Unlocking Global Opportunities in Chartered Accountancy: Insights with Peter Gillen

Unlock the limitless possibilities of a career in Chartered Accountancy with insights from our Young Difference Maker, and Chartered Accountants Ireland member, Peter Gillen. 

Peter takes us on his journey from a high school math enthusiast to prestigious roles at PwC in Dublin and Boston, and later to transformative work in sustainability consulting at Grant Thornton and AIB. 

Learn how his ACA qualification served as a global passport, allowing him to work internationally while aligning his career with his personal values, inspired by the Japanese concept of Ikigai.

Discover the unparalleled benefits of global networking for Chartered Accountants. Peter shares how technical knowledge and practices from diverse locations like Dublin and Boston can be adapted and enhanced through international experience.  He also highlights the incredible diversity within the Chartered Accountants Ireland network, which includes professionals from around the world.

This episode emphasizes the importance of asking "why" to understand and resolve complex issues and demonstrates how connecting with a diverse group of professionals can provide invaluable resources and knowledge.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Again, I appreciate for someone who maybe is only considering going into chartered accountancy there may be. You know, it's like one thing at a time. Peter, I just want to pass my exams and I become a chartered accountant, but just so they know. Beyond that again, the doors it opens, the passport it gives you, but the access it gives you to people who have real expertise in areas that, again, hopefully, they really care about and that you can draw on when and as is needed, is just amazing, a second to none. Hi, my name is Peter Gillen and I'm a Chartered Accountant.

Speaker 1: 0:52

So in terms of how I began my chartered accountancy journey, I suppose it probably began in school for me, where maths would have been my strongest subject, and then, when it came to choosing a college course, that naturally guided me towards business and economics, where I of course took all of the accountancy modules, and from there again, that was the big decision. I was like, oh, what am I going to do next in my career? And whenever I spoke to family and friends, the one thing that kept on coming up for me was how strong the ACA qualification was, aca qualification was, and also what a great reputation the Chartered Accountants Ireland Institute had for teaching and supporting its students, so that was really very reassuring to me. So from there, I went about completing my accountancy exams whilst at the same time working at PwC in their training program, where I worked in the risk assurance department. I would have mainly worked with banks and insurance companies. I actually got experience both in Dublin and in Boston, which again I'm sure we'll get into later, but I have found ACA qualification to be a great passport around the world. It really does lend itself to enable you to work almost anywhere around the world, which I think very few, if I'm not sure any other profession or qualification really allows you to do that. I thought that was amazing.

Speaker 1: 2:07

So then from there, after six amazing years in PwC, I thought I want to have a very purposeful career long term, and I feel I've got a fantastic foundation now. But what's next? Do I want to stay in the same area or do I want to? Maybe it's now the time to try that, something different? And I thought, no, now is the time to make that Hail Mary path and just go for something a little bit different. Why not? I don't think I'll ever regret it. So from there, I was very lucky to start a career in sustainability consulting in Grant Thornton and then I had two great years there and actually only in the last few weeks then I've actually made another, another leap as well into into AIB, which is a a pillar bank here in the Republic of Ireland, whereby I'm working in the first line risk and assurance, whereby I'm helping my department get ready for all these new sustainability reporting standards and metrics that are coming down the line, standards and metrics that are coming down the line.

Speaker 1: 3:04

There's a Japanese concept called Ikigai, which I found to be incredible, so that's I-K-I-G-A-I, whereby imagine you have four circles like a Venn diagram, so top, bottom, left, right, and they overlap with each other, and the idea is that you ask yourself four questions, and the first one is what do you love? Second one is what are you good at, which isn't always the same thing. Third is what does the world need? And the fourth one is what can I get paid for? And the idea is easier said than done. Is there a common thread amongst those four questions? So if, like, can you end up in the middle of that venn diagram, and it really helped crystallize for me I'm like, oh well, it's actually there on paper, like I'm I'm not crazy for thinking, oh no, sustainability makes sense.

Speaker 1: 3:53

I'm like, no, I can see, it makes sense. Sorry, numbers are obviously incredibly important and that they're the basis for a lot of decision making in organizations. So not taking away from that, but the idea that chartered accountants are only involved in numbers, as you know, at a bookkeeping level and that's it, is probably an old and lazy stereotype that's probably reinforced by, you know, things like film and media, and that's fine, but hasn't been that way for a long, long time now. And I don't believe there's a single medium to large-sized organization around the world that doesn't have a chartered accountant. These days, realistically, and if any, honestly, they're, they're enrolled, they're trusted advisors and if you look at almost any board, one of the CEO, cfo or COO or, increasingly maybe, cso, chief Sustainability Officer, are chartered accountants. Because you have to be able to understand the numbers.

