UHY Hacker Young appoints new Chairman, Colin Wright, as it plans further expansion in the UK

Publications that covered this story include City AM on 2 May 2019.
  • Continues strategy of growth, mergers and helping regional offices build up international network

We are pleased to announce that UHY Hacker Young has appointed Colin Wright as its new Chairman.

Colin initially trained at EY in Trinidad & Tobago and joined the London office of UHY Hacker Young in 1996. He has worked two stints at UHY Hacker Young for a combined period of 19 years.

Colin has more than 25 years’ experience in audit and assurance, financial reporting and corporate finance. He is an audit partner for companies and not-for-profit organisations across a number of sectors.

Commenting on his appointment, Colin explains: “The UHY Hacker Young Group will continue the development of its sector focus adding to its market-leading practices in: automotive, charities, education, property, hospitality, technology, natural resources, healthcare, financial services, drinks & breweries, agriculture and capital markets.

“The Group will also continue its push towards enhancing its services and offerings to all clients, from entrepreneurs to charities to publicly listed companies as well as providing international support for our clients and working with member firms of UHY International.”

Colin and the UK Group’s Board aim to ensure their clients continue to prosper and successfully navigate the increasingly rapid changes in their sectors to achieve their goals.

Colin adds: “Our country is currently experiencing significant change, uncertainty and technological opportunities. While business is never certain, change is constant and becoming more rapid, and our clients will always be challenged, seek opportunities and need our help as accountants and professional advisers.”

“Our commitment to quality will continue to be one of our key values and we will strive to achieve this in all we do. We aim to continue to attract and retain quality people to our teams and can only do this by ensuring our culture and values are continually evolving and are attractive to all generations.”

“Our profession is at a cross roads with reviews of the audit market suggesting major changes will be needed to ensure improvements in audit quality are achieved.”

“Whilst these reviews will cause a lot of disruption to the industry; with change comes opportunities for a firm like ours, which is committed to delivering for clients. We look forward to the changes and the technical advantages of using AI, data analytics and cloud accounting to help serve our clients. These tools will help our firm to be a better-trusted adviser and deliver exceptional client service, which remains at the core of our offering.”

“We will continue to seek further regional member firms where we are under-represented and encourage our existing member firms to grow to support their expansion into exciting new areas and sectors.”

“And, no matter what happens with Brexit, globalisation and increasing internationalisation of businesses is not going to stop. Our access, through our international network, to markets in more than 300 major business centres across 100 countries is only going to become more important.”

Colin will be replacing Jon Warsop who has been Chairman since 2014.

Says Colin: “We’re all sorry to see Jon step down from this role and grateful for his dedication and leadership to our member firms. He has done a great job leading the Group and driving it forward, steering us through challenges and opportunities and mentoring a new generation of partners. We all have a huge amount of admiration for what Jon has achieved for the Group over the last five years.”

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