My Life in Numbers
Emily Kennedy CA
Associate Director, Strategy & Value Creation, KPMG
My Life in Numbers
Emily Kennedy CA
Associate Director, Strategy & Value Creation, KPMG
An Aberdeen native with a young family, a big dog and a love of the double bass, Emily Kennedy CA is also a dyslexic who founded KPMG’s Neurodiversity Network. She talks about speaking up, joining in and finding her own way to get things done
An Aberdeen native with a young family, a big dog and a love of the double bass, Emily Kennedy CA is also a dyslexic who founded KPMG’s Neurodiversity Network. She talks about speaking up, joining in and finding her own way to get things done
4
I grew up in Aberdeen in a family of four – me, Mum, Dad and one sister, who’s 17 months older than me. We’re close in age but very different in terms of personality and appearance. She was heavily into martial arts growing up, and now she’s a physio and a black belt in taekwondo – so yes, I do let her win any arguments! I was mainly into music. I still play double bass in orchestras to this day, though less often now I have a child.
4
I grew up in Aberdeen in a family of four – me, Mum, Dad and one sister, who’s 17 months older than me. We’re close in age but very different in terms of personality and appearance. She was heavily into martial arts growing up, and now she’s a physio and a black belt in taekwondo – so yes, I do let her win any arguments! I was mainly into music. I still play double bass in orchestras to this day, though less often now I have a child.
10
I got diagnosed as dyslexic when I was 10 and I’m glad that I did, because I was always aware that I did things quite differently. At school, I would never approach tasks the way my classmates would. Sometimes a teacher would say you have to do things a certain way. But that generally didn’t work with me, so I would attempt it my way and get the same answer – or better – by doing it completely differently. School environments can be tough if you differ from the norm, so the diagnosis was almost just confirmation and it gave me confidence.
10
I got diagnosed as dyslexic when I was 10 and I’m glad that I did, because I was always aware that I did things quite differently. At school, I would never approach tasks the way my classmates would. Sometimes a teacher would say you have to do things a certain way. But that generally didn’t work with me, so I would attempt it my way and get the same answer – or better – by doing it completely differently. School environments can be tough if you differ from the norm, so the diagnosis was almost just confirmation and it gave me confidence.
1,000
At school I’d get extra time for exams because of my dyslexia, but in the world of work it’s a different ball game. I had all the exam results, but after a while you realise it does affect the way you work. That’s why I founded the Neurodiversity Network at KPMG. Once you start speaking about neurodiversity, you realise it applies to a lot more people. The network has grown very quickly in just a few years – it’s now up to nearly 1,000 people. We work really closely with the diversity and inclusion team, looking at policies and providing feedback to performance managers and the leadership. We also host a fortnightly event called Let’s Talk, which involves anything from areas to discuss to peer support.
1
I trained with Anderson Anderson & Brown. When I was there they were the biggest accountancy firm headquartered in Aberdeen and took on the most trainees. They had a really good culture as well which was another attraction. So I joined as an audit graduate and ended up doing that and tax, which was good experience.
In 2015 I won the company-wide suggestion box award – which was for the best idea to improve processes or policies. Mine related to the procedures for signing in and out. At the time we were forever setting off the alarm to the building, so my idea addressed that. It won me some vouchers, a small trophy and probably the undying gratitude of the security team.
4
After qualifying, I stayed with Anderson Anderson and Brown for another year. I knew I didn’t want to do either audit or tax long term, so it was time to look to something with more opportunities. I wanted to see what it was like to work for a bigger firm – ideally one of the Big Four – and all that brought with it. So in 2018 I joined KPMG, working in transaction services.
4
After qualifying, I stayed with Anderson Anderson and Brown for another year. I knew I didn’t want to do either audit or tax long term, so it was time to look to something with more opportunities. I wanted to see what it was like to work for a bigger firm – ideally one of the Big Four – and all that brought with it. So in 2018 I joined KPMG, working in transaction services.
2022
I was in transaction services for four years, then moved into a wider role in 2022. Now I sit as an Associate Director in the advisory team. I work with businesses – typically with the CFO – to help with working out a problem, whether that’s trying to scale, professionalise their business or sort out their back-office functions or supply chain.
15
Last week we moved about 15 minutes away from where we lived previously. We just wanted a bit more space because we bought our previous house in the years before we had a child or a dog and only worked from home occasionally. Now all that has changed, so we decided to move to get a bit more space for everyone.
15
Last week we moved about 15 minutes away from where we lived previously. We just wanted a bit more space because we bought our previous house in the years before we had a child or a dog and only worked from home occasionally. Now all that has changed, so we decided to move to get a bit more space for everyone.
8
I’ve been involved with ICAS since qualifying eight years ago. I joined the Grampian area network immediately. At the time it was almost all partners or CFOs and so on, so they decided they wanted a more diverse network and some new ideas, including from people in the early stage of their career. I fitted the bill and thought it sounded interesting and would be good experience and good networking. I've always been one to speak up if I think something could be done better or differently, so I applied and was accepted and I’ve been involved ever since, currently as Chair.
I’ve also been on ICAS Council since 2020. You meet a lot of interesting people there. We all have something in common as CAs, but we’ve all done very different things with our careers, so you learn a lot from each other.
100
Obviously my son takes up a lot of my free time, as does our Northern Inuit dog. But we love the countryside round here in Aberdeenshire. My husband and I used to do a lot of hill walking – we’ve done almost 100 Munros – but that’s out for now. Maybe we’ll start again in 10 years’ time when our boy can walk himself up those hills. So for now relaxation is mainly walking the dog, sometimes running with him.
As for music, I think I played just two concerts last year, but I’ve agreed to do Handel’s Messiah at Music Hall in Aberdeen come Christmas.
100
Obviously my son takes up a lot of my free time, as does our Northern Inuit dog. But we love the countryside round here in Aberdeenshire. My husband and I used to do a lot of hill walking – we’ve done almost 100 Munros – but that’s out for now. Maybe we’ll start again in 10 years’ time when our boy can walk himself up those hills. So for now relaxation is mainly walking the dog, sometimes running with him.
As for music, I think I played just two concerts last year, but I’ve agreed to do Handel’s Messiah at Music Hall in Aberdeen come Christmas.
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