UHY confirms company veteran Colin Wright as Chair

British-origin professional services firm UHY Hacker Young Group has appointed a new Chair, as the auditing sector of the UK faces a period of continuous change. Colin Wright replaces outgoing Jon Warsop, who held the position at UHY for the last five years.

The UHY Hacker Young Group is one of the UK’s leading groups of accounting and consulting professionals, with over 100 Partners and 540 professional staff operating from 23 offices across the country. Since its founding in London in 1925, the firm has offered a broad range of services for owners of family businesses, including book-keeping and auditing, tax compliance and advice, corporate recovery and company secretarial services.

The firm has been working to expand its services across its native market in recent months. In March 2019, this saw the appointment of Andrew Timms as a new Partner in its Nottingham office. Now, as UHY continues to grow across Britain and bolster the level of expertise in its upper echelons, it has installed a new Chair, replacing Jon Warsop, who has occupied the role since 2014.

Colin Wright brings more than 25 years of experience to the role, having spent a long career in audit and assurance, financial reporting and corporate finance. He is an audit partner for companies and not-for-profit organisations across a number of sectors, and will work with UHY to continue its strategy of growth, mergers and helping regional offices build up their international networks. Under the stewardship of Wright, UHY’s Board will now aim to ensure their clients continue to prosper and successfully navigate the increasingly rapid changes in their sectors to achieve their goals.

Having initially trained at EY’s Trinidad & Tobago wing, Wright progressed to an Audit Senior at the Big Four firm, before joining the London office of UHY Hacker Young in 1996. Broken up by a three year spell as a Director at Aegis Business Solutions, Wright has worked two stints at UHY Hacker Young, totalling a combined period of 19 years. He has been an Audit Partner at the firm since 2007.

Commenting on his new challenge, Wright stated, “The UHY Hacker Young Group will continue the development of its sector focus adding to its market-leading practices in: automotive, charities, education, property, hospitality, technology, natural resources, healthcare, financial services, drinks & breweries, agriculture and capital markets… Our country is currently experiencing significant change, uncertainty and technological opportunities. While business is never certain, change is constant and becoming more rapid, and our clients will always be challenged, seek opportunities and need our help as accountants and professional advisers.”

Speaking on the future of the auditing sector, and the UK economy more generally, Wright added, “Our profession is at a cross roads with reviews of the audit market suggesting major changes will be needed to ensure improvements in audit quality are achieved… No matter what happens with Brexit, globalisation and increasing internationalisation of businesses is not going to stop. Our access, through our international network, to markets in more than 300 major business centres across 100 countries is only going to become more important.”