Lee Brook, BKL’s CEO, was a keynote speaker at The Alternative Accountancy Management Summit on 4-5 March 2024. Chris Smith, our Director of Personal Tax, also took part in the summit.
Alternative Events organised the summit, which is designed for managing partners, senior partners, MDs and CEOs of accountancy practices. The agenda focused on helping leaders develop and take action on purpose within their firms, grow their leadership skills and attract and retain talented people.
Lee drives all aspects of BKL’s growth strategy: as a diverse and inclusive workplace, in developing client services and in making innovative use of technology. Under Lee’s leadership, BKL appointed its first Chief People Officer, Chief Digital Officer, Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Financial Officer.
On Day One, Lee was part of Exploring the evolution of private equity & mergers. Building upon the insights shared during last year’s panel, it delved deeper into the implications of PE and M&A, with “show & tell” perspectives from firm partners experiencing different journeys and their progress.
- Variations of personal experiences of PE & M&A – before, during and after
- The disruption of PE – Is the partnership model dead and what does the future of the partnership model look like?
- What the PE & M&A future will look like and should it be seen as a strategy for growth? Pros and cons of this approach
- For those who have experienced the PE & M&A process, what lessons have been learnt?
Chris has over 20 years’ experience in tax. He joined BKL to head our personal tax team in 2018. Under Chris’s leadership, BKL won Best Employer in Tax at the Taxation Awards 2023 and Tax Team of the Year at the Accounting Excellence Awards 2023.
On Day One of The Alternative Accountancy Management Summit, Chris led a peer-to-peer roundtable called The Outsourcing Journey.
Day Two of the summit was shared with Day One of The Alternative Accountancy Strategic IT Conference. Our Chief Digital Officer Duncan Hardy chaired this conference and our Head of Applications Katia Zavershinskaya participated.