Accounting Firms & Institutes Advisory Group (AFIAG)

AFIAG Chair 

Sandra Thompson was appointed as an inaugural Member of the UKEB on 15 March 2021. 

Sandra is a chartered accountant with over thirty years’ experience in accounting standards, including as a national standard setter in the UK and leading the financial instruments team at the IASB in the period up to the adoption of IFRS by the EU in 2001.

She subsequently became an accounting technical partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she led the UK financial instruments team during the global financial crisis and subsequent recovery, before moving to lead the global financial instruments team through the adoption of IFRS 9 (the new financial instruments standard), IFRS 16 (the new leasing standard) and the finalisation of IFRS 17 (the new insurance standard). She was a prominent member of PwC’s global accounting leadership team, leading its strategic work on communications, until her retirement from the firm in 2020.

Sandra also acts as an executive coach and has a number of voluntary roles in her local community.

AFIAG Members

Andrea Allocco is a Partner in PwC’s Accounting Consulting Services Group based in London. She advises the firm and its clients on IFRS accounting and financial reporting matters. In particular, she has been most recently focused on revenue recognition, liabilities and presentation as well as the consumer markets, technology, pharmaceuticals and energy and utilities industries. 

Andrew Spooner is a Partner of Deloitte LLP. Andrew is an IFRS technical partner based in the UK leading Deloitte’s UK national office, advising on IFRS in the UK and internationally as well as UK GAAP. Andrew specialises in financial services including being Deloitte’s global IFRS lead on financial instruments and part of Deloitte’s IFRS leadership. Andrew is a former member of EFRAG’s technical expert group from 2015 to 2020 and chair of EFRAG’s financial instruments working group.

Chris Smith is a Chartered Accountant and Audit Partner at Grant Thornton UK LLP. He leads the technical team for the audit practice and is a member of the global Grant Thornton International IFRS steering committee.

Claire Needham is a Partner at Azets where she specialises in Technical Accounting and Audit. Claire joined Azets in January 2021, having previously worked at a big 4 firm for 19 years across audit and accounting advisory services. She provides technical accounting training and accounting advice to clients on areas such as new accounting standards, application of accounting policies, GAAP conversions, group re-organisations and acquisitions and disposals.  She is passionate about working with, and helping, clients across a wide range of sectors, sizes and ownership structures within the Yorkshire region and beyond.

Danielle Stewart OBE runs a specialist International Financial Reporting team at RSM UK and has a large portfolio of middle market corporate clients. She sits on the firm’s Accounting and Business Advisory Leadership team and Chairs the Technical Developments Group. In order to ensure that she stays at the cutting edge of developments, Danielle has throughout her career been deeply involved in the regulatory side of the profession, by way of membership of various Committees and Boards. In June 2013, she received an OBE from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of her lifelong services to developing accountancy regulation and standards.

David Littleford is a chartered accountant and an accounting technical partner with KPMG in the UK.  He has over thirty years’ experience in the development, endorsement, interpretation and application of accounting standards both in the UK and internationally and across all sectors.  David has first-hand experience of endorsement mechanisms, having been seconded to the European Commission from 2001-2003 during the implementation and initial endorsement of IFRS in the EU.  David has led and remains actively involved in KPMG’s outreach to investors, to better understand their corporate reporting needs.

James Barbour is Director, Policy Leadership, at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), where he oversees the work on various areas including Audit and Assurance, Ethics and Corporate and Financial Reporting. He is a member of Accountancy Europe (AE)’s Audit and Assurance Policy Group, Professional Ethics and Competencies Working Group, and is the ICAS representative at the AE Members’ Assembly. He is also an Honorary Professor in the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow.

John Boulton is Policy Director within ICAEW’s Reputation & Influence Department, positioning the Institute at the forefront of business thought leadership by calibrating its policy work against best practice and ensuring that ICAEW’s policy work is influential in leading forums internationally. He is a former member of the FASB's Advisory Council and former Chair of the London Society of Chartered Accountants' Financial Reporting Discussion Group.

Moses Serfaty is a Principal in the Financial Reporting team within BDO LLP’s Technical Standards Group. He advises and supports the audit practice on IFRS, UK GAAP and areas of company law relevant to corporate reporting. He is a member of BDO’s global IFRS policy committee, and the ICAEW’s Financial Reporting Faculty’s Editorial Board.

Richard Moore is a Partner in EY’s Financial Reporting Group, based in London. He has more than 25 years' experience in technical roles, obtaining a broad knowledge of IFRS as well as UK GAAP, Company Law requirements and other reporting matters.  He is a member of EY’s Financial Instrument Working Group, has chaired EY’s foreign currency Topical Expert Group and is co-author and reviewer of the firm’s leading publication ‘International GAAP.’ 

Sharon Machado is the Head of Sustainable Business within ACCA’s Policy and Insights team.  Sharon and her team generate future looking thought leadership research and influence policy relating to the technical domains of sustainable finance, ethics, governance, risk, corporate reporting, tax, business law, audit and assurance.  This work has the aim of driving better business through the role of professional accountants. Since joining ACCA, her roles have also included shaping the ACCA Qualification and its digital transformation.