A large crowd gathered at the University of Edinburgh Business School on Thursday 29th March, eager to discuss the latest updates on Brexit due to the topical timing of the one-year anniversary of the triggering of Article 50.
As the event was being hosted by the Professional Bodies’ Forum of Scotland, there were attendees from many professional bodies, those present included Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment, Chartered Banker Institute, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, Institute of Chartered Accountant in England and Wales, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Law Society of Scotland, Pensions Management Institute and the CFA Society of the UK.
Attendees were ushered into the auditorium at 6:30pm where they were welcomed by Aidan Hetherington, Corporate Engagement Manager, University of Edinburgh Business School. Aidan provided a brief overview of the Business School’s activity surrounding the topic before handing over to Colin Anderson, CISI and Chair, Professional Bodies’ Forum of Scotland. Colin provided the audience with a great overview of the Forum’s activity and purpose before handing over to the panel of expert speakers for the evening.
Owen Kelly OBE acted as Chair for the panel and asked each panellist to briefly open the discussion on their thoughts regarding Brexit and the impact a No Deal could have on Scotland’s services. He was joined on the panel by Roger Mullin, Director, Momentous change, Lucy O’Carroll, Chief Economist, Aberdeen Standard Investments, Anthony Walters, Head of Public Relations, ACCA and Leigh-Ann Plenderleith, Head of Brexit Actuarial, Aberdeen Standard Investments.
Following each speaker’s opening remarks, Owen wonderfully kept the conversation flowing by posing further detailed questions to each speaker before opening to the floor for a Q&A session from the audience. There were some challenging questions which the panel addressed starting with looking at some of the positives that Brexit could bring to Scotland, considering the impact that a no deal would mean and are business leaders saying and doing enough to bring information on the table. There was discussion on the political nature of Brexit disregarding the business aspects, thoughts on the impact of the devaluation of sterling and the opportunity to build better relationships with clients regarding companies plans surrounding Brexit.
At the end there was a consensus that Government should be listening more to businesses in the service industry whilst providing more clarity on the agreements reached and regardless of your point of view you should be preparing for all outcomes. But ultimately a few just wanted to turn back time and not have the vote.
It was an engaging debate and it demonstrated the importance of having open discussions across all professions as we all have similar issues.
Following on from the session, the audience retired to the landing at the Business School for some networking, a glass of wine and to continue the debate surrounding the future of Scotland under the ever-changing potential Brexit implications.
Forthcoming events include a look at the Scottish Rate of Income Tax and how it will impact on Scotland’s workforce having different and higher tax rates than the rest of the UK. The Forum will also be starting the first of a series of events to assist those Accidental Managers, those technically gifted individuals that are created into managers but never really given the skills they need to manage a team of unique individuals.
About the Professional Bodies’ Forum of Scotland
Membership of a professional body is an ever increasing way of building your network and staying up to date with changes in the industry. Here in Scotland we can also see the greater benefit of occasionally working together to host events for all our different members, bringing investment professionals with legal professionals, actuaries and accountants with pension specialists and financial planners. Every professional body works towards benefiting our individual membership and the Professional Bodies’ Forum allows us to work closer together to deliver unique events for all professionals within Scotland.
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