Finance professionals must lead the way to create sustainable businesses: CIMA President

• Nick Jackson FCMA, CGMA elected as 87th President of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants

Finance professionals have a vital role to play to make organisations stronger and more resilient in light of the coronavirus pandemic according to Nick Jackson FCMA, CGMA, the new President of The

CIMA President Nick Jackson

Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), the world’s leading professional body for management accountants. 

Jackson, an experienced digital transformation leader, was elected recently to the one-year volunteer post by CIMA members at the Institute’s first-ever virtual annual general meeting. He will also serve as Vice-Chair of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (the Association), the global accounting organisation formed by CIMA and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) representing over 650,000 accountants worldwide. 

In his acceptance speech, Jackson acknowledged the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the world, pushing economies and businesses to their limit. 

“Although events like COVID-19 are thankfully rare on a global scale, they do present an opportunity to make positive changes. We must be leaders in showing that change is not something to be afraid of.

“We can collectively do more. We should take this chance to reimagine what finance provides and how we work.”

“It’s a time: to build trust, to take responsibility, and to grasp this opportunity to deliver broader stakeholder benefits, that takes account of social, environmental and economic value.”

Jackson emphasised that finance professionals need to be agents of change and lead their organisation towards the adoption of more sustainable, responsible business practices. 

“We have to move beyond simply providing insight to the numbers, to bringing more value through recommendations and follow-up action. We need to recognise that the success of a business as exemplified by the figures on a balance-sheet, have many other elements – tangible and intangible. 

“Organisations’ operating models are made up of people, processes, supply chains. They exist in increasingly dynamic environments, and are, of course, answerable to a much broader audience of customers, suppliers and wider society. 

“I want to see us, as a profession broaden our perspective from a focus on shareholder value, to engage with the idea of stakeholders and their different definitions of ‘value’.” 

Jackson first became a CIMA member in 1992 and obtained his fellowship in 2008. In 2009, he was co-opted to CIMA Council in recognition of his role in promoting the value of CIMA for public sector finance professionals. In 2013, Jackson became Vice-Chair of the Professional Standards and Conduct Committee and a year later he was elected to CIMA’s Executive Committee. 

Jackson graduated with a degree in education from Exeter University. Throughout his career, he has had strong interest in financial management and performance improvement, working across a number of industries for both public and private organisations such as HM Treasury, EY, Capgemini, UK Ministry of Justice and Ofsted. 

Nick currently works for the software technology company Oracle, which he joined in 2016. He leads a team of business development directors working across Western Europe, supporting over 100 sales representatives. His team is responsible for developing and promoting industry-based propositions using Oracle Cloud services for financial and performance management.

Other appointments ratified at the CIMA Annual General Meeting are: 

Paul Ash FCMA, CGMA was elected as Deputy President

Melanie Kanaka FCMA, CGMA was elected as Vice President