My Life in Numbers: Lee Ansett CA

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Lee Ansett CA

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Chartered Accountant

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My Life in Numbers

Lee Ansett CA is a long-time tax specialist who surprised himself by spending two decades with a Big Four firm. Now Group Tax Manager at InterGen, he’s also a runner, collector and inveterate quizzer – who excelled on the UK’s most famous TV quiz show (and won £30,000 from another that was never broadcast). He reveals his specialist subjects with 18 correct answers and no passes

15 I grew up in Rosyth, in Fife, about 15 miles from Edinburgh. My parents still live there. They’re retired now, but my mum was a teacher and my dad had various jobs – mostly working in the dockyard as an engineer. But he was also in the merchant navy for a few years, travelling the world. And I’ve got one older sister, who works for Edinburgh University.

2 My favourite subjects at school were probably history and geography, but – like most accountants, I guess – I was also good at maths. I was part of a team that did the Fife maths challenge, which was a competition among local secondary schools. We won that a couple of times, once when I was in the first year, then again in the third. I was mainly good at mental arithmetic, just doing stuff in my head instinctively – less so once it got to equations that were a page long.

2

My favourite subjects at school were probably history and geography, but – like most accountants, I guess – I was also good at maths. I was part of a team that did the Fife maths challenge, which was a competition among local secondary schools. We won that a couple of times, once when I was in the first year, then again in the third. I was mainly good at mental arithmetic, just doing stuff in my head instinctively – less so once it got to equations that were a page long.

1994

I was planning to do business studies, but I did accountancy in my final year at school and actually won a high school prize for that. That made me think I should change subject, so in 1994 I went to Heriot-Watt to study accountancy for four years.

1994

I was planning to do business studies, but I did accountancy in my final year at school and actually won a high school prize for that. That made me think I should change subject, so in 1994 I went to Heriot-Watt to study accountancy for four years.

18

I didn’t have any fixed plan to study for the CA, but it started to take shape about 18 months before graduation. From that point, businesses come on to campus to do presentations for the milk round. And if you’re doing an accountancy or business degree, ICAS were always at these presentations, doing a talk about what you could do with the CA qualification. They were always quite impressive. And, of course, being in Scotland, a huge percentage of graduate accountancy jobs came through them.

30

I wasn’t sure I’d fit at one of the Big Four – ironically, as that turned out – because they tended to be a bit more elite, whether that’s private school or Oxbridge. So I trained with Geoghegans, which was in the centre of Edinburgh and had about 30 staff when I worked there. They only had two trainees a year, so you weren’t specialised in anything – you did accountancy, audit, even a bit of furniture moving. Once another trainee and I were carrying a filing cabinet up three flights of stairs. The senior partner came out of his room, smoking a cigarette, and said: “You wouldn’t get this kind of training at PwC!”

2001

By the time I qualified in 2001 I knew it was tax I enjoyed doing. EY had opportunities in the tax team, so I thought I’d try that and if I lasted 18 months, at least I’d have that experience and it would look good on my CV. Then I stayed for 18 years, and, following a career break in 2019, went back again for 18 months during the pandemic. I was always in one tax team or another. I started doing general corporate tax for the first three years, and ended up specialising in financial services.

2001

By the time I qualified in 2001 I knew it was tax I enjoyed doing. EY had opportunities in the tax team, so I thought I’d try that and if I lasted 18 months, at least I’d have that experience and it would look good on my CV. Then I stayed for 18 years, and, following a career break in 2019, went back again for 18 months during the pandemic. I was always in one tax team or another. I started doing general corporate tax for the first three years, and ended up specialising in financial services.

2006

I also liked training people up. I was sent to Bangalore in 2006 to help set up EY’s first overseas offshoring operation for UK work, and to educate the staff in UK tax and how our different processes worked. It was a shock to the system. They didn’t have things set up for us. So they would book a hotel and a driver, but there was no one to help with visa or training or advice about what to do with the evenings, and so on. I arrived at 4.30am, in an airport, with people running everywhere. There were three different luggage conveyor belts for my flight and I had no idea which one to stand at. But the team were really nice and very encouraging. Bangalore was my only big overseas project. I did have several clients in the Caymans but the office never quite found the funds to send me there, funnily enough.

3 I still live in Edinburgh, about one mile from the centre and close to Murrayfield. I did think about moving to London when I was going back and forth frequently, and because I knew a lot of people there. But while I like it to visit, being there for three weeks at a time was a different feeling. I knew I couldn’t live there full time – and working in financial services, I could get similar exposure in Edinburgh without having the long commute or the high housing prices.

3

I still live in Edinburgh, about one mile from the centre and close to Murrayfield. I did think about moving to London when I was going back and forth frequently, and because I knew a lot of people there. But while I like it to visit, being there for three weeks at a time was a different feeling. I knew I couldn’t live there full time – and working in financial services, I could get similar exposure in Edinburgh without having the long commute or the high housing prices.

2021

After leaving EY, I spent seven weeks with BlackRock – my boss left after four days and another left after two weeks, so that wasn’t great. Fortunately a job at FNZ came up in 2021. That’s a fintech firm, making banking apps, which was a good introduction to industry. You don’t have hundreds of people to ask like you would at a Big Four firm, so you have to work things out for yourself. I got on well and it extended past the original maternity leave cover because they were growing. But it was never going to be long term and I soon got the job with InterGen.

