Jann Brown CA, Finance Director and Managing Director of Cairn Energy PLC, has been elected as Vice-President of ICAS.
She will succeed current Vice Presidents Sir David Tweedie and Brendan Nelson to become ICAS President in April 2014.
One of only a handful of female finance directors in FTSE100-listed companies, Brown has had a distinguished career in practice and in business. She holds an MA from Edinburgh University and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1991. After a career in the accountancy profession with KPMG and Deloitte, Jann joined Cairn in 1998.
Commenting on her nomination, Brown said: “ICAS has a key role and influence to play behind key business issues, including audit reform and corporate reporting, business funding, and boardroom diversity.
“Business and the accountancy profession are facing increasing scrutiny, external pressures and uncertainty in these challenging economic times. I look forward to this integral role in an organisation which seeks to maintain the highest professional standards in a changing environment.”
ICAS Chief Executive Anton Colella said: “Jann has been heavily involved with the Institute for a number of years. We are absolutely delighted for her to take up this new role to help deliver our future ambitions. She is a highly regarded business professional, bringing with her a tremendous skill set and excellent experience.
“Her record in practice and business will be an inspiration to all our members. Moreover, as we approach parity in our male/female balance of new students, we are fortunate to have such a successful female representative at such a senior level in the Institute.”
Jann will follow a distinguished long line of past ICAS Presidents including recent incumbents Lord Smith of Kelvin; Norman Murray, Chair of Petrofac; Isobel Sharp CBE of Deloitte; Glenn Allison of Stewart Milne Group; Alan Thomson, Chairman of Hays plc; and current ICAS President Iain McLaren.
Notes to Editorsview
About Jann Brown
A qualified CA and CTA, Jann trained with KPMG and specialised in corporate tax before transferring to Cairn Energy PLC as Group Tax Manager in 1998, later moving to Group Financial Controller then Finance Director, a post she has held since 2006. In June 2011, in light of her widening responsibilities including Human Resources, Corporate Affairs and Company Secretarial and in addition to her role as Finance Director, Jann became Managing Director reporting to the Chief Executive. Jann also has particular responsibility for providing assurance to the Board on health, safety, environment (including climate change), community and human rights matters. Jann played an integral part in managing Cairn's interests in India and was a non executive director of Cairn India Limited until the recent completion of the sale of Cairn's controlling interest.
Jann has held board positions in arts organisations as well as commercial and was senior independent director of Hansen International until December 2011 when it was taken over. In 2009, she was voted Finance Director of the year by Scottish Business Insider magazine and her team was awarded “Finance Team of the Year” at the UK wide Accountancy Age awards. Outside of work, Jann is more likely to be seen at an Arts venue than a sporting one - but most likely to be found with her nose in a book.
About ICAS
ICAS is a professional body for over 19,000 world-class business men and women who work in the UK and in more than 100 countries around the world. Our members have all achieved the internationally recognised and respected CA qualification (Chartered Accountant). We are an educator, examiner, regulator, and thought leader. Almost two thirds of our working membership work in business, many leading some of the UK’s and the world’s great companies. The others work in accountancy practices ranging from the Big Four in the City to the small practitioner in rural areas of the country.
ICAS currently has around 3,000 students striving to become the next generation of CAs under the tutelage of our expert staff and members. We regulate our members and their firms. We represent our members on a wide range of issues in accountancy, finance and business and seek to influence policy in Europe and the UK, always acting in the public interest. ICAS is the first professional body for accountants and was created by Royal Charter in 1854.
ICAS is a member of The Global Accounting Alliance (GAA) – an alliance of the world’s leading professional accountancy bodies, which was formed in 2005. The GAA is intended to promote quality services, share information and collaborate on important international issues. It works with national regulators, governments and stakeholders, through member-body collaboration, articulation of consensus views, and working in collaboration, where possible with other international bodies, especially IFAC.
For more information, please contact Dee Campbell, ICAS media relations manager, on 0131 347 0307 / 07917 097 335 or at dcampbell@icas.org.uk