Member Article

New partner for northern accountants

Clive Owen LLP has appointed an experienced new partner.

Phillipa Symington joins the firm, which has offices in Darlington, Durham, York and Middlesbrough, from KPMG in Leeds.

She was born in Bristol but emigrated to South Africa with her parents at an early age. Phillipa trained at Grant Thornton in South Africa, returning to the UK in late 2018.

As a partner in the audit team, Phillipa will work with a broad client base, providing audit and technical compliance services. She has more than 18 years of experience working with owner managed businesses and has worked across many different sectors including retail, pharmaceutical, leisure and hospitality, property, technology and manufacturing.

In her previous roles at international firms, Phillipa has gained vast experience in developing internal processes and training around audit. Although predominately based at the firm’s York office, as part of her new role at Clive Owen LLP she will be working in Darlington with Kevin Shotton, head of audit and compliance for the firm.

Phillipa said: “I am delighted to be joining a firm that is so people-focused, open and inclusive in the way it works. I have never known an environment where everyone has a smile on their face all the time, but Clive Owen LLP is exactly like that. The culture is amazing and as a single mum of two children the work life balance the firm offers is perfect.

“York is such a beautiful and vibrant city and I absolutely love it. I have lived here since my children and I came back to England from South Africa. I wanted them to have the best opportunities in life and believe that York can offer that. I am also very excited to get out into the business community and develop my contacts and professional network, supporting regional businesses.

“My mum was born in Yorkshire, and I have family here. The move to Clive Owen LLP has been very positive and I am enjoying getting to know my colleagues and clients.”

Clive Owen LLP recently introduced new policies which are based on two-way flexibility and trust to support the existing teams and encourage talented, motivated people to join the firm which is now one of the largest independent firms in the region and has an appetite for further growth.

Gary Ellis, managing partner at Clive Owen LLP, said: “Phillipa is exactly the type of talented and ambitious person we want working with us to support the firm’s growth plans.

“Her extensive audit experience and expertise will add value to our client base and support our existing audit team across the firm. Phillipa is a very welcome addition to the team and will help the firm strengthen its audit portfolio and grow.”

Kevin Shotton, partner at Clive Owen LLP, said: ’’As the firm develops and continues to grow, we are looking at the systems and training we need to develop and embed across our diverse teams.

“Phillipa joins us at a great time, with the firm having recently launched the Aspire programme, which will drive the training and development of our team. I am looking forward to having the support of Phillipa in these areas as we seek to ensure our people are best equipped to help deliver to clients and assist with the further development of the firm going forwards.’’

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by News Gathering .