Hello fellow ACCA members,

As a candidate for ACCA’s 2023 Global Council Elections I’d be honoured if you vote for Heather Smith. Here’s why…

Why Vote for Heather Smith?

  • Experience: A fellow and member since 1995, I’ve run a management accounting practice since 2007.
  • Advocacy: As Chair of ACCA’s Global Forum for SMEs, and Member of ACCA’s Global Forum for Technology. I’m a dedicated and award-winning advocate for our community.
  • Innovation: I’m the visionary behind the ACCA Practice Connect concept, aiming to foster connection and share knowledge globally.

My Focus

  • SMEs: I’m passionate about giving a voice to micro, small and medium-sized businesses and accounting firms.
  • Technology: Championing modern practices and technology is crucial for our industry’s growth.
  • Values: I live by the values of inclusion, integrity, and innovation, and lead with kindness.

How to Vote for Heather Smith

Voting is now open for the Council elections and will close at 13:00hrs UK time on Thursday 26 October 2023. Look for an email from takepart@cesvotes.com.
Don’t forget to check your spam and junk folders for emails from “takepart@cesvotes.com.” If you can’t find it there, please send an email to the same address to receive your copy.

Let’s shape the future of ACCA together. Your vote counts!

My ACCA journey & It’s Impact on my life

Born in Australia, I graduated from a Commerce degree in Brisbane. At age 21, I relocated to England and gained employment as a Business Planning Analyst in an international FMCG company. Recognising the need to further my career, I decided to study for a professional accounting qualification. Eager to travel extensively, I wanted a qualification that could travel with me. Aunty Sue, a lecturer in accounting, encouraged me to pursue the ACCA professional qualification. It was highly regarded, globally recognised, and offered the flexibility to take exams from anywhere. In 1991, finding it the only qualification that met all my criteria, I enrolled. The exams proved much harder than anticipated, and I failed three times, disappointingly. I completed my final exams in an outdoor hawker centre in Singapore, under the gaze of scampering monkeys in the palm trees above. In early 1996, while living in Wolverhampton, I received notification by mail that I had passed. Hurrah! Shortly after, I moved to Toronto, Canada, where unfortunately ACCA was not recognised, but I did get involved with the Canadian ACCA community, and wrote for their newsletter several times. After leaving Australia at age 21, ten years later, in late 1999, I returned to Australia, with a husband, two children, a twenty foot container and an ACCA qualification.

Timeline

1991 England Started working at Kraft General Foods as a Business Analyst. To progress to the next level in my career, they made it clear to me I needed a Professional Qualification.

1990 England My Aunty, and Accounting lecturer Sue Gregson, encouraged me to study for ACCA.

ACCA pitched itself as being International in 1991, and at the time that was one of the main reasons I chose it.
From my research at the time, it was the only professional body with a global focus, and that as an independent student, I could sit my ACCA exams anywhere in the world. This has since changed and other bodies offer this.

The last exam I actually sat in Singapore, in an outdoor market with monkeys scampering in the trees above. It was quite the contrast from stomping through snow in England.

I started my studies in 1991. To sit an exam paper cost £14, which I thought was very affordable. It was 4 years before the Internet and AOL, so I did my entire studies without access to the Internet. I studied from a thick textbook, and drove 2 hours to London, to sit various week-long intensive revision classes. I knew no one else studying it, but at the time I had no idea how to find anyone studying it. To my own detriment I built no network from my time studying ACCA (learn from my mistake!).

We took the papers by hand. After failing a few times, I did mock exams and had them assessed for feedback. Apparently standard Australian cursive was different to England, and they felt it was hampering my results, so I had to adjust my writing, which was not a big deal. I guess today, using a keyboard, indistinguishable handwriting would not be an issue.

Occasionally the exam papers used UK centric terms, which confused me. I recall one case study in an exam about ‘council houses’ and as an Australian I had no idea what this referenced. It was annoying because they were supposed to be global exams, but maybe by that they meant, you could be global, but you needed to understand the UK way of doing things.

I would get up at 5am, study for 2 hours, go to work, come home, eat dinner, study for two hours, sleep, and repeat, for several months prior to each exam. It was a horrible existence! I failed three times, the whole qualifications took much longer than I thought it would.

1996 Singapore Complete final ACCA exam in Singapore, in an outside Hawker Centre, with monkeys jumping around in the trees above me.

1996 England Receive Final Pass certificate in the mail

1996 Canada Moments after qualifying, I moved to Canada. No one knew ACCA, and told me I should get a job as a secretary and restudy for another recognised qualification.

1999 Canada My article “Are Your Invoices Paid Within 30 Days” published in the Canadian ACCA Newsletter. First of many articles in ACCA publications.

2004 Australia Delivered first of many seminars for Brisbane ACCA & CIMA Community

2006 Australia Represented the ACCA on the Australian Taxation Office BAS Agents Advisory Group 2006 – 2011. This was done entirely at my own cost. I attended multiple meetings, and paid for all travel expenses to attend meetings around Australia, as I thought it was essential ACCA members were recognised as being able to provide Tax Agent services in Australia. My hard work paid off in 2010.

2010 Australia ACCA was recognised as a professional association as defined under S.251L of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA 1936) whose members could provide BAS & Tax Services.

2019 Singapore On behalf of ACCA I presented the ACCA paper ’20 Trends Changing the World of Work and Transforming the Nature of Careers in Accountancy’ at the Accounting & Finance Show Asia in Singapore. This was an adapted extract from the ACCA Professional Insights paper, ‘Future Ready: Accountancy Careers in the 2020s,’.

2019 Joined ACCA Global Forum for Technology

2020 Australia ACCA ANZ Advocate of the Year 2020

2020 Australia ASEAN ANZ Regional Advocate of the Year 2020

2020 Joined, and am now Chair of the ACCA Global Forum for SME’s & SMP’s

2021 Became a community host with ACCA’s The Practice Room

2023 Chair of the ACCA Global Forum for SME’s & SMP’s

How to Vote For Heather Smith. Look for an email from takepart@cesvotes.com. You can cast your votes online.

Many thanks to everyone who’s supported my election journey over the years, I’m pleased share I am campaigning for the 2023 ACCA Global Council. This is my fourth attempt!

While not successful in my previous attempts, you are either winning or learning and I’ve learnt a lot over the last four years.

I’ve connected and networked with really awesome ACCA members across the globe, and listened to their insights, experiences and perspectives.

By putting myself out there, I’ve had a plethora of interesting opportunities come my way. This includes writing for the ACCA membership magazine, and sharing my perspectives representing ACCA to the UK Department of International Trade.

I’ve gained a public policy understanding of membership concerns. Rather than hearing about my past achievements, they’re interested in what I can do for them and for the future of ACCA.

I’ve also learned that I need to improve my strategic planning for the election process and actively ask for votes. This does not sit easy with me. You see my sparkles, and troll doll hair, I’m like a peacock attracting you in, so I can hype on about Accounting Technology, I don’t actually talk about myself that much. So I need to get out of my own way, and actively ask for votes, and ask my supporters to help me ask for votes.

To sum it up, this is me saying, I’ve failed three times, and I’ve dusted myself off, got up and am going to give it a crack for the fourth time. If you’ve any sparkly advice for this unicorn please drop it below.

How to Vote For Heather Smith. Look for an email from takepart@cesvotes.com. You can cast your votes online.