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Stand up on the chair and find your voice in front of your peers.
That was the advice to North East accountant Joanne Regan in a leadership course when the insights she provided, quietly and measured, went unheeded by louder sections of her group.
As Jo reflects on her 35th career anniversary, that intervention by a facilitator in deepest Hertfordshire some years ago was pivotal, as was being mentored by senior partners in what was then a profession dominated by men.
The chartered accountant, a highly experienced auditor, is in the rare position of only ever having one job interview, at the age of 19, but seven employers ever since.
Tax receipts
That was due to constant marketplace consolidation in the accounting services sector, which contributes £31.6 billion to the UK’s economic output.
Well into in her second year as Office Managing Partner in Durham for Azets, the UK top 10 accountancy and business advisory, Jo first started out sifting through scrunched-up receipts in plastic shopping bags by window cleaners dumped on her desk bang on deadline for tax returns.
These days, Jo looks after a diverse range of companies, such as manufacturing, engineering and hospitality, with turnovers ranging from hundreds of thousands of pounds to £80m.
She utilises software and AI tools, underscored by that all-important human connection with face-to-face site visits and meetings, to support clients proactively.
Formative years
Jo attributes a large part of her career success to the important of being mentored after she started in the summer of 1991, having first studied a one-year foundation course in accountancy at what was then Teesside Polytechnic and then completing a four-year training contract with her first employer G R Walker & Co.
Those formative years were in a draughty Victoria house converted into cramped offices in Hartlepool.
Jo recalled: “There was no computer on the desk. It was pads and pens and paper records and all of that sort of stuff – and you sent accounts to the secretaries to type up on their wonderful word processors that they'd only just got at that point in time.”
By 23, Jo was a qualified chartered accountant working for the firm – it was an early age to achieve the distinction as a certified finance professional.
Role model
Led by three male partners, her first employer was thankfully supportive of training.
“One of them I still keep in touch with – he nurtured my accountancy and client-facing skills in those formative years, and I very much aspire to be like him as a role model to others starting out.”
Another turning point was that leadership course in Hertfordshire.
“I was always spoken over in the team-building exercise and then I would get frustrated and just sort of sit back and think, well nobody's listening.
Chair
“But the facilitator stopped the team and told them: ‘Jo is trying to speak – she’s got very valid points to say, and none of you are allowing her to speak. That's really rude. Jo, every time you want to speak, I want you to stand on your chair’.
“From that point on, I've never been afraid to raise my voice higher to be heard.”
Jo’s first firm went along the acquisition route, with another name change before becoming Walker Tindle and then ill-fated Vantis plc.
A number of offices were sold out of the embers of Vantis in 2010, when the UK was reeling from the global financial crash, to Evolution, including ones in Darlington, Middlesborough and Hartlepool, with Jo promoted to partner.
Varied career
In a sector where consolidation is ever-present, Evolution became part of Azets in 2016.
“I've had a very varied career despite the fact of literally never interviewing for another job in my life, working for seven employers along the way.
“Thankfully things have changed for the better for women in accountancy. For example, my first employment contract actually banned me from wearing trousers. That was just normal in those days.
“Then, the boys at the time probably were pushed a lot harder than what I potentially was. There was always a mindset that the male students would probably do better and become something better than what I would achieve.
Building confidence
“Women were sidelined a little bit, weren't they?
“But I was very fortunate that I had one accountancy partner who had a vision of women being on equal terms in the workplace, and he championed me all the way through those early days and actually pushed me out of my comfort zone to build confidence, to prove that I could do it.
“I was very lucky that I had someone who could see the potential – and we all need that in business, don’t we? Someone who knows that you have what it takes to go far in the business.”
Ray Priestman was the career mentor in the former years, as was Martin Barber, a “very sage man”, at Evolution before his retirement.
Mentors
“I think I've been fortunate that I have had people who believed in me and trusted in me and pushed me to do more.
“That's a really important message, I think, particularly for women to have those kinds of mentors, whether men or women, to push you out your comfort zone, and having your back.”
Jo has no regrets, a self-confessed “home girl” who is deeply devoted to the North East, home to 73,000 VAT and PAYE businesses, and the companies that make it tick.
That included rolling her sleeves up during the pandemic, along with colleagues, advising clients as they navigated the severest hit to the British economy since the Second World War due to the national lockdowns which were unprecedented in British history.
Challenges
“While other people were building man caves in the gardens and what have you, we were all chained to ironing boards, desks, whatever it may be, to continue, to continue and keep businesses going because people were looking to us for guidance.
“What we provided helped forge deeper relationships.”
Jo added: “Accountancy is a very different world from when I started. It's not about processing. It's not about the compliance. It's about strategy and it's about adding value. It's about advising. And there were skills that were never really taught back in the day. They would just come over time.
“I think the challenges we face now are making sure that our younger teams have the tools that they need to go forward in.”
Thriving
Azets itself has regional offices in Durham, Newcastle and Teesside, with more than 300 colleagues and 17 partners providing tailored accountancy, tax and advisory services to help businesses and individuals thrive in the region’s dynamic business environment.
Prior to her current role, Jo was Azets’ Regional Managing Partner in the North East for just under four years.
The former student of Hartlepool Sixth Form College, who is a long-serving trustee and treasurer with the town’s Alice House Hospice, has come a long way since 1991, the year of a deepening recession when unemployment reached 2.4m and interest rates peaked that year at nearly 13.4%.
“I didn't aspire on day one to become a partner in an accountancy practice because I didn't really think that that was possible back then. But it was - through being encouraged and being challenged.
Turning point
“I was a very timid young teenager, and, probably early into my early 20s, I was quite a shy person. Until that leadership course with the chair. That was a turning point.”
International travel was part of Jo’s work as an auditor – the travelling helped with confidence building too.
“It instilled the practice of making sure that what you're doing does stand up to the right qualities as well because I couldn't go and review someone on their qualities if I didn't do it and believe in it myself.”
Reflecting over the 35 years, Jo said: “No, it hasn't all been plain sailing and and we generally have a baseline in our industry of nobody likes change, but you embrace the change and see the better.
Worthwhile
“Also interesting is seeing the better-quality accountancy firms coming in, such as Azets.
“I've run the region, and now I'm running the Durham office with a great bunch of people as well.
“What gets me out of bed on a morning is knowing that I'm going to do something worthwhile, providing advice which clients appreciate.
“Being the relationship partner for many clients means that you're more than just an auditor because you've got to spot the opportunities to help with other things and, you know, it's not just about compliance these days.
Added value
“It's about the added value that we can give.
“You've got to be able to spot those opportunities and get the right people in front of everybody at the same time.
“Key is having good relationships within the team as well - if you have got trust and work together collaboratively, then it works with the client. The client can see that.”
Thanks to mentorship, training and experience, Jo sits in the chair rather than being asked to stand on it.