4

InterGen owns and runs four power stations in England, providing secure power to consumers. We’re headquartered in Edinburgh, despite all the plants being over the border. My team and I do the tax – corporate taxes, VAT, some employment taxes and a lot of risk and governance stuff. I don’t have a background in energy, but I’m surrounded by people who are experts.

8

During the pandemic I was doing a lot of online quizzing. I’d built up my knowledge and thought I’d apply to be on Mastermind again. I’d tried before a few times, almost qualifying in 2010, but this time I got on. I submitted seven or eight ideas for specialist subjects and the producers will tell you this one’s too narrow, that one’s too broad, this one’s too similar to one we did recently, and so on. So I ended up doing Michael Palin’s TV travelogues in the first round. They agreed a scope beforehand, and suggested a few of his books and about 30 episodes of the show.

I had eight weeks to prepare, so I read the books and watched the episodes and wrote about 450 questions. I remember one of them showed Palin in Alaska and there was a question about the type of boat the Inuit sail in. Reviewing my questions the day before in Belfast, where Mastermind is filmed, I’d realised I had that wrong. I thought it was seal skin, but on Palin’s show they said it was walrus skin – and then that came up as the second question on Mastermind. I got through to the semi-final, beating someone who’d been on the winning University Challenge team three years earlier.

934 I love sport and had suggested the Tour de France as my specialist subject, but they had done that recently. So for the next round, the semi-final, I did the sitcom Peep Show. There are nine series, each with six episodes, and over eight weeks I watched every single one nine times. So that’s 486 viewings in total. I wrote 934 questions as prep.

During the show I sat next to someone doing astrophysics for his subject. He saw I was doing Peep Show and said: “I love that show, I wish I was doing that.” But there was no way I was swapping to do astrophysics! I think the producers like having that contrast between science and a TV sitcom, though. Something serious, something popular – it helps to maximise the audience.

934 I love sport and had suggested the Tour de France as my specialist subject, but they had done that recently. So for the next round, the semi-final, I did the sitcom Peep Show. There are nine series, each with six episodes, and over eight weeks I watched every single one nine times. So that’s 486 viewings in total. I wrote 934 questions as prep.

During the show I sat next to someone doing astrophysics for his subject. He saw I was doing Peep Show and said: “I love that show, I wish I was doing that.” But there was no way I was swapping to do astrophysics! I think the producers like having that contrast between science and a TV sitcom, though. Something serious, something popular – it helps to maximise the audience.

2,509

Although I didn’t win my semi-final, I was first reserve for the final, having got the highest overall score of all the rest. I chose Andrew Carnegie as my specialist subject. As well as becoming a famous industrialist and philanthropist who donated the money to found 2,509 libraries, he was originally from Dunfermline, about three miles from Rosyth. His family are fascinating. His uncle was a leading Chartist and he and his wife were banned from things like the local church picnic because of all the protests they’d organised.

I got a call from the producers shortly before, checking I was ready to dash to Belfast at a day’s notice if one of the finalists dropped out. But none did, so it wasn’t to be.

2,509

Although I didn’t win my semi-final, I was first reserve for the final, having got the highest overall score of all the rest. I chose Andrew Carnegie as my specialist subject. As well as becoming a famous industrialist and philanthropist who donated the money to found 2,509 libraries, he was originally from Dunfermline, about three miles from Rosyth. His family are fascinating. His uncle was a leading Chartist and he and his wife were banned from things like the local church picnic because of all the protests they’d organised.

I got a call from the producers shortly before, checking I was ready to dash to Belfast at a day’s notice if one of the finalists dropped out. But none did, so it wasn’t to be.

2 I loved the whole Mastermind experience. The room is pitch black, with just a spotlight shining in your eyes – they got the idea from the original producer, who based it on his experience being interrogated by the Gestapo in the Second World War – and Clive Myrie asking the questions. It really concentrates your mind, that feeling that it doesn’t matter what’s happening elsewhere because you can’t see it. My only disappointment was the black chair doesn’t swivel; as my former colleagues at EY would confirm, I do like to lean back and swivel my chair.

£30,000

Before the pandemic I’d entered a programme called Beat the Chasers, a spin-off from The Chase. They brought me down to London in February 2020. It was a bit like The Price Is Right – you come out of the crowd, high-five everyone, give the host, Bradley Walsh, a hug. But by the time it was due to broadcast the social distancing rules were in, so they couldn’t show anything like that.

I won the quiz. They said: “Sorry, we’re not broadcasting your episodes because of the pandemic but you’ll still get the money.” That was £30,000 – a good consolation for missing out on my moment of fame.

11

I do a lot of travel, often combining my twin passions of history and running. I’ve done 42 half marathons and 11 marathons. The most memorable was the Midnight Sun Marathon, in Tromso, Norway, in the Arctic Circle. You start at 8.30 in the evening and run till about midnight. I was thinking it’s the middle of summer, it’ll be nice and sunny. But you’re 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle and it was wet and about 7°C, so it was more like a rainy afternoon in February. And because it’s approaching midnight, there are people sitting outside the pubs, waving to you as you go past, or staggering home from the pub.