Kathryn Britten Wins Women Of Achievement Award For Accountancy

We are delighted to announce that Kathryn Britten, partner at BDO and head of Forensic Accounting, has won the Woman of Achievement award in the accountancy category.

The Women in the City Women of Achievement Award has been judged on Kathryn’s contribution to championing issues that are relevant and beneficial to women both in her work place and within the profession as a whole.

Kathryn has been a keen supporter and promoter of working arrangements that help achieve a balanced lifestyle believing this is integral to the business case for retaining and developing female talent.  She was instrumental in inaugurating ‘The Work Life Balance Challenge Fund’ project at BDO, which led to the implementation of major initiatives to give employees, especially women, greater flexibility in their working lives.  Kathryn was also involved in BDO’s Value-based Leadership Training Programme, designed to develop and expand work horizons for female staff.

As a member of the ICAEW’s Narrowing the Gap Steering Committee, Kathryn contributes to the advice provided by the Institute for its members on issues relating to gender diversity.   As chairman of the ICAEW’s Workplace initiative Kathryn also steered the ICAEW’s study “Flexible Futures: Flexible working and work-life integration in the accountancy profession”.

Kathryn said of the award: ““It is a great honour to receive this award and I am grateful to all of my colleagues at BDO for their continuing encouragement and support for women at all levels throughout the firm. Recognising and nurturing female talent and female role-models has never been more important, and I welcome and encourage initiatives that inspire others by raising awareness of the achievements and impact of women throughout the business world."

Simon Michaels, Managing Partner of BDO, said: “We are delighted that Kathryn’s work and dedication has been recognised in this way. We are proud that Kathryn and BDO is one of the leaders for women in the accountancy profession and we all congratulate her on winning this award.”

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For more information, please contact Matthew Longbottom at BDO on 020 7893 2717 or email matthew.longbottom@bdo.co.uk

Notes to editors:

About Kathryn Britten:

Kathryn is National Head of Forensic Accounting at BDO LLP, leading a team of 150 partners and staff in 7 national offices.  She joined the firm in 1990, after a 6 year career break to focus on her family, and became a partner in 1995.  Kathryn has developed her professional expertise over the years and is now a fellow and member of the council of the Academy of Experts; a member of the Expert Witness Institute and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; a Certified Fraud Examiner and a CEDR trained Mediator.  She has acted as an Expert Witness in over 200 disputes and regularly provides pre-action advisory services to parties considering litigation or arbitration.

About BDO:

BDO LLP operates across the UK with over 3,000 partners and staff. BDO LLP is a UK limited liability partnership and the UK Member Firm of BDO International. BDO International is a world-wide network of public accounting firms, called BDO Member Firms, serving international clients. Each BDO Member Firm is an independent legal entity in its own country. The Belfast Firm is operated by a separate Partnership.

BDO LLP and BDO - Belfast are both authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority to conduct investment business.

BDO is an award winning firm.  Recent achievements include:

• ''100 Best Companies to Work For' - The Sunday Times 2008
• Best Workplace UK' - Financial Times 2008
• 'Top 50 Where Women Want to Work' - The Times 2007
• 'Employer of the Year' - Accountancy Age Awards 2007
• 'Global Firm of the Year' - Accountancy Age Awards 2006