Katrina Wingfield, who heads Penningtons Solicitors LLP's professional regulation group, has been appointed as Lay Chairman of the new Regulatory Board of ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), the global body for professional accountants which has 122,000 members and 325,000 students in 170 countries worldwide.
The introduction of the Regulatory Board brings together all of ACCA's previous governance arrangements for regulation and discipline into a single entity. It will oversee work in licensing practitioners, setting standards, monitoring firms of accountants, fulfilling lead regulator requirements and investigating complaints. This development keeps ACCA at the forefront of best practice in regulatory and disciplinary governance. Setting apart regulation and discipline from the governance of ACCA's other activities helps to reassure stakeholders that ACCA's arrangements are operated impartially and in the public interest. The Board comprises three members of ACCA's Council and seven independent 'lay' appointees.
Katrina Wingfield is a solicitor advocate with higher rights of audience in civil courts. She has 30 years' experience in professional regulation and is ranked in the top band in her field by Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession. She joined Penningtons as a partner in 2000 and prosecutes disciplinary cases on behalf of a range of professional regulatory bodies as well as advising on appeals, judicial reviews and procedural matters. She is also a President of the Mental Health Review Tribunal, a Chairman of the Appeal Panel for the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board and the Director of Appeals for the General Dental Council.
Katrina is delighted at her appointment. She says: "I am looking forward to being involved in the regulation of this leading global professional body and ensuring that it maintains the high standards expected by both its members and the international community as a whole."