When EY was in just the second year of its school-leavers programme, Lucas Alexander-Crichton – then just 17, but now a CA and Audit Senior Manager with the firm – spotted an opportunity. “I saw that you would end up with the same qualification that graduates would get,” he says, “but would skip the debt associated with university, and would just do it faster as well.”

He had at this stage received offers to various universities and the risk, of course, was that he would regret passing them up. “But my perspective was, I can do the EY route now and if it doesn’t work I can go to university,” he recalls. “So I picked the one with the safety blanket [and] thankfully, it worked out.”

Alexander-Crichton was still just a schoolboy at this stage, but had the ability to stand back and take stock of the big picture, weigh up the risks and benefits and gauge the probable outcomes. A skill that stood him in good stead then and remains key to his career now.

“I think there’s a bit of a misconception when it comes to accountancy,” he says. “It’s obviously numbers-focused, but there are so many other skillsets that go along with it, particularly in audit.”

Getting to know businesses, understanding their problems, identifying the risks, then designing your testing approaches accordingly – these are all fundamental aspects of his role today, he says. “Problem-solving,” ultimately, with communication skills and the ability to work well in a team being key strengths, which became apparent the moment his training began. “You were expected to go and speak to clients from day one,” he says. “It wasn’t a case of hiding in the office for three years until you had some sense of how to do that.”

“A weight had been lifted. That ability to feel truly confident in who you are is really important and I wanted to share that with others”

And this is where his strength lies; something that became all the more apparent after a brief hiatus in industry in 2022-23.  “I’d been at EY since I was 17 and felt a need to explore and scratch that itch,” he says. That itch led him to a role as Resourcing Manager at a recruitment firm in Dundee.

“It didn’t work for me, but I don’t regret leaving because I learned an awful lot, plus if I’d stayed, I would have always had that, ‘What if?’ in the back of my head.” Not to mention, he adds, it made him value what he had at EY. “You’ve always got stretch opportunities,” he says, “regardless of what level you’re at. You’re never going to be bored.”

Confidence and clarity

While Alexander-Crichton’s career is characterised by a sense of confidence, clarity and obvious ability, it has by no means been smooth sailing. “ICAS training was a lot harder than I expected,” he says. “Obviously in part it was the process of going from school into a professional workplace, but the exams were tough and it certainly wasn’t an easy five years.”

Exams were failed along the way, he concedes, “though I learnt skills that weren’t just accountancy-related, but were to do with resilience and perseverance". His CA qualification is something he wears with “incredible pride” today he says, not just because of the professional testimony it offers, but because getting it was “no easy feat”.

The hurdles he overcame in his professional life contribute to the value he places on his achievements today, therefore – something that can be said of his personal life too. In 2021 he penned a moving account of coming to terms with his sexuality, for the ICAS online series, Championing Unique Perspectives.

In the article, he describes how he always knew he was “different”, but, growing up in rural Aberdeenshire in the 2000s, lacked any LGTBQ+ role models, while his school life provided none of the sex education that could have helped him recognise his feelings. He was “bullied, taunted and teased at high school”, he writes, and was reclusive in his work life. On his first day of lectures during his ICAS training, however, he met Michael, an openly gay man; an experience that not only sparked the beginning of his journey of “coming out”, but a relationship too. Today, Michael is his husband.

What did Alexander-Crichton gain from writing something so incredibly personal? “When you’re ‘closeted’, you’re hiding,” he says. “You’re cautious around what you say and do, and end up being very insular.” It took about 12 months after starting his training contract for him to be completely open about his sexuality, and the difference that made, he says, was huge: “A weight had been lifted. That ability to feel truly confident in who you are is really important and I wanted to share that with others.”

Alexander-Crichton wouldn’t have written the piece if he hadn’t been moved by others’ personal accounts, he says. And since its publication, “there are people who’ve reached out to say they were really impacted by the story. Plus I know others who have written articles or done interviews who wouldn’t have necessarily done so before.”

He believes in the power of stories, in other words, but also in real connection. That’s what life is arguably about, and is certainly what much of his career hinges on. “I like to build relationships where there’s total transparency and an element of shared vulnerability, because then it’s genuine,” he says. “And you can never build that if you’re hiding something.”

In a similar move, in 2024, Alexander-Crichton published a LinkedIn post celebrating his one-year sobriety anniversary. His past relationship with alcohol led him to “dark and lonely places”, he concedes. In this instance he wanted to share his story to help dismantle the stigma and shame surrounding alcoholism, while also demonstrating “you can be high-functioning and have an alcohol problem. You can be a CA and working in practice in a reputable firm.”

Various colleagues got in touch with Alexander-Crichton privately, discussing their own difficulties with alcohol that on the surface you “would never have known about”, he says. “It’s struggling in silence and our profession is really bad for it because it’s a work hard/play hard environment. I think a lot of people turn to alcohol as a bit of a relief. I certainly did, to help cope with stress.”

He believes the seeds of change are starting to sprout, however, with Covid-19 in particular improving many people’s understanding of mental health. He references a recent team social where there was no alcohol provided because the venue didn’t have a licence. “Nobody batted an eyelid and everyone had a really good time,” he says. “Back in the day it would have been, a case of: ‘There’s no alcohol? I’m not going,’ but when a culture changes, the behaviour changes with it.” 

Unity and Pride

Alexander-Crichton has spent the past three years as the Grampian representative on ICAS Members Board, “A really important role,” he says, that platforms the diverse voices within the profession “and allows ICAS to be more relevant to its members”. But with his term coming to an end, he is poised to throw himself into the change he would most like to see in his professional sphere: for Unity – EY’s LGBTQ+ network – to have the vibrancy and dynamism it once had.

“2020 was the year we were hoping for EY to attend all the Pride celebrations in Scotland’s major cities,” he says. “But Covid killed that and without considered effort, things fade a little bit, and that’s what we’re seeing at the moment.” 

“Back in the day it would have been, a case of: ‘There’s no alcohol? I’m not going,’ but when a culture changes, the behaviour changes with it”

Unity has its own challenges in Scotland, adds Alexander-Crichton, for while in London there are “thousands of people who work in the same building”, in EY’s Aberdeen office there are a relatively meagre 120. “It’s just totally different and we need to figure out how we interact as a community,” he says, adding that while EY will not have a formal appearance at Pride, he will be attending Pride in Edinburgh this June as part of ICAS’ team.

“Pride isn’t just one big party, there is a real meaning to it,” he says. “At this time in particular, some of the policies in relation to gender recognition have had a significant impact on some of our trans colleagues. We need to show our support, and I think Pride is the best way of doing that, to show that we are together and we are heard.”

While this is the aim for the next 12 months, the previous year’s focus has been more personal. “I turn 30 in November, so for the last year of my twenties I’ve been trying to be the best version of myself, without comparing myself to others.” Again, he says, he’s standing back and taking stock. “I want to go into my thirties thinking, ‘Well done. Your last 10 years were good. Good effort!’” An assessment we’d be wholly inclined to agree with.

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