Huge congratulations to our Finance Manager, Matt Wilson, who has passed one of the toughest and most prestigious qualifications in the accountancy world.
A fervent Blue, Matt has now promised himself a season ticket at Manchester City after passing the Association of Chartered Accountants (ACA) qualification, the culmination of 15 examinations and associated projects - eight of which he has passed during his time with us.
What makes Matt's achievement even more remarkable is that he has combined his own studies with helping two of the finance team, Assistant Accountant Adnan Khan and Accounts Assistant Olivia Saint-McCormack, work towards their own exams!
Matt, who joined us as a Management Accountant three years ago, says: "I was actively dissuaded from pursuing the qualification by my previous employers, whereas here at HPP, credit to Richard (Mottram, Finance Director) and Keith (Wardrope, MD), who have been as supportive as you can possibly be working in industry. So thank you!
"The thing with my qualification, is that it's aimed at people working in audit firms and accountancy practices. It's been a unique and challenging experience, from my point of view, because I've never actually worked in an accountancy practice, I've always worked in industry, which created an added degree of difficulty."
After joining us from an American-based multinational corporation, Matt oversaw the streamlining and automation of our financial processes to make them more efficient. He has since immersed himself in many other aspects of finance and the wider business, taking on more responsibilities over time as Richard reduces his hours as he heads towards retirement.
Matt's now continuing to mentor Adnan and Olivia as they prepare for their respective qualifications - Adnan taking the CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) exam next year and Olivia, who is preparing for her Level 3 Accounting and Finance apprenticeship exam before starting Level 4 in 2025.
"They've both come on in leaps and bounds," says Matt. "Adnan was completely new to the finance world when he joined us three years ago and the amount of progress he's made over that time is unbelievable.
"Olivia is on her Level 3 now and if she goes on and gets her Level 4, she could end up doing the type of qualifications that Adnan is doing, and I've just done."