ACCA Australia and New Zealand 2020 - reflections on an extraordinary year!

This year has been anything but normal. Like all businesses in Australia and New Zealand, and in fact all around the globe, COVID-19 was unprecedented, unrehearsed and took the world by surprise.

Back in March 2020 we had to make the extremely difficult decision to postpone face to face events. What we believed would be a short pause on physical engagement was in fact extended throughout the rest of this year. To ensure you still have access to localised CPD content, we launched the ACCA ANZ Webinar Series. The series was specially curated to cover many topics, enabling you to have access to a fantastic repertoire of CPD, designed to upskill members during these uncertain times. To relieve any unnecessary financial strain, these virtual events were offered complimentary to all ACCA members, along with globally accessible ACCA webinars and the COVID-19 Hub for members.

We’re proud to report since the launch of our local webinar series in April, we’ve hosted 16 webinars with an accumulative outreach of more than 4450 participants. This series has forwarded opportunity to all members to engage with ACCA, not restricted to those who are able to attend events in major cities. Due to the success of the series, we have officially made the ACCA ANZ Webinar Series part of our member engagement strategy for 2021. These will take place along with our face to face events once they resume.

We have received fantastic responses to our online feedback requests with 51% of live attendees providing feedback immediately after the session – this is well above the industry standard for online events. We landed on a combined net promoter score of +50, an attestment to members’ appreciation of our engagement this year. All webinars are available on demand and have been promoted via our previous quarterly newsletters. Please reach out to any of our team if you’ll like access to these recordings.

Despite challenging times, we’re delighted to share our new partnerships with you. A key highlight this year is the on-boarding of Telstra as an approved employer. CEO of Telstra - Andy Penn, an FCCA himself endorsed this relationship with ACCA publicly, citing shared values and global visions between the 2 organisations and his testament to the rigour of the ACCA qualification which he completed in the UK. With your employability in mind, we’ve focused on educating recruiters on the ACCA brand and have added Hays NZ, U&U recruitment partners and Robert Half as key recruitment partners on our ACCA Jobs board, enabling further employment opportunities for our members.

2020 has been a historic year for ACCA. At our 150th global AGM, ACCA announced our very first Vice-President of African heritage - Joseph Owolabi. In addition, we’re pleased that Brendan Sheehan and Paula Kensington have both been re-elected to Global Council. All 3 members are located in ANZ. We are also delighted that Alan Johnson is the first ACCA member who has been appointed as the President of IFAC. This is the very first time any ACCA member holds such an important and prestigious position at the top table of the profession. ACCA was named Best Professional Body of the year for 2 consecutive years by The Accountants - one of the oldest and most prestigious accounting publications in the world.

Just this month, we made a concrete and measurable commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our Chief Executive, Helen Brand made this significant announcement at the opening of our 2020 Accounting for the Future Virtual conference*. As a force for public good, ACCA and our wider community will make significant contribution towards 9 of the UN SDG’s including the provision of access to quality green finance education, promotion of gender equality, contribution to employability for economic growth, empowering organisations for sustainable and ethical growth, promoting diversity and inclusion, advocating sustainable practices and reporting, committing to Net Zero carbon economy, adhering to highest standards of professionalism, integrity and ethics, as well as building partnerships to achieve the above mentioned goals.

Our ongoing strategic alliance with CAANZ this year saw us having a number of joint events locally on Cyber Security and Data Analytics. Globally we shared knowledge and supported each other through a transition from centre based to remotely invigilated exams to ensure student progression is not disrupted by lockdowns and movement restrictions. Executive team from both professional bodies have regular dialogues as we welcomed Ainslie Van Onselen onboard as the new CEO of CAANZ earlier this year. We look forward to more exciting collaborations as we embark on the next 5 years of our alliance in 2021.

All our work in this region would not have been possible without the efforts and support of our members. Several members supported us participating in over 40 virtual university engagements and student events over the past 9 months. Members represented us at prize presentation and networking sessions. Members participated in roundtable discussion and volunteer as mentors on our ACCA global mentoring program. Most significantly, I would like to congratulate Heather Smith who is the winner of our 2020 ACCA ANZ Advocate of the year award.

We would like to thank all of you, our members, our dedicated Network Panel and Global Council members for your continued loyalty and support over the past year. The team looks forward to creating continued member value for you and look forward to your loyalty for years to come.

Wishing you and your family a safe and restful festive holiday season.

* The Accounting for the Future conference is still available as on-demand videos for members.

ACCA ANZ End of Year Event

A special thanks to Jo Masters, Partner and Oceania Chief Economist at EY, who delivered a fabulous economic update at our ACCA ANZ End of Year Event The Future of the economy: Looking ahead after an extraordinary year. This event, like all of our ACCA ANZ Webinars Series is available on-demand.

ACCA and CA ANZ Joint Webinar

A fantastic joint webinar hosted by ACCA with strategic alliance partners CA ANZ and NTT Data on Big data - Analytics in finance and accountancy, shaped by our recent joint report.

ACCA ANZ On-demand Webinars

• ACCA ANZ End of Year Event – The future of the economy: Looking ahead after an extraordinary year
• ACCA ANZ Webinar Series: Thinking ahead for a sustainable future
• ACCA and CA ANZ Joint Webinar: Big data – Analytics in finance and accountancy

 ACCA Global Council Vice President

Congratulations to ANZ member Joseph Owolabi FCCA on becoming Vice President of ACCA.

Global Council Elections

Congratulations to ANZ members Brendan Sheehan FCCA and Paula Kennington FCCA on being re-elected to Global Council.

 ACCA ANZ Advocate of the Year

Congratulations to Heather Smith FCCA on winning the 2020 ACCA ANZ Advocate of the year.

Accountants Daily 30 under 30 2020

Congratulations to Shaunie Huzzey ACCA on winning the both the Business Advisory and Tech Innovator awards at the Accountants Daily 30 under 30 2020

2020 AusMumpreneur Awards

Congratulations to Madeeha Usman FCCA for winning 4 AusMumpreneur awards the People’s Choice Customer Service Award, Rising Star Award, Business Excellence Award WA and SA and Multicultural Business Award.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support during 2020 and on behalf of all the team here at ACCA ANZ have a lovely Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.

Sincerely,

Team ACCA ANZ

E: [email protected]