Grant Thornton appoints Richard Thomas as director
Richard Thomas has joined Grant Thornton to bolster the firm’s public sector offering. He arrives as its new head of financial reporting and accounting support services.
Mark Stocks, head of public sector assurance, Grant Thornton UK, commented, “We’re thrilled to welcome Richard to the firm. Public sector accounting has grown significantly more complex over the past few years and the demands on finance teams are increasing. Richard will be vital to the successful delivery of this new, much-needed service, supporting finance teams through this challenging period. The creation of this offering demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the public sector and dedication to listening to, and adapting to meet, our clients’ evolving needs.”
Grant Thornton’s public sector assurance team provides independent assurance across the range of public sector bodies, including local authorities and NHS, to assess risks and processes, and help them to build trust. As head of public sector financial reporting and accounting support, Thomas will lead the development and delivery of a new service offering for the firm, to support public sector finance functions with complex accounting and finance challenges.
The new offering will provide specialist advice and additional capacity for finance teams to support with specific technical accounting issues, accounting standard implementation, financial reporting, one off events or specialist support for decision making, and process improvement for accounts production and audit readiness.
To oversee this, Thomas joins the firm with over 22 years’ experience supporting organisations across the public sector. He brings with him extensive knowledge, after acting as an external auditor within local government and health over a 21-year stint with PwC. He now specialises in providing support to public sector finance functions around technical accounting, financial reporting, finance function improvement and control and process improvement. He also specialises in supporting public sector organisations with large-scale accounting and assurance delivery projects in central government.
Commenting on his appointment, Thomas, added, “I am delighted to be joining Grant Thornton and am excited to develop a service that provides public sector finance functions with access to specialist capacity to successfully deal with many of the complex challenges that they face. Grant Thornton is known for its commitment to the public sector and I’m looking forward to working with the expert team here to further diversify the firm’s offering.”
Grant Thornton’s renewed emphasis on public sector audit comes at a time when it seems to have taken a step back from top-tier private sector clients. According to figures from the Financial Reporting Council, since 2016, Grant Thornton has removed more than 70% of public interest entity clients from its books, including prominent listed companies and insurers.