In a statement, UKEB said: ‘It is with great sadness that the UKEB announces the death of our board member, Sandra Thompson.

‘Sandra was a highly valued member of the UKEB who carried out her role with enthusiasm and dedication. As an inaugural board member, and the first chair of our Accounting Firms and Institutes Advisory Group, her passion for accounting, as well as her formidable technical skills and intellect, were influential in building the core foundations of the organisation that UKEB is today.

‘Sandra will be greatly missed by the UKEB board and secretariat as well as her friends within the wider international accounting community. Our thoughts are with her family at this time.’

Thompson had a long and very successful career at PwC, where she spent over 15 years and was partner, global accounting consulting services, as well as being the lead in PwC’s UK technical accounting team. She was also a key member of the leadership team for PwC’s Global IFRS accounting group, developing, shaping and setting strategy then overseeing delivery.

Former PwC colleagues, who worked with her at the firm held her in awe and said she was an absolute accounting expert, describing her as ‘so clever and a lovely lady’, adding she will be ‘very dearly missed’.

Peter Hogarth, corporate reporting services leader at PwC UK, said: ‘We were heartbroken to learn that Sandra had passed away. She was a much-loved member of our team for many years; truly one of a kind, admired and respected throughout the firm, not only for her immense knowledge of some of the most complex areas of accounting but also for her ability to explain things in a most straightforward way.

‘Her warmth, kindness, and infectious enthusiasm left a wonderful legacy, not just at PwC but for our profession as a whole. She will be deeply missed.’

After retirement in 2020, Thompson, a recognised accounting expert with deep IFRS and financial services expertise, and ICAEW fellow, joined UKEB as an inaugural board member and was heavily involved in the development of financial reporting internationally, helping to ensure that UK views were effectively represented in this area.

Over the years, Thompson also worked for a number of years outside practice at the global IFRS and UK accounting standard setters.

She was at the IFRS Foundation at a critical stage from 2001 to 2005, in the runup to EU, and of course UK, adoption of IFRS, where she was principal project director leading the team focusing on financial instruments projects at the global standard setter, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). She also spent some years at the UK Accounting Standards Board, before it became the Financial Reporting Council (FRC).

Thompson started her accountancy career as a trainee at Arthur Anderson in the late 1980s, after her BA (Hons) in Accounting at the University of Exeter.