201509 CM September

INTERVIEW
• CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTANTS •
ON FERTILE
GROUND
Sean Feast chats to Charles Tilley to find there has never
been a better time to be a management accountant.
CHARLES Tilley, the Chief Executive
of the Chartered Institute of
Management Accountants (CIMA)
never wanted to be an accountant.
His first love was farming and upon
leaving school was all-set on agricultural
college but there was a snag: “My father
said that he could not afford to buy me a
farm and instead had a friend who was an
accountant and the rest is history.”
A Londoner by birth and educated at
Seaford College in West Sussex, Charles
qualified as an accountant at the age
of 22, articled to West Wake Price in
Moorgate – only a hundred or so yards
from CIMA headquarters today. He joined
Peat Marwick Mitchell in 1974 in the days
of ‘generalist’ accountants: “There was
little by way of specialisms,” he explains.
“I managed a range of different tasks from
audits and valuations through to mergers
and acquisitions, working across a diverse
range of customers both in the UK and
Hong Kong where I spent 18 months in the
late 1970s.”
Having earned his spurs, Charles was
appointed Partner in 1986 just at the point
that Peat Marwick merged with KMG
Thomson McLintock to become KPMG.
Among his more rewarding responsibilities
was to be placed in charge of graduate
recruitment: “At the time we were
recruiting up to 1,000 graduates every
year, competing with all of the other major
accountancy practices to attract the best
talent. It was a fabulous role and great fun
too.”
After 14 years at KPMG, Charles
changed direction, joining Hambros PLC
which at the time was the UK’s second
largest investment bank, becoming its
Group Finance Director. Shortly before its
take over by Societé Générale, he joined a
boutique investment bank, Granville, with
a brief to find a potential buyer. The ideal
suitor was found in the Milwaukee-based
Robert W Baird, and the two firms merged
to become Granville Baird, and Charles its
Chief Operating Officer.
After 12 years in banking and finance,
the role of CIMA Chief Executive was
brought to his attention: “I spoke to the
President about the role and it looked very
interesting,” he says, “especially having
been on ‘both sides’ as an accountant and
a CFO/COO, and with my experience of
student recruitment.”
The year was 2001, and Charles
immediately set about consolidating CIMA’s
position and planning for growth.
He also took steps to see that the role
of management accountants was better
understood, and differentiated from the
mainstream. He uses a co-pilot/navigator
analogy: “The roles of an accountant
and management accountant are both
underpinned by financial accounting,”
he explains, “but whereas ‘traditional’
accounting tells you where you have been,
and gives you the assurance of your current
position, a management accountant will
support you with where you are heading,
informing the decisions you need to take in
order to grow.”
The Chartered Institute has grown
significantly during Charles’ term of office,
and is in rude health. When he took over,
there were c60,000 members. This figure
has almost doubled to around 100,000,
and when students are taken into account,
that figure doubles again to an impressive
227,000. The Institute now has 40 offices
worldwide including four in mainland China
and one in Hong Kong.
Charles explains that growth has been
driven by a number of different factors:
“In countries where university places are
lacking, the CIMA qualification is seen as
a clear route into the profession. Where
university places are available, CIMA
has worked closely with the world of
academia in ensuring that the course that
undergraduates study is closely aligned
with the real world they will subsequently
encounter, and vice versa. And at an
international level, CIMA has been
working with other professional bodies
to achieve a recognised management
22 September 2015 www.cicm.com
The recognised standard in credit management