“Ask the simple question – if it doesn’t make sense, why not?”

Jonathan Wilson talks us through his career from his training in Belfast in the nineties through to his current role as Managing Director, Chief Internal Auditor with Barclays Europe

In the 30 years since he began his training contract in 1993 with BDO Stoy Hayward in Belfast, Jonathan Wilson has carved out an accomplished career in internal audit in banks ranging from National Australia Bank and Danske to NatWest and now Barclays. Here, he tells Accountancy Ireland why he chose to specialise in audit and the decisions, opportunities and lessons that have helped him progress his career to date.

Do you remember when and why you decided to train as a Chartered Accountant?

When I was ten or 11, it seemed like all the kids around me wanted to be pilots or astronauts. I wanted to be an accountant. My uncle was an accountant, and I had a genuine interest in business – in particular, business performance – from a young age. 
That’s why, when I finished at Methodist College in Belfast, I chose to study economics at Queen’s and, from there, to join BDO Stoy Hayward in 1993 to train as a Chartered Accountant.

I got great training with really broad experience and, at an early stage, decided I wanted a career in industry rather than practice. 

I started to focus on internal audit and risk management and joined Northern Bank in Belfast as a Senior Auditor in 1999. 

Because National Australia Bank owned Northern Bank at that time, I got the opportunity to move to Melbourne in 2002 as a Senior Audit Manager working across areas ranging from corporate banking to retail services, finance and risk.

That role also allowed me to work in New Zealand and in Asia and, when Northern Bank was taken over by Danske Bank in Ireland, I was asked to come back to help manage the transition as its Head of Internal Audit in the North and south.

After five years, I was given responsibility for Danske Banks’ Internal Audit in new markets including Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, Poland and the Baltics.

I then had a brief period as Group Chief Auditor with the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation followed by 18 months as Head of Audit with AIB. I joined NatWest as Chief Auditor in 2014 and started in my current role with Barclays in January 2023. 

Are you glad you decided to qualify as a Chartered Accountant? Has the qualification helped or hindered your career?

Being a Chartered Accountant can open up so many professional opportunities. You need a lot of discipline, patience and perseverance to earn the qualification in the first place and this experience has helped me enormously in my career since.

Chartered Accountants can work in a really broad range of environments – from all kinds of businesses to practice or the public sector – you name it. This scope has given me a strong grounding in understanding how business works, not just from a financial point of view, but also in a broader sense.

Tell us about your current role as Chief Internal Auditor with Barclays Europe.

When I joined Barclays, it had been in Ireland for more than 30 years, but it was facing a new set of very exciting opportunities in the wake of the Brexit vote. 

I now lead a very experienced team of audit professionals based in Dublin, Paris and Frankfurt. The organisation is incredibly diverse, not just geographically but also in terms of the people I work with every day.

I am ultimately responsible for the quality of the assurance work our team provides and I am lucky to have a team of strong directors working with me.

As well as our assurance work, we are expected to add real value to the business in terms of risk management and systems of internal control.

What are the biggest trends and developments you have seen in your profession and the wider market since starting out?

Traditionally, auditing was very manual with lots of paper records stored in Lever Arch files and big, heavy briefcases. Audit software was only just beginning to emerge at the start of my career and it’s amazing to reflect now on how much this whole area has since evolved.

Today, we are dealing with metadata and approaching the operating audit with a much greater emphasis on digital tools. Auditors nowadays need to be digitally enabled and we are also beginning to look at how we can use artificial intelligence in our work in the future.

When I did my MBA with Manchester Business School, my specialist topic focused on the various financial crises we have experienced going right back to the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

In the years since, the time lag between financial crises has narrowed dramatically. We used to get one every 50 years, but now we are finding ourselves in a crisis every five or ten years.

I have experienced a number of these crises working in internal audit, and my international experience has given me a good perspective on how best to deal with them.

Is there anything in particular you have learned in your career that has stood you in good stead?

When I was with National Australian Group, Mark Martinelli was the Chief Auditor. He was a big influence on me.

He taught me to ask the simple question: “If it doesn’t make sense, why doesn’t it make sense?” 

We can get carried away, agonising over complex and difficult tasks and challenges. Sometimes, the best approach is to return to your key audit principles and ask this one simple question – and keep hold of it until you get the answer.

Audit standards have been developed and refined over the years, but the core principles are the same today as they were when I was starting my career.

Our role is about providing assurance and gathering sufficient audit evidence; it’s about our control objectives. Asking the simple questions is vital.

What career advice would you offer your younger self if you had the opportunity?

Don’t narrow your horizons. Keep your aspirations broad and try to work across as many different companies and countries as you can. 

Also, do things you like to do and enjoy what you are doing. My son once considered a career in medicine, but he’s now an accountant – somewhat to my surprise! 

When he told me he had taken a job with a film company making documentaries for Netflix, Disney and Amazon, I had some concerns given the insecure nature of the industry. Then I thought, “Actually, that sounds really exciting”. In the end, I told him to go for it – he would have anyway!

I suppose my advice is that you shouldn’t make choices in your career to please anyone else. Do the things you want to do for yourself and don’t be afraid of failure.

Finally, what are your career plans from here on in?

I love the job I have right now. I’ve only been with Barclays for a short time and I have the ‘fuel in the tank’ to expand and develop in this role. It is a big challenge, but it’s very enjoyable.

Another aspect of my career as a Chartered Accountant I find really rewarding is the scope it has given me to apply my skills volunteering as a trustee with various charities and sporting organisations. 

I have done a lot of volunteering outside my ‘day job’ and my background in Chartered Accountancy has been incredibly valuable here.

When eventually I am no longer working full-time, I hope to be able to continue in non-executive board positions and to continue to use my skills and experience where it may be required.