As the new Chair of Chartered Accountants Ireland Ulster Society, Gillian Sadlier wants to demonstrate the many benefits a career in the profession can offer potential new entrants

For Gillian Sadlier, the recently elected Chair of the Chartered Accountants Ireland Ulster Society, attracting and retaining accountancy talent will be a key priority in the months ahead. 

A Senior Manager with Bank of Ireland UK, Sadlier was elected as Chair of Chartered Accountants Ireland Ulster Society at its 117th AGM held in Belfast on June 7.

Taking office, Sadlier committed to advancing measures to address the skills shortage that is impacting the accountancy profession and wider economy in Northern