Accounting Firms & Institutes Advisory Group (AFIAG)

AFIAG Chair 

Tony Clifford was appointed as a Member of the UKEB on 1 March 2024.

Tony was a partner in EY UK from 1991 to 2020. In the earlier part of his career, he was an auditor and advisor to banks and other financial institutions and served on the ICAEW Banking Committee. More recently, he headed up an accounting consulting group while leading EY’s UK accounting technical department and was a member of EY’s Global IFRS Policy Committee. For many years he was Co-Chair of EY’s global financial instruments accounting specialist network and was an advisor to ISDA’s European Accounting Committee, in which roles he played a significant role in the development and application of the accounting standards for financial instruments. He served as a consultant to EY until June 2023 and continues, independently, to provide financial instruments advisory services.

Tony also served on the PRA Taskforce on Disclosures about Expected Credit Losses, the Bank of England Risk Free Rate Accounting Task Force, and the BEIS Brexit Stakeholder Committee, which helped create the structure for the UK Endorsement Board. He is currently also a governor of an independent school.

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.