The newly appointed president, McHattie is chair of onshore energy company Aurora Petroleum, a group he was instrumental in establishing in 2010, after a five-year stint as finance director of oil and gas investment fund, Energy Development Partners Limited. Most recently, he served on the Council of ICAS and as vice-president and deputy president.

At the annual general meeting on 22 April, ICAS released the 2015 annual report showing the latest profit on ordinary activities before tax of £170,000, significantly down on 2014, when the Group reported a £489,000 pre-tax profit. It did however report improved overall profitability with a profit of £259,000 (2014: £387,000).

Group income rose by £455,000 in 2015 to £15.57m, up from £15.12m in 2014, representing a 3% increase year on year at a time when costs increased from £14.74m to £15.68m over the period, reflecting investment in staffing and new technology, particularly with the move towards more effective digital communications.

In the ICAS annual report, chief executive Anton Colella commented on the group income figure: ‘Although this was less than the ambitious growth targets we had set for commercial income, ICAS saw growth across all key income streams, although income for the ICAS Foundation, which is shown in the Technical Policy segment fell by £72,000. We reported a strong student intake which was ahead of target and membership numbers continued to grow

The financial statements relate to the group which includes ICAS and the Charitable Trust, the ICAS Foundation.

ICAS also announced at its AGM that the membership has reached a record level of more than 21,000 chartered accountants (CAs), a 50% increase in members in the past 20 years.

In 2015, it signed up 992 CA students, up from 737 in 2013, and is looking to ensure that the trainee contracts are spread evenly across firms, and are not too reliant on the Big Four firms, all of whom use ICAS training programmes.

Primary revenue for ICAS is split between membership fees (48%) and education income (37%), with negligible income from commercial and publishing activities, and regulatory income.

ICAS now has nearly 10,500 members in Scotland and 7,229 members across England and Wales, with 3,033 international members. It is targeting overseas membership growth in the next 12 months through improving the digital communications with international members.

Trainee numbers are still dominated by Scotland-based student numbers, with 55% Scotland versus 45% in England.

Going forward in 2016, ICAS said that ‘there is an ongoing challenge to remain relevant to all our members but particularly those who live outwith the UK; the under 35s and the growing group of members who qualify and work in London’.

In terms of regulatory reach, in 2015 ICAS carried out 208 regulatory visits to authorised firms and conducted further regulatory visits to 25 ICAS IPs. It also audited 554 members’ declarations of their continuing professional development.

Over the last 12 months, it has also extended its oversight powers, with two new regulatory models, leading to recognition by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) as a supervisory body for local audit in England, and by the Civil Aviation Authority as a licensing body for ATOL Reporting Accountants in the UK.

Speaking at the AGM, McHattie said: ‘Our mission is to build the leading global professional community and I look forward to working tirelessly over the next 12 months on behalf of our 21,000 members to lead the next stage of delivering our ambitious plans.

 ‘I strongly believe that ICAS and our members have a key role to play in rebuilding trust in business through a focus on business ethics and personal responsibility. 

Speaking at the AGM, McHattie said: ‘Our mission is to build the leading global professional community and I look forward to working tirelessly over the next 12 months on behalf of our 21,000 members to lead the next stage of delivering our ambitious plans.

‘I strongly believe that ICAS and our members have a key role to play in rebuilding trust in business through a focus on business ethics and personal responsibility.

"Over the next 12 months I will focus on how we do this through our global initiative “The Power of One”.

The ICAS Power of One campaign, announced in November 2015, has a strong focus on ethics and integrity, and has set out a number of objectives to raise the quality of ethical financial management and leadership across the accounting profession.

ICAS will also take a strong leadership role in the advancement and application of ethics.  In particular it will:

• set out ethical leadership as the defining characteristic of our profession;
• build on the principles in the Code of Ethics to include moral courage;
• develop our approaches to education and regulation to focus even better on ethics and integrity;
• provide new guidance and support on how to exercise moral courage in support of what is right and in influencing and leading others to follow that example;
• facilitate mentoring relationships for our members to help them deal with any ethical matters arising and opportunities to provide ethical leadership to others; and
• develop new case studies to help members explore the different dimensions of a range of ethical dilemmas.