It is often said that the CA qualification is a passport for business. Yet even by the standards of the most well-travelled professional, Bill MacLeod CA has seen a lot of the world.

In a career which included nearly 37 years at PwC (starting when it was still Price Waterhouse), and has recently seen him appointed Chair of the ICAS Ethics Board, his work has taken him from Mount Rushmore to Riyadh, from Brazil to Bahrain and from Dubai to Downing Street.

“I broke fast and celebrated Ramadan at the home of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce Chairman,” he recalls. “I also worked in America for two years as a manager. In my first week I was sent to Miami. There my view from the hotel was [a crew] filming Miami Vice!

“At the time I worked in Dubai they only had one tall building. You don’t consider or think about any of these things happening when you’re a trainee. But the idea of working abroad was something that was very appealing about accountancy and joining PwC.”

“Messages like integrity, honesty and objectivity made you feel there was something special about being a CA, but also that it came with responsibilities”

The other reason was because when MacLeod was choosing his career path, ICAS made it clear the CA qualification was about much more than pure accounting, emphasising the advisory role many CAs would play.

“At the time, being a business adviser really appealed,” he says. “Back then I didn’t know what an auditor or tax adviser was. Now, most chartered accountants are more like a business adviser, and are more likely to be working in a boardroom. And the job is much more interesting than a lot of people anticipate.”

In the early 1980s there was no such thing as an admission ceremony in which a newly qualified CA would recite the ethics oath. But, MacLeod explains, “Messages like integrity, honesty, objectivity were drummed into me when I was studying to become a CA. That was really important because it made you feel that there was something special about being a CA, but also that it came with responsibilities.

“In some sense you had a greater obligation to the profession than perhaps you had to your client or your employer, and it served as a reminder that we must act in the public interest.”

His training at PwC exposed MacLeod to the different facets of a business: “I worked on audits, did tax work, did some investigations, I worked in insolvency. I even did a client secondment, which wouldn’t be allowed under ethical standards nowadays. All of which gave me a great insight into the boardroom and how businesses are run, how to deal with clients, and probably a better understanding of what makes a company tick.

“The sheer complexity of modern-day life and business means it’s harder to acquire that general knowledge. And yet some of the things I did in training would still be entirely relevant today. We specialise too early in our career at our peril.”

Corridors of power

In 2014, MacLeod became Senior Partner at PwC’s Newcastle office. His breadth of knowledge and experience has been a valuable asset to organisations and institutions across Tyneside. “The opportunity to go to Downing Street came about in 2017 because I was, and still am, part of the NewcastleGateshead Initiative.

“It was for an event hosted by business leaders in the state dining room at Number 10, which was a fascinating experience. We’ve created a huge number of jobs in the north-east through that programme. And now we’ve got a mayoral authority covering the whole region. I think that’s brought a lot more focus to what’s happening, a lot of investment and transport infrastructure as well.”

As he reached the tail-end of his career with PwC, MacLeod was asked by PwC to become the Ethics Partner. “Audit firms have to have an Ethics Partner. Broadly, the role is to ensure the firm complies with the ethical standard, but there’s a pretty wide-ranging remit. There were about 70 people in the ethics team, and we had to look at all aspects of client service to make sure that they were consistent with the ethical standard.

“I’m not a technical ethics specialist by any means but for four years I did also serve on PwC’s UK supervisory board, which is the firm’s overall governing body. And I think sometimes it’s not just technical content, but knowing how to implement and communicate it.

“One of the big things we tried to focus on during that time was improving the firm’s procedures for accepting new clients, or taking on new assignments from existing clients. If you’re selective in the work you choose to do, and you do your due diligence, that will mitigate problems down the line. That approach should apply to all chartered accountants.”

MacLeod’s expectation of a gradual winding down toward retirement turned out to be anything but, however, as it spanned the start of the pandemic.

“We live in a post-truth society, which seems to me to be madness,” says MacLeod. But, he argues, this is where accountants can set an ethical example.

“Accountants have to deal in facts, which makes us a bit different to other professions,” says MacLeod. “We can only rebuild trust by taking an ethical stance and consistently acting in that fashion. As we’ve seen in recent surveys, accountancy ranks higher than other professions, especially in Scotland, and that gives us something to build on.”

MacLeod is also acutely aware that CAs, be they in practice or industry, are now being confronted with a broader range of ethical challenges than when he started as a trainee with PwC in 1983.

“What’s definitely changed in the past few years is we have far more different issues arising, such as bullying and what’s considered to be appropriate behaviour.

“Generations of CAs worked all hours, simply because that is what the client expected. And in business, you’ve got stock market reporting deadlines – which are very hard deadlines. People now put a different emphasis on family and work-life balance and that can give rise to complaints that the [ethics boards] have to deal with.

“People’s expectations of how they should be treated, what employers can expect from them, but also what is considered acceptable in the workplace, have probably been the most significant changes over the past 10–15 years.”

Problem-sharing

“There’s a tendency to think ethical standards apply mainly to people doing audits or in practice, but they apply just as much in industry,” says MacLeod. 

“It’s possibly harder, because most CAs [in industry] don’t have that same support network in their organisation that they would have working in audit or practice, and that can be a lonely place. It is one thing to make a mistake, but making a mistake alone without consulting somebody can be dangerous. My advice would be that if you’re uncertain about something, speak to somebody. And bear in mind the network that ICAS can give you is very useful.

“Most accountants have seen situations where a client is trying to justify carrying a deferred tax asset, or resisting an impairment of an asset by producing projections that were just nonsense.

“Of course the client will say, ‘We’ll be able to achieve this because the market will be different next year.’ As an auditor, you need to understand the bonus arrangements – they give you an idea of what the executives are trying to achieve.

“It’s important that CAs have that moral courage to be able to stand up and say, ‘No, this isn’t right’”

“You need to dig, and then a client has to face up to how [what you find] will hit the profit and whatever impact that has on the share price. Those are quite difficult conversations to have and anyone who’s been in that position will know, there’s sometimes a tendency to shoot the messenger.

“The CFO is the one who says something’s not right, and no one wants to hear that message. It’s important that CAs have that moral courage to be able to stand up and say, ‘No, this isn’t right.’ And that comes back to having a greater obligation to your profession and to doing the right thing.”

To mark World Ethics Day on 15 October, ICAS published the “Seek the Truth: Ethical insights for finance professionals” report, which included a series of eight features in which CAs share their stories on ethical leadership. The final insight was published last month and provides advice for the next generation.

And while we are speaking to somebody with so much experience, and someone who has practised what he preached, it would be remiss not to ask what advice MacLeod has for young CAs embarking on a new career.

“Two things. One is to take advantage of every opportunity. Even if things come up to do something that you’re not that keen on, if you show a commitment and do it to the best of your ability you’ll get more opportunities.

“Also, have the strength of your convictions. It’s definitely better in the long term for your personal reputation to hold your ground when you have to. I can think of several audits where I had to take a stand and it wasn’t comfortable for anyone involved, but somewhere down the line there were clients who said, ‘We knew you were right’.

“Hold your nerve and remember the importance of that professional qualification, and don’t compromise it by giving into pressure, even if that’s difficult.”

And if the pressure to bend your principles feels like it’s too much to bear? “That’s where networks like ICAS can help.”

Learn more about the work of the ICAS Ethics Board