Helen Brand – Young politics turned ACCA CEO

The Chief Executive of ACCA, Helen Brand (OBE), met Business Magazine before the 2012 edition of ACCA Mauritius’ New Member Ceremony sponsored by Bramer Bank. Unconventional but successful: such is the lady’s career at the head of the accountancy body.

Defeating conventions and dogmas yield success. The unconventional yet rich career path of Helen Brand (OBE), the Chief Executive of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants bears ample testimony to this realisation. Being a Humanities graduate, she has nonetheless built an impressive career in professional accountancy bodies.

As she humbly concedes, her primary interest lies in politics – fair rationalisation of her activities and choice of course at the university. “At the very outset, I felt drawn by politics and international affairs. In fact, I graduated from the Exeter University with an honours degree in politics. I should also add that during my university days, I was active in the student politics and even went on to become the President of the Students Union at 21”, declares Helen Brand.

She is still passionate about her political activism at University. She credits her heightened confidence level to her days at the head of the Students Union.

“Politics instilled confidence in me. Self-confidence is an asset that I deem pivotal in any aspect of life, especially professional life. Giving speeches in front of audiences comprising eminent figures, campaigning intensively for fund-raising, being made to communicate gave me the right platform to develop my communication skills.”

“I am committed to the advancement of the accounting profession in emerging economies, especially in Africa”

She also attributes her drive for hard work to the same era. “I used to be active from 7 am to 10.30 pm, which gave me the wonderful taste of hard work, ” confides Helen Brand. A firm believer of empathic leadership, Helen Brand gradually carved her way to the top-brass of major professional accountancy bodies.

First, she joined the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) immediately post graduation where she eventually occupied the post of Director, International Affairs.

In 1996, Helen joined ACCA as head of international development. She rapidly worked her way up the hierarchy successively becoming the Chief Operating Officer in 2002, Managing Director, Operations in 2004, before acceding to the post of Managing Director in 2007. She is currently the Chief Executive of ACCA, a post occupied since 1st September 2008. In addition to amassing opulent hands-on experience, savoir-faire and knowledge on various aspects of development of the accountancy body, Helen Brand has extensive knowledge of the 170 markets wherein ACCA currently operates.

“I am committed to the advancement of the accounting profession in emerging economies, especially in Africa”, affirms Helen Brand. Her commitment rests on the fact that she has a strong conviction in the significance of the ACCA qualification in the global economy. She further expatiates: “ACCA rests on three pillars: ethics, exam and experience. We therefore foster the training and certification of knowledgeable, experienced and skilled accounting professionals with strong sense of ethics. The trust element being increasingly determining in current business practice, ACCA professionals are definite assets to the businesses and economies at large.”

Her achievements within ACCA are numerous: she has worked closely with IFAC (the International Federation of Accountants) in an advisory capacity and served on the Supervisory Board of the Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) forum. She has additionally been appointed as a member of the Governance Committee of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).

Of her vast repertoire of achievements within ACCA, Helen Brand cherishes the creation of the very first ACCA office in Pakistan (1996) and in Mauritius (2000). She is also glad that under her aegis, a key programme for the development of ACCA’s structure and online services (all done inhouse with expertise from Singapore, Pakistan, Hong Kong and Zimbabwe adding up to UK’s headquarter’s team), was crafted and materialised. Her services in accountancy, they were duly acknowledged: a prestigious OBE was awarded to her in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in June 2011 and an honorary degree from BPP University College, as a doctor of Business Administration in May 2012.

Professional and dedicated to the advancement of ACCA, Helen Brand wants to promote ACCA’s position as the leading accountancy body in terms of geographical reach, membership, and other stringent criteria. “The benchmark is that employers throughout the world should recognise the leadership of ACCA and hire our members. It’s a virtuous cycle in some way”, she points out.

As a mother of two daughters aged 12 and 8 respectively, Helen Brand manages to reconcile a busy work schedule with a healthy family life through effective time management, often sacrificing entertainment. “Obviously, I can no longer go to the movies as regularly as I used to earlier on, but its fine. I watch them on board of aeroplanes now”, Helen Brand light-heartedly confesses. She believes that there is no support system as potent as the family and maintains a cordial relationship with her kins.

Being an occasional visitor in Mauritius for leisure, the ardent Liverpool FC fan is impressed by the consistent advancement of the country. She told us: «I have come here 5 or 6 times. Yet each time, I notice some improvement, be it in the skyline, in terms of infrastructure, ambition or global exposure.»

She likes

• Her family
• Beaches
• Good food
• Olympics
• Books

She dislikes

•  Snobbishness
• Arrogance
• Rudeness 
• Violence
•  Injustice