Kaysen joined the IRB in August and is one of three new board members who joined at the same time. “I'm excited to be working with the IRB chair and other board members,” he says. “And I’m looking forward to working with the Professional Standards Department (PSD) and the regulatory and conduct committees, as well as with the ICAEW Board and our oversight regulators.”
The IRB is responsible for overseeing all ICAEW’s regulatory and disciplinary activities. Its core objectives are to ensure that this work, carried out by PSD and the regulatory and conduct committees, upholds the public interest and promotes high standards of professional competency and conduct. The board also provides assurance to government, oversight regulators and the public that these tasks are carried out independently and objectively.
Having been a member of ICAEW for more than 30 years, one of Kaysen’s key reasons for joining the board is to serve his profession. “Being part of ICAEW has helped my career tremendously,” he explains. “It contributes to my sense of identity and fosters that sense of belonging, therefore being a member of the Practice Assurance Committee (PAC), and now the IRB, is a way of giving something back.”
Before joining the board, Kaysen sat on the PAC for six years. “I learned a lot,” he says, “and I've worked with some wonderful people, so I wanted this to continue. One of our roles on the IRB is to provide independent oversight of the committees and I hope that my previous experience of committee work will be helpful.”
In his professional career, Kaysen has worked both in accountancy practice and investment banking, so he brings a wealth of accountancy and finance experience, as well as firsthand, practical experience of working in highly regulated environments.
“I qualified at a Big Four firm and spent nearly 10 years with them, including working internationally,” he explains. “Then I spent 11 years in investment banking as head of finance for three international banks.”
About nine years ago, he left investment banking behind to set up by himself, partly to enjoy a better work-life balance. He now runs his own accountancy practice which provides accountancy, tax and advisory services to small and medium-sized clients.
Striking a balance
Kaysen has a long-standing interest in the regulatory aspect of an accountant’s work. “Most of what I do on a daily basis, and have done for the last 30 years, is affected by regulation,” he says, “whether this is client due diligence, anti-money laundering rules, client monies regulation or ethics.
“Serving on the IRB is an opportunity to influence the process and, as these rules are dynamic, they’re always changing,” he explains. “And we need to ensure they’re changing in a way that is beneficial to practitioners while preserving the public interest and meeting the main objectives for which they were created.
“Where I also want to help,” he adds, “is in establishing if specific areas need more or different regulation to protect the public.” In particular he mentions practice assurance standards and guidelines, where he can bring his experience of some of the cases he’s seen come to the PAC.”
Fostering relationships
Something else that is close to Kaysen’s heart is promoting communication with, and understanding between, the regulatory and conduct committees and the IRB.
“To oversee the committees properly, we need to fully understand what they do, and they need to understand what we do on the IRB,” he explains. “Hence one of the areas where I think we need to do more work is in fostering a stronger relationship.” He hopes his long experience sitting on the PAC will help contribute to this.
“All three new members of the board are ex-committee members,” he adds. “And two of them have been committee chairs, so that's going to bring in a lot more relevant experience to the board in terms of the committees’ work, which is going to benefit everyone.”
Kaysen’s professional background also means he brings a useful mix of practitioner perspectives to the IRB. “I'm quite lucky,” he says, “because I've worked for a Big Four firm, and now I'm a small practitioner, so I know the two extremes.”
These two different perspectives should serve him well in assessing the suitability and adequacy of regulations for firms of varying sizes. With his small practitioner hat on, he points to the recently revised CPD Regulations as an example. “The new CPD Regulations have been live for a year now,” he says, “so I can bring my own experience of how it affected me in my current role: did I behave differently, did it improve the quality of my work, is it helping my clients and the public generally?”
Kaysen is also well qualified to assist with the internal workings of the IRB. “I’ve sat on a lot of management committees and boards during my career,” he explains. “So, I'm hoping to bring this experience to help the IRB further develop policies and guidelines for its own operations in future.”
Looking ahead
“Change is good,” he says, reflecting on the new members of the IRB. “New people come in with new ideas, bring new energy, and see things from a different perspective.”
He is already looking forward to contributing to discussions on some of the new, as well as ongoing, issues high on the IRB’s agenda. “There are various challenges, of different natures, ahead,” he says.
These include the ongoing process of regulatory reform in audit and insolvency, and something of particular interest to him – HMRC’s plans to crack down on unqualified tax advisers. “ICAEW has an important role in influencing how HMRC approaches this,” he stresses. “So, I want to be part of that.”
More broadly, he is excited to be involved in discussions about the wider influences challenging or shaping the profession’s future, such as the impact of consolidation in the market, and the effects of social media and the proliferation of misinformation from a range of sources, including the impact of artificial intelligence (AI).
“The IRB has been in existence for almost a decade,” says Kaysen. “It has come a long way, but it also has a long way to go.”
After attending his first board meeting in September, he is looking forward to being part of that journey. “I was very impressed by the quality and breadth of knowledge of my fellow members,” he says. “Our new lay chair, Paul Brooks, is vastly knowledgeable, already has a lot of experience of ICAEW, and has a strong vision for the future direction of the board. I think there will be many opportunities to learn from each other and my other IRB peers.”
