Our Office Holders and Committee

The Northern Society of Chartered Accountants (NorSCA) is led by a President and supported by a Deputy President, Vice President, Honorary Treasurer, Honorary Secretary and other members of the General Committee.

The Office Holders and members of the General Committee are ICAEW members who undertake their role in a voluntary capacity to support their membership body. They receive no remuneration for the time that they contribute to NorSCA or ICAEW activities.

Northern Society Office Holders

Office Holders serve for a period of one year until the next Annual General Meeting of the society. Details of the current Office Holders are shown below.

President: Yvonne Gale FCA
NEL Fund Managers Limited

Executive role

Dr Yvonne Gale FCA MBA DBA is an experience board director focusing on entrepreneurial finance and impact investing for socio-economic development. She is the CEO of NEL Fund Managers, a North East economic development impact investor committed to changing local economies through investing in growing small businesses.

Non-executive roles

She holds several non-executive roles including chairing boards and committees. These organisations include Shared Interest, the international ethical finance provider specialising in Fair Trade products; the Office of the Small Business Commissioner, a UK government body that tackles late payment practices; the Prompt Payment Code Compliance Board ensuring signatories deliver on their promised supplier payments and the Responsible Finance Enterprise Lenders Network. Specifically on regional economic development, she is a member of the Creative and Cultural Investment Programme investment committee, sits on the boards of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership Business Growth Board, North East England Chamber of Commerce and on the grant decision making panel for The Growth Fund.

Third sector volunteering

In addition to being President of the Northern Society of Chartered Accountants, Yvonne supports the ICAEW on its Members and Commercial Board. Her trusteeship positions include Millfield House Foundation, a charity focused on addressing poverty and inequality through policy change and as a Trustee of the Shared Interest Foundation.

Deputy President: Professor Richard Slack FCA
Durham University Business School

Dr Richard Slack is a professor in Accounting at Durham University Business School and was head of department of Accounting from 2017 to 2019. Richard joined Durham University in 2012, having previously been Professor in Accounting at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University. Richard, an Economics graduate of St Andrews University, had previously worked in the audit department at Price Waterhouse in Newcastle from 1986 to 1992 and is a qualified chartered accountant. Prior to becoming Vice President in May 2021, Richard has been actively involved with the Northern Society, being a long-standing member of the Tyne and Wear branch and served as branch chair in 2015-16.

Vice President: Chris Soan FCA
Newcastle University Business School

Chris is the Director of Education and a Senior Lecturer at Newcastle University Business School. He has been involved with the Northern Society for over ten years, was Chairman of the Tyne and Wear Branch, President of the Northern Chartered Accountant Students’ Society (NCASS) and is the immediate past President of the Northern Society. He has a passion for wanting to develop widening access to the profession and supporting the very active Northern Chartered Accountant Students’ Society (NCASS) in order to encourage ICAEW students to develop their professional networks and to help succession to the District Society and its branches in the championing of our profession..

Honorary Treasurer: Therese McCollam ACA
Go-Ahead Group plc

Therese is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant and Group Project Accountant at the Go Ahead Group plc. Before moving into business Therese previously worked in audit and assurance at KPMG and the National Audit Office.

Honorary Secretary: Joe Walsh ACA
UNW Chartered Accountants

Joe is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant and is an Audit Manager at UNW LLP in Newcastle upon Tyne. He previously worked for Atom Bank and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Joe is a member of the ICAEW Learning and Professional Development (L&PD) Board.

General Committee

The General Committee supports the running of the society. In addition to the Office Holders the current members and attendees at General Committee meetings include:

Members of the Committee

Andrew Jackson FCA (National Audit Office) – Past President, Northern Society

Rob Tindle FCA (Tindle’s Chartered Accountants) – ICAEW Council Member for the Northern constituency

Emma Hartshorne-Ferguson ACA (Bell Tindle Williamson LLP) – Chair, Tyne & Wear Society of Chartered Accountants

Gursharan Singh FCA (Chuhan and Singh Chartered Accountants) – Chair, Teesside Society of Chartered Accountants

Sophie Graham ACA (Saint & Co, Chartered Accountants) – Chair, Cumberland Society of Chartered Accountants

Pam Clarke FCA (Clarke’s Chartered Accountants) – Tyne & Wear Courses Chairman

Geoff Little FCA (Bell Anderson Limited) – ICAEW Practice Committee (IPC) representative

Adam Langman (Metnor Group Ltd) – Business Member representative

Karen Muir (Homes England) – Dinner Secretary; and Past President, Northern Society

Alexandra Gent (FW Capital)

Oliver Deacon (Oliver Deacon Coaching)

Tom Cosby (Ryecroft Glenton) – Chair, Northern Chartered Accountant Students’ Society (NCASS)

Sam Hutson (Colin Hutson Accounting Ltd) – President, Northern Chartered Accountant Students’ Society (NCASS)

Attendees at General Committee

James Callaghan, ICAEW Regional Director, Northern

Joanne Lucking, ICAEW Senior Regional Executive, Northern

Sally Gallery, ICAEW Business Development Manager (supporting and developing ACA training and ICAEW qualifications)

Northern Society of Chartered Accountants