Bean counters meet at old fish market for accountancy gongs
FORMER Deloitte partner and ex-BAA chief financial officer Margaret Ewing picked up the outstanding industry contribution gong at the British Accountancy Awards in Billingsgate on Wednesday night.
Accounting giants KPMG won global firm of the year, Johnston Carmichael won national firm of the year, while mid-tier firm of the year was Cooper Parry. KPMG’s Raylene Whitford swooped the final award with new accountant of the year.
The Capitalist will spare readers the pain of accountancy jokes, save to say host Stephen Amos wasted no time in introducing himself: “I’m only here because Jimmy Carr wouldn’t do it.”
■ MOST people at this time of year are counting down the working days until Christmas. But outgoing Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King (below) has another date in mind. At the Banking Standards Committee yesterday morning, King was a little too quick to reply to a question on how long he had left until the end of his term: “Seven months, eight days,” he told committee chair Andrew Tyrie. To which Tyrie could only reply: “Is it that bad?”
■ To the 30th anniversary celebrations of city arbitration lawyers Zaiwalla & Co at the House of Lords on Wednesday, where Attorney General Dominic Grieve spoke elegantly of the charitable donations of founder Sarosh Zaiwalla. The “giving” theme could not have been lost on one attendee – Heather Tchenguiz – wife of colourful property developer, Robert, who, with his brother Vincent, has just presented the Serious Fraud Office, an organisation accountable to none other than the Attorney General himself, with a multi-million pound bill over its failed investigation into the pair.