Speaker 1: 4:51

How do you see beyond the numbers? I'm like, well, what does that mean? So, okay, we're seeing that costs are going up Like, oh well, why is that? You know, go beyond numbers. Why is that? You know, go beyond numbers? Why is that? Oh, maybe it's because the cost of you know, certain materials coming from other parts of the world is going up like, oh, hey, but why is that? So? He's asking why again, I'm like, oh, maybe it's because extreme weather events are causing the yields to go down, for on a particular crop or a material like cotton, for example, if you're a clothing company, I'm like, okay, well, okay, now I'm beginning to understand the issue here. So, you know, can we change with that material to a more sustainable material, uh, one that won't be impacted by climate change? Because whether or not we are going to be impacted somewhat, it's just about mitigating and minimizing it as much as we can. But I think it's in that way that charter accountants can really add the value. So they have that foundation of technical knowledge, but it's using their informed global viewpoint, I suppose, of those macro issues like climate change and bring it all together.

Speaker 1: 5:58

I'm really proud of the work I've done with Charter Accountants Ireland. So I've served on the Young Professionals Committee for the last number of years, whereby, from the moment you qualify as a charter accountant for the following 10 to 15 years, the Young Professionals Committee is basically the support structure in place whereby we help you. If you want to network more, great, we'll help you out. If you want to know more about a given subject grant, we'll bring a speaker in and we'll make sure you're informed and educated on that area, whether it's maybe trends like cyber security, sustainability, reporting, anything, whatever it is. So we help to enable those situations um and allow people to take the next step in their career by getting those bigger networks, getting that technical knowledge from those speakers we bring in. So I'm quite proud of that. And one thing, actually, if I just say so, obviously we're here in Belfast the One Year World Summit, which is amazing.

Speaker 1: 6:46

And one thing that's been said once, twice that's really got my attention is the next cure to cancer or the next cure to any of our myriad of issues could be in the brain of someone who's experiencing those like food insecurity, for example. They don't know where their next meal is. They're all interlinked all these issues. It's not like, oh, that's food insecurity, that's getting, you know, better health for everyone around. They're all linked. So if we raise everyone up together, we're all good, it's a win-win. Like people think, oh no, like it's us and them it's. It's just not, it's that's.

Speaker 1: 7:17

It'll be so short-sighted for us to look at it that way. Just start with a clean slate about what you think you know about chartered accountancy. If what you think about it is just about numbers and all that, it's so so much more Realistically, my experience it really helps just to care about a subject, a topic. For me it's sustainability, for someone else it might be something else, it might be cybersecurity, but it actually doesn't matter what it is, because every field and topic the wonderful thing is charted accountancy is needed in every single type of organization, which is fantastic, and every organization needs a chartered accountant.

Speaker 1: 8:03

It works both ways. It's symbiotic, you could say, and the skills that we have in my case the ACA qualification, but just generally chartered accountant's qualification you learn to have an open mindset. You open that problem-solving. You develop your problem-solving skills, which I guarantee you you will use every day because there's always a new issue. But that's exciting and it makes it every day is different. I've never had a day, two days in my Charter Accountancy career. So far that have been the same. There are doors which have been opened to me, to the Charter Accountancy qualification, that simply just would not have even existed if I hadn't done it. Now I will also be the first to say like it's also up to each and every one of us to push open those doors right. But the doors wouldn't even be available to me if I didn't have it, and I think it's just. It's basically the qualification provides you with a key to open those doors and it's amazing.

Speaker 1: 9:05

So, for example, in my career I think I mentioned so far I've been based in Dublin for most of my life, but I've also had the experience to, for example, in my career I think I mentioned so far I've been based in Dublin for most of my life, but I've also had the experience to travel. For example, I was based in the PwC Boston office there for six months, which was beyond an amazing experience. Again, I had never lived outside of Ireland before. I'd done a little bit of travel, but nothing to this extent and it was just amazing. I have to say so. Like even just living in a different culture, you get an appreciation Also just working with, also again, just different people.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Right, they approach things in different ways and I was able to bring back their what I learned in terms of technical knowledge, bring it back to my Dublin team and say you know what I think we couldn't prove? You know, I think we're doing really great work, but here's just one or two, maybe things we could consider doing. And they were like, oh, yeah, look, it's great. And then, but also, likewise, when I went over to Boston, I was like, oh, that's really interesting, you guys do it. We actually do this in Dublin. They're like, oh, why is that? And we kind of got into it again.

Speaker 1: 9:58

It's seeing, going back to our point, seeing beyond the numbers, it's like the why, why, why you have to ask why a few times to really get to the, the kernel, the crux of the, the issue I have even today here in belfast. There are people from all over the world. It's amazing. So in our charter county delegation there are people from south africa, zambia, singapore, australia, new zealand, the uk, ireland, like all over. It's amazing. So, like again, that network is also amazing. So so that if I have a question about a particular district or area, there's that network, because Chartered Accountants Ireland is part of Chartered Accountants Worldwide, which is, of course, a global network of similar institutes, which is just an invaluable resource.

Speaker 1: 10:43

And again, I appreciate for someone who maybe is only considering going into Chartered Accountancy. They're maybe. You know, it's like one thing at a time. Peter, I just want to pass my exams and I become a chartered accountant, but just so they know. Beyond that again, the doors it opens, the passport it gives you, but the access it gives you to people who have real expertise in areas that again hopefully they really care about and that you can draw on when and as is needed, is just amazing. Second to none.