy. He is a ‘he for she’ partner of the G100 Group of 100 Global Women Leaders.

Historically, Jim qualified with PwC in 1981 and joined Shell the same year. He had nine different tax and finance roles in Shell and lived in London, The Hague, Kuala Lumpur, Aberdeen and Houston. He was a founder member of Shell’s Finance Social Investment Network which connected staff to voluntary organizations in need of finance skills and experience, personally acting as mentor/coach to the owner of a cooking stoves business in Ethiopia. In Shell Finance he had global responsibility for promoting professional qualifications and for communications on diversity & inclusion. He was global head of oil & gas tax in Shell for 11 years.

Graham Stirling CA

Graham commenced his career in 2009 with Grant Thornton and qualified as a CA in 2012 after completing his training contract in the Glasgow audit department. He moved to Singapore in 2013 to help build and develop the audit and assurance practice before joining the Financial Accounting and Advisory Services Group at Grant Thornton Ireland in July 2021. As a Director RI based in Dublin, Graham supports a range of multinational clients in the Global Statutory Audit team.

During his career, Graham has been a finalist in ICAS's "Top 35 CAs under 35" and in ICAS’s “Top 100 Young CAs”. While in Singapore, he chaired the ICAS Singapore Community Members' Committee, is currently an ambassador for the Irish ICAS network and since 2023 he has supported the Scottish business community in Ireland as a "GlobalScot".

Having gained so much from his CA qualification, Graham feels strongly about giving back to ICAS through active participation and support. He is passionate about serving the CA membership as a Council Member, bringing extensive international experience and perspective to Council on the issues affecting our overseas CAs.

Co-opted members

Elizabeth Gammie CA

Elizabeth Gammie is a Professor of Accounting at the Robert Gordon University where she is Dean of the Aberdeen Business School. Under her leadership the School achieved AACSB accreditation, was the first Business School in the World to be accredited by the Business Graduate Association, was awarded the Small Business Charter and was named as the Times Higher Education 2020 Business School of the Year.

Elizabeth trained with Ernst and Whinney in the Aberdeen office and specialised in tax on qualification. She subsequently moved into academia and now has over 25 years’ experience in the Higher Education sector. Over the years she has developed her career by undertaking a part-time PhD, developing a very successful Accounting and Finance under-graduate degree, building a research portfolio, heading up the Department of Accounting and Finance and from 2016 taking on the role as Dean of School. In 2022 she was awarded Principal Fellowship of the Higher education Academy.

Her research interests have focused on gender issues within the profession and professional accounting education and she has undertaken various funded research projects for bodies such as ICAS, CIMA, ACCA and IAAER.

Elizabeth has been involved with many ICAS Boards and Committees, including various stints on the local Area Committee chairing this committee from 2017 to 2022, she previously sat on the TPE Exam Board, the Technical Policy Board, the Audit Committee, Members Board and Council.  Elizabeth is also chair of the TPE Assessment Board, the Qualification Board and a member of the Oversight Board . Elizabeth served as a member on the International Accounting Education Standards Board for nearly 6 years and during this time was involved with many Task Forces including chairing the IES1 Implementation Taskforce.

Elizabeth is currently a Trustee of the RDA Aberdeen group and a Governor of St Margaret’s School for Girls where she chairs the Finance and General Purposes Committee. She was named as 2020 Business and Public Sector Woman of the Year in the Women in Accounting and Finance Awards.

Graham  Marjoribanks CA

Graham is the Head of Audit at Johnston Carmichael, his primary responsibility is to ensure quality audits are delivered consistently.  Graham leads a practice of over 200 people and oversees numerous initiatives including implementation of International Standard on Quality Management (UK) 1.  He has been actively involved in the FRC’s firmwide and engagement specific reviews at Johnston Carmichael and is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the findings of those reviews.

Prior to joining Johnston Carmichael, Graham was a Partner with BDO Canada LLP where he was the Assurance & Accounting Service Line Leader for Western Canada then the Greater Toronto Area.

In addition to assurance, Graham has extensive experience with financial reporting and was the National Head of Accounting Advisory for BDO Canada.

Graham also has significant not-for-profit board experience.  He was the Chair of the Westside Regional Recreation Society and a director for the Alberta Scottish Business Association.

Graham has over 20 years’ experience in Audit and Financial Services, having worked in a variety of roles across the UK and Canada, including within Big 4 firms and investment banking. He oversaw BDO’s Assurance and Accounting practice for Greater Toronto Area (55 partners across 5 office locations)  .Graham is also a Board member, contributing to Firm strategy, with particular focus on growth, efficiency and quality.

Julie Ashworth

Founder and CEO of Broadreach Retail, Julie Ashworth is an experienced executive leader providing specialised services to global blue-chip companies since 1999. In addition, she holds a diverse non executive portfolio, with  key roles including the Scotland lead for Women on Boards UK, Chair of the University of Aberdeen, and Chair of the Institute of Directors Scotland.

Julie's expertise spans multiple sectors, including her successful role as Retail Director for the Spirit Group and Executive Partner with IBM, where she transformed perceptions, positioning IBM as a specialist software and service provider.

As Chair of the University of Aberdeen and involvement in various advisory boards, Julie is committed to governance and leadership. Her leadership consultancy, Broadreach Ltd, has left a mark on brands like Tesco, Vodafone, and Target Australia.

Bruce Beveridge

A qualified solicitor Bruce is an experienced general counsel, senior executive and ceo, and non-executive director and board chair. His wide-ranging career across the public, private and third sectors has included a number of roles within government, regulation, sme and global businesses and professional membership bodies. He has almost a decade of previous experience serving within ICAS’ regulatory structure.

Franceska van Dijk

Fran is CEO of One Stone Advisors Ltd, a global strategy and communications team which helps companies become more successful sustainability leaders. One Stone is a founding BCorp and a Best for the World honouree.

Fran advises on managing opportunity and risk to build long-term value, working with corporates to ensure that their business strategy, sustainability values and communications align. She helps sustainability leaders future-proof their strategy and prioritise their sustainability goals for effective business planning. Clients include Aggreko, Carlsberg Group, Coutts, Danish Crown, Edrington, Electrolux, Ericsson, Tetra Pak, TUI Travel, SSE and private equity firms including CVC and Triton.

Fran holds Masters degrees from the University of Cambridge and the European Association for Environmental Management Education. She is co-author of Creating a Culture of Integrity: Business Ethics for the 21st Century. Fran is Deputy Chair of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Chair of the Macaulay Development Trust and served on the advisory board of Montanaro Asset Management.

Ana Stewart

After graduating in 1991 Ana founded i-design, a consultancy aimed at servicing the emerging digital creative industry. The business grew over the next decade into a global innovator in self-service software-based solutions for financial institutions including Barclays and RBS. In 2004, she launched a second business atmAd, an aggregated ATM-based digital media channel enabling advertisers to reach consumers with targeted offers across retail locations including Tesco, ASDA and Sainsbury's.

As CEO, she led the AIM listing of the company on the London Stock Exchange in 2007. Over the next five years, the organisation expanded into Europe and North America with its software delivering over 1.6 billion transactions per annum. In 2013, she sold i-design to NASDAQ listed Cardtronics, the world's largest ATM services provider, joining their executive leadership team before leaving the organisation last year.

Ana recently joined the Board of the Scottish FA as an independent non-executive director, becoming the first female board member in the organisation's 144-year history.

John Sutherland

Following a career largely spent in banking, John has recently developed a wide and varied portfolio of non-executive appointments. He has been a member of the Audit and Risk Committee of the European Investment Bank (EIB) since 2014, including a period as Chair in 2019/20. He is Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee at the Darlington Building Society and has recently been appointed as a Senior Technical Expert for the International Monetary Fund (IMF).