Search on for this year’s best accountants

Search on for this year’s best accountants

When Leon Wijohn won Outstanding New Member at last year’s NZICA Leadership Awards, he had no idea how much winning would change things for him. It caused a “huge buzz” in both mainstream accounting firms and the Maori community in particular, earning him not only the high-value prizes but also hours of TV and radio interviews and exposure.

“The impact of the award has been surreal,” Mr Wijohn says. “It resulted in unbelievable job offers, and it has helped my career immensely.”

The search is now on for this year’s best accountants and accountancy firms with the launch of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants 2010 Leadership Awards.

Last year as Outstanding New Member Mr Wijohn walked away with a Peugeot 308 to use for a year, a $5,000 travel package, $3,500 in Human Synergistics leadership training, a $3,000 HP laptop, $1,000 of Telecom phone credit, $750 worth of professional development and a year’s free NZICA membership.

NZICA chief executive Terry McLaughlin said the awards were highly regarded by the industry as the main way of recognising the best in the profession.

“Our awards recognize outstanding individual achievement, organisational leadership and best practice in accountancy. Our winners have been not only excellent accountants but also New Zealand’s most successful business leaders.”

“This year we are pleased to introduce a new category for chartered accountancy firm of the year. In this category we will present three awards to recognise excellence within small, medium and large accounting firms. We want to know who are considered to be the best firms in New Zealand,” said Mr McLaughlin

The 2010 NZICA Leadership Award categories are:

• Hays Chartered Accountant of the Year - open to Chartered Accountants of all ages.

• Telecom Outstanding New Member of the Year - open to members of all colleges and ages, who have been full members for 5 years or less.

• American Express Outstanding Service to the Profession - open to all members, by nomination only

• Crombie Lockwood Annual Report Awards - open to any New Zealand organisation that produces an annual report (corporate, public, not for profit, sustainability reporting categories).

• ASB Chartered Accounting Firm of the Year – open to all Chartered Accountant firms within New Zealand (small, medium and large categories).

Entries for the awards are open from now at www.nzica.com/leadershipawards until 3 September.

The winners will be announced at the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants 2010 Leadership Awards Gala Dinner in Auckland on 30 November.

NZICA acknowledges the support of the following organisations for the 2010 Leadership Awards: Crombie Lockwood, ASB, American Express, Telecom and Hays Recruitment.

The 2009 Leadership Awards winners were:

• Chartered Accountant of the Year: Warwick Hunt, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Dubai

• Outstanding New Member: Leon Wijohn, Wijohn Chartered Accountants, Auckland

• Outstanding Service to the Profession: Kevin Brady, recently retired Controller and Auditor-General, Wellington

• Best annual reporting by a corporate organisation: The New Zealand Refining Company Limited

• Best annual reporting by a public sector organisation: Watercare Services Limited

• Best annual reporting by not-for-profit organisation: Agriculture Industry Training Organisation

• Best sustainability reporting: Watercare Services Limited

• Innovative annual reporting: The New Zealand Refining Company Limited

ENDS

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