Annual Reception 2024

This year the gathering of corporate financiers took place on 13 November at Fishmongers’ Hall, a historic building with beautiful interiors and a rich heritage, dating back to 1310 when the first hall was built.

The evening started with a warm welcome from ICAEW CEO, Alan Vallance, who highlighted the importance of the faculty to the success of ICAEW. Having spent part of his own career in the field of corporate finance, Alan fully understands the opportunities and challenges the sector faces and appreciates the work undertaken by the faculty team.

Vallance said, “The Faculty has grown to become the UK’s largest network of corporate finance professionals – with a substantial reach and influence in a hugely significant area of business responsibility, and indeed income for our member firms. It provides a world-leading service to the corporate finance, advisory and investment community.”

He also spoke about the vital role he inherited earlier this year, when he joined the institute as CEO, of ensuring that the ACA remains the qualification of choice for people pursuing a career in corporate finance and investment.

The Chair of the Corporate Finance Faculty then took to the stage, sharing valuable insights into the latest trends and developments in the field of corporate finance, as well as how the faculty has sought to address many of the challenges that the sector faces, particularly around the application of Artificial Intelligence, with the launch of the Corporate Finance Faculty’s AI in Corporate Finance resources webpage.

The evening featured distinguished guest speaker, Lord Clement-Jones CBE, LibDem Lords spokesperson for Science, Innovation and Technology and Co-Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group on AI. He is also a consultant on AI Policy and Regulation with global law firm, DLA Piper and it’s with this authority on AI that he eloquently presented his views on the use and regulation of AI.

He said, “It must be clear that Boards are fully accountable for the introduction of these new powerful new tools and that they are setting the values for how they are utilised by their employees and the extent of meaningful human intervention taking place.”

Further he added: “As time has moved on however, I have become a greater advocate of going beyond corporate governance and turning those ethics into regulation and the adoption of international standards both cross sector and in individual sectors to ensure that we have interoperability across markets and consistency and certainty of the context for development and adoption of AI models whether in the hands of management or employees.”

Lord Clement-Jones has strong links to the Corporate Finance Faculty. He was formerly a board member of the faculty and was also Chair of the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence (2017-18) and Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence, in which the faculty input.

This year’s Corporate Development award was awarded to Pearson plc, a FTSE100 learning company which: creates and curates learning content, distributes this content digitally and physically, and builds and verifies skills. It is Pearson’s acquisitions in 2022 which put it in the top position for having a strategy that has made the most effective use of M&A to increase shareholder value last year.

The two prize winners for the highest scores in the Diploma in Corporate Finance – Chris Mitchell from Grant Thornton and Nishal Thakrar from Evelyn Partners – received their prizes presented by ICAEW’s CEO, Alan Vallance.

Last but certainly not least, Katerina Joannou, Senior Manager, Capital Markets Policy in the Corporate Finance Faculty, was presented with the Outstanding Contribution award for her almost 20 years of contributing to the faculty and ICAEW, helping to produce around 70 technical guidelines and coordinating the many policy consultations over the years.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the evening was the opportunity for guests to connect with colleagues and industry leaders and engage in insightful conversations in a relaxed atmosphere over champagne and canapes.

David Petrie, head of Corporate Finance at ICAEW, pointed out that “While AI is on the point of revolutionising corporate finance and investments, human relationships and personal networks are likely to remain vital components in sourcing new deal opportunities.”

And it is this reason that the Annual Reception remains a popular event in the world of corporate finance and very many ICAEW members. We look forward to many more in future.

The Corporate Finance Faculty Annual Reception is one of ICAEW’s best attended in-person events. It has established an enviable reputation as the leading event of its kind, bringing together advisors, principal investors, policy makers and academics from across the City. The reception provides an ideal platform for attendees to connect with industry peers, share experiences, establish valuable contacts and potentially, to win new work or source investment opportunities.