MEET THE

TEAM

Find out more about the Growth Experts and Advisory Board behind The Accountants' Growth Club, and AGC Digital

OUR FOUNDER

Heather Townsend - AMC

HEATHER TOWNSEND

FOUNDER AND BRAND AMBASSADOR

Heather has been helping accountants grow their practice for 20+ years. She is the author of 6 books including The Accountants Millionaires' Club, Profitable Pricing For Accountants and The Go-To Expert. She is an in demand international professional speaker both for virtual and physical events, and has spoken at the largest conferences in the world including Xerocon, Accountex and QBConnect San Jose. Heather designs training programmes for the club and provides high level coaching.

OUR RELATIONSHIP MANAGER

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MATT THOMSON

RELATIONSHIP MANAGER

Matt has over 20 years experience working in the finance industry for a number of leading banks, mainly as a relationship manager within wealth management. The majority of his career has been spent in the offshore jurisdiction of Jersey.

This experience has led him to develop a pragmatic, positive attitude which he applies to deliver a high level of service for all the counterparties he deals with. Based on this, he is a point of contact for members to ensure they receive maximum benefit from their membership.

OUR GROWTH EXPERTS

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DAN SHEFFIELD

GROWTH EXPERT

Dan specialises in helping members grow their practice from £500k+ in turnover.

He has been there and done it when it comes to creating a positive culture and high performing teams — he was the youngest store manager for Abercrombie & Fitch, with over 150 staff reporting to him.

After an initial career in retail working up to multi site management level, Dan took a career change and retrained as an executive coach whilst spending time in B2B sales and business consulting.

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MARIO DE-CRESCENZO

GROWTH EXPERT

Mario brings over two decades of senior leadership experience in accountancy and payroll, with an impressive record at executive board level. His expertise spans operational roles and business development in the UK, India, and the Philippines. Mario is adept in operations, outsourcing, and growth strategy, backed by a robust professional network and exposure to complex business challenges. Transitioning from corporate roles, he embraced transformational coaching in 2019, enriching his skillset.

Mario specialises in blending business growth coaching with personal development, guiding clients towards holistic progress, one step at a time.

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MICHAEL HAIGH

GROWTH EXPERT

Michael is a credentialed coach with the International Coaching Federation and a Board Member for the North West Region in the UK. He has 30+ years of background in Coaching and Mentoring.

He typically coaches and mentors around leadership and people management, mindset, and life engineering. Michael takes an integrated approach to coaching and mentoring, meeting you where you are. Your sessions are a time for you to speak, to be listened to and heard. Michael’s role is to help you navigate where you want to get to. 

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VIKKI BENTWOOD

GROWTH EXPERT

Vikki, former head of marketing and business development, has over 18 years of experience helping senior professionals grow their portfolios.

She has mentored professionals to devise achievable business development plans and helped them gain the knowledge and power to action them. She understands the difficult internal and external challenges professionals encounter when it comes to winning new business. 

She will motivate and guide you to set realistic goals and create business development plans that are easily actionable. She can also support your learning on new technology such as social media.

AGC DIGITAL

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CHARLOTTE RYAN

HEAD OF AGC DIGITAL & SENIOR MARKETING STRATEGIST

Charlotte has expertise in all aspects of marketing, PPC, SEO, copywriting, social media, competitor research, reporting & brand work. Aptly, with a background in internal marketing at an accounting firm working alongside 14 partners with 5 different offices, she uniquely understands how to market to clients of small accounting firms. She runs our outsourced marketing service AGC DIGITAL and can help you with any hands-on marketing needs and services.

Robbie Finlay

ROBBIE FINLAY

MARKETING EXECUTIVE & SOCIAL MEDIA COPYWRITER

Robbie specialises in helping accountants put what they’re thinking on paper through social media copywriting and engagement. He has over 4 years in digital marketing with accountants. Able to change hats between clients, he really nails your tone of voice, so you really can be in two places at once. 

He also has expertise in email marketing.

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BECKY ROGERS

MARKETING CONTENT & COPY EXPERT

Becky has been helping write content and copy for accountants for the last 5 years. She is responsible for writing most of the white-labelled marketing content for members as well as providing bespoke content for members.

She is on hand as a sounding board in the club's Content Creator Club to help members get their marketing communications just right.

ADVISORY TEAM

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PAUL MILLER

Advisory Board Member and Founder of Cornish Accounting

Paul founded Cornish Accounting 25 years ago. Cornish Accounting is a small rural family run practice with a big vision and a strong heart. They are specialists in hospitality businesses and one of the early adopters of the cloud. (And most new accounting packages and software to be honest!) In the last year since Paul decided to grow his practice to one million pounds, he has added on £100k of profitable income. He expects to get Cornish Accounting to be a one million pound practice within the next 5 years.

His accolades and endorsements include:

  • Xero Accounting Partner of the year 2015
  • Xero Gold Practice
  • First UK based certified Reckon practice

JESSICA PILLOW

Advisory Board Member and founder of Pillow May

Jessica is a disruptor and pioneer in accountancy. She set up Pillow May in 2009 to break free from industry stereotypes. Pillow May have been early adopters of cloud software, cloud bookkeeping, fixed-fee pricing and many other things!

Jessica herself is passionate about cloud accounting software, process automation technology, and promoting the efficiency benefits of flexible & remote working practices.

The Women in Accounting and Finance Awards:

  • Small Practice Leader of the Year
  • Small Practice Inspiration Award.
  • B1G1 Sustainable Habit award 2020
  • Chippenham Business Awards 2020 - Chippenham's charitable business of the year award 2020
JESSICA PILLOW
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GUY ROBINSON

Advisory Board Member and founder of Xebra Accounting

Guy founded Xebra Accounting in 2011, after being a partner with BDO and building up his office of Moore Stephens to be a £1.4m practice. Xebra Accounting is the fastest growing small accountancy practice in Hampshire. In the last twelve months it grew by over 40% and the rapid growth doesn’t show any sign of letting up! They plan to be a one million pound practice in the next 3-5 years. Unlike most small accountancy practices, Guy’s clients pay a minimum of £5,000 per year. As you would expect, Xebra is a fully cloud based practice but see themselves more as a business advisor to their clients rather than a traditional accountant.

His accolades and endorsements include:

  • Xero Platinum partner
  • Xero’s most valued professional

SIAN KELLY

Advisory Board Member and founder of Inform Accounting

Sian formed Inform Accounting in 2012. In a very short space of time she has grown Inform Accounting into a 20 strong team turning over £900,000 each year. Inform Accounting is predicted to become a one million pound practice within the next 2 years. They have grown via a mixture of organic growth and two small acquisitions.

As you would expect from a modern fully cloud based practice, their clients are all on Xero and pay monthly via direct debit

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