ICAS’s top Scottish accountants under 35 in profile – Rosie Stewart CA, 31, Livestock Veterinary Medicines

Thirteen Scottish-based accountants have been named among ICAS’s 35 Chartered Accountants (CAs) under 35 for 2017. For 13 days Scottish Financial News will be profiling each of the Scottish representatives. Today we profile: Rosie Stewart CA, 31, Finance Manager, Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines, Edinburgh.

Rosie completed a degree in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Durham. After a year working as a research assistant at AstraZeneca, she decided to pursue a career in accountancy, partially because a shaky hand meant she was never very good at scientific research and partially because she was more suited to a role interacting with people. The CA qualification was the obvious choice for her. After qualifying with Baker Tilly, she took on the role as Head of Finance at Penumbra, a mental health charity, and then moved to Blackcircles.com as Finance Manager. For the last two years, Rosie has been working as Finance Manager at GALVmed, which makes livestock vaccines, medicines and diagnostics accessible and affordable to the millions in developing countries for whom livestock is a lifeline.

“I completed my training contract at Baker Tilly working primarily on the audit of charity clients. After leaving Baker Tilly, I took on the role of Head of Finance at Penumbra, a mental health charity based in Scotland. I really enjoyed working at Penumbra where the drive and dedication of those working in charities was very evident. Penumbra was however a well-established, well-organised charity and I was keen to continue to progress in my career. Because of this I left Penumbra to work at Blackcircles.com for four months as Finance Manager. While it was interesting to work in a fast-growing ambitious company and proved a thought-provoking contrast to working in the charitable sector, after this time I decided to return to the charitable sector as Finance Manager at GALVmed.

This is a role I have now been in for two years and one which I enjoy very much as it incorporates my accountancy and scientific background, with my interest in the developing world. As GALVmed is a relatively new organisation with a desire to develop its staff, it is an excellent place to continue my career, allowing me the opportunity to make changes, improve processes and establish systems that make a clear difference to the lives of those the organisation aims to help. This has provided a brilliant platform to strengthen the organisation and see the impact my work has.

Becoming a CA is the best thing I have ever done. It has given me the knowledge to forge a successful career and the confidence to put myself forward to help others on a local and international level. Often charity accounting is an area CAs enter at the end of their career to give back but I want to do this from the beginning.

My ultimate aim is to become Finance Director and GALVmed is an excellent place to develop these skills, providing training and experience in areas I lack, particularly governance and strategy. In turn, this has motivated me to develop my team, providing training to the Finance Assistant while completing ACCA and the Management Accountant to work towards Finance Manager. Furthermore, working with colleagues in Kenya, India and Malawi, I have established strong financial practices, particularly important in areas where bribery and corruption are widespread.

I am also the Chair of the Borders Exploration Group. This is a small, local organisation with big aims, organising expeditions for young people to the developing world. Currently we are organising expeditions to Bolivia and Malawi where we will fundraise £100k for each expedition.

BEG was floundering when I took over with too few volunteers and little lasting impact. Under my leadership, I have been instigating change to ensure the organisation continues, e.g. on expeditions BEG undertakes projects such as building schools. While this is laudable, what long term impact does this have? I have been restructuring expeditions to work with existing charities, ensuring our money and efforts are going where they are needed most and continue after the expedition finishes. In addition, BEG struggles to recruit those from lower income families. I am developing a programme to encourage such children by funding places on expeditions.

I never intended to become Chair and to dedicate so much time to BEG. Initially I got involved by being a leader to Malawi which led to a place on the committee as treasurer then finally to Chair after a deathly silence when no-one else was willing to take on the role. Being a CA has given me the confidence to put myself forward and to be the one willing to fill that silence. It has given me the skills and training to chair meetings, to instigate change and to represent others on a local and international stage. For me, the CA goes beyond a job, beyond a career.”