Kathryn Cearns OBE, FCA, FCCA is the recipient of ICAEW’s Outstanding Achievement Award for 2025, in recognition of her outstanding achievements in serving the community, particularly in the public and charitable sectors and her contribution to advancements in financial reporting and corporate governance.

Cearns is a specialist in financial reporting and corporate governance, including the reporting and auditing aspects of company law and risk management. For 11 years, she was a partner and the consultant accountant for international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills and dealt with a wide variety of FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies as well as government bodies.

An interest in technical accounting provided a segue into standard-setting, including as a project director at the UK Accounting Standards Board. The focus of some of her work there on public sector and charity reporting piqued her interest in public sector governance issues and paved the way for a string of roles linked by the desire to uphold the highest ethical standards, help public service delivery and do the best for those who might not otherwise have a voice.

Non-executive roles

Cearns has used her broad knowledge and experience to support numerous organisations in a non-executive capacity over many years, focused primarily, although not exclusively, on the public sector and public interest bodies. She was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List 2017 for her voluntary services to government financial reporting.

“When you’re an accountant looking to become a non-executive director, if you haven’t had operational roles, it’s quite difficult to go into a private business, or a listed company board. So the public sector was the route to go, given my previous work. But then it ended up being all-consuming and so interesting,” she explains.

Cearns was Chair of the Financial Reporting Advisory Board to HM Treasury from 2010 to 2016, is a former member of the External Audit Committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a former non-executive director of National Highways. She also chaired the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) until its closure in December 2022 and has been a non-executive board member of Companies House, the UK Supreme Court, Crossrail Ltd and the UK Endorsement Board. 

The essential role of governance

Governance is a common thread through Cearn’s illustrious CV. “If we don’t get governance right, then public bodies can’t properly achieve their objectives,” she explains. “Many civil servants do a very good job, but you need that board interface with the arms-length body to really make a difference to how effective they are, particularly when delivery requires special expertise, for example engineering or project management.”

As well as an interest in infrastructure, she is motivated to address imbalances of power, wherever they may be. “What you’re pushing to do is to make the whole system work better. I suppose the thing I’m proudest of is trying to champion the public, and by that I mean anyone who doesn’t necessarily have an immediate voice in any of this. 

“Whenever we talk about spending taxpayers’ money, my attitude is that I’m spending your money and my money. It’s about having the best regulatory system to both achieve what the government wants, but also to protect individuals and allow them to do what they need to do properly and easily.” 

Speaking up for those without a voice

Cearns points to the higher income child benefit charge as an example of a real problem area that catches people out. “Although it was a legitimate ministerial policy, its implementation was complicated and ultimately poorly designed, without a proper understanding of the consequences. It’s in relation to those sorts of things where we need to speak up for the people who are adversely affected.”

She is currently a non-executive director at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, where she chairs the Audit Risk and Assurance Committee; a member of the DfT’s Group Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee; Chair and lay member of the Audit and Risk Committee at the British Medical Association; Chair of the Press Recognition Panel, set up as a result of the 2012 Leveson inquiry; and vice-chair at The Property Ombudsman. 

In February 2024, Cearns became a non-executive director for DfT Operator Ltd, the body that’s bringing all the train operating companies into public ownership. Meanwhile, her charity work has seen her serve as a trustee of Mencap, Royal British Legion Industries and Young Epilepsy. 

ICAEW qualification instrumental

Cearn’s desire to get involved has over the years manifested itself in a variety of roles across ICAEW, including on ICAEW’s Technical Advisory Committee, its Financial Reporting Committee – which she chaired for almost 10 years – and three years on ICAEW Council, only stepping down when she was appointed at the OTS. “I never felt it was giving something back because I was getting so much out of it as well – both professionally and personally.”

She describes the recognition by her peers and profession bestowed on her by the Outstanding Achievement Award as the ultimate accolade. “I am slightly gobsmacked, to be honest,” she says. “It was entirely unexpected.”

She also maintains that her ICAEW qualification has been instrumental in her professional success over the years. “I was interested in business. The ICAEW qualification opens so many doors to you. It was a great way into the executive jobs that I did, which were quite technical. But it also offers a route into non-executive work. It’s a quality stamp. I could not have done any of it without that.”