An up and coming Aberdeen corporate finance specialist has been crowned Accountant of the Year in the Scottish Accountancy and Finance Awards.
Melanie Gilmour, assistant director of Hall Morrice Corporate Finance (HMCF), received the accolade at an awards ceremony last week (Thursday, 14 June).
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The award comes just days after the 29-year-old was named as one to watch in a list of 2018’s Top 100 Young CAs and announced as a finalist in the Rising Star category of the Northern Star Business Awards.
Melanie helped to establish HMCF in April last year along with managing director and corporate finance veteran Tom Faichnie. She was initially appointed to the role of manager and was promoted to the assistant director role earlier this month.
The pair had previously worked together at another national operation and launched HMCF to fill a gap in the market for servicing small and fast-growing companies with an approach more typical of a Big 4 accountancy firm.
Over the past year Melanie has shown herself to be the lynchpin of the organisation, acting on a series of high-profile transactions and receiving glowing testimonials from clients for her eye for detail and the critical role she has played in their success.
Melanie says, “I was genuinely surprised to receive this award as I had been entered into the Young Accountant of the Year category. I was a little disappointed not to be shortlisted as a finalist for that category, but to then discover that the judges had actually put me up forward for the overall Accountant of the Year award more than makes up for it.
“It’s been an absolute whirlwind year for HMCF and the business continues to go from strength to strength. I think some people may have questioned the strategy that Tom and I had in place, but we knew that we were launching at exactly the right time for an uplift in the oilfield services market.
“We knew there would be a benefit to being the first mover in a depressed market and we’re now working with a number of young and innovative companies, supporting them with funding applications and financial modelling, and putting into place foundations that will last through the life cycle of their business.”
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The award, which was presented at a ceremony in Glasgow with the leading lights of Scotland’s finance industry, tops off an incredible few weeks for Melanie.
After making it onto the Top 100 list in the Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland (ICAS) poll, she is in the running for the ICAS One Young CA 2018 to be announced next week. The final of the Northern Star Business Awards, which is organised annually by Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, takes place on September 27.
HMCF managing director Tom Faichnie adds, “Everyone at the firm, including our partners at Hall Morrice LLP, is extremely proud of all that Melanie has achieved. She is an incredibly tenacious and hardworking individual, always showing determination to go above and beyond to make a transaction happen for a client.
“I have a file overflowing with positive feedback from clients who say that Melanie has been instrumental in their success. She very much embodies the whole ethos of HMCF – she doesn’t want to box what we do around lead advisory or due diligence, instead focusing on supporting a client through a full process.”
