9 November- Materiality Perspectives

Host & Speakers

(Please note that views and opinions expressed by speakers at ICAS webinars are their own and not necessarily reflective of ICAS’ views.)

• Host: James Barbour, Director – Policy Leadership, ICAS

  James Barbour is Director, Policy Leadership, at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), where he oversees the work on various areas including Audit and Assurance, Ethics, and Financial Reporting. He is also responsible for the ICAS Ethics Board and is the lead on all matters connected with The Power of One initiative. Mr. Barbour qualified as a CA in 1996 and worked in general practice (primarily audit) with one of Scotland’s largest independent firms before joining ICAS in 1999.

  Mr. Barbour is a member of Accountancy Europe (AE)’s Audit and Assurance Policy Group, Professional Ethics and Competencies Working Group, and is the ICAS representative at the AE Members’ Assembly. He is a member of the UK Government’s audit stakeholder group. He is a recent former technical adviser to a UK Board member on the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) and the technical adviser on ethics to the Global Accounting Alliance (GAA). He remains a member of the IESBA Technology Task Force.

  Mr. Barbour regularly represents ICAS at meetings with standard-setting bodies, government bodies, regulators, and others concerning various business and technical issues, such as audit and assurance, corporate reporting, and ethics. He is also an Honorary Professor in the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow.

• Michelle Cardwell, Project Manager, FRC Lab  Michelle Cardwell joined the FRC Lab in January 2022, where she has led its work on net zero disclosures and materiality. Before joining the Lab, she was a Technical Manager at ICAEW focusing on audit, assurance, and financial reporting issues. While at ICAEW Michelle led on developing guidance on a range of issues from climate, COVID-19 and Brexit. Prior to that, Michelle was a senior manager in Deloitte’s Risk Advisory Practice, specialising in providing technical accounting and financial advisory services. Michelle is a chartered accountant.

• Karlien Conings, Project Manager, FRC Lab

  Karlien Conings has been working as a project manager in the FRC Lab since July 2021, leading projects related to digital reporting. Previously, Karlien was a technical staff member at the IFRS Foundation, working on the development of IFRS Standards and the IFRS Taxonomy. Prior to that, she worked in the group accounting and reporting team for a listed Belgian retailer.

• Giovanna Michelon, Professor of Accounting, University of Bristol

  Giovanna Michelon is Professor of Accounting at the University of Bristol. Her research interests are in the field of sustainability accounting and reporting, and her published work has focused on the governance process and systems that underpin corporate actions and accountability on sustainability issues, as well as on the role that sustainability information plays in capital markets. Giovanna has more than 40 publications in leading academic journals such as, among others, Science, Accounting, Organizations and Society, European Accounting Review, and the Journal of Business Ethics.

• Stuart Cooper, Professor of Accounting, University of Bristol Stuart Cooper is Professor of Accounting at the University of Bristol. His research interests include issues related to the effects of organisations on environmental sustainability and social justice. He is particularly interested in accountability mechanisms and how organisations measure, manage and communicate their environmental and social impacts to their stakeholders. His research has been published in international journals such as: Accounting and Business Research; Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal; Accounting, Organizations & Society; and Critical Perspectives on Accounting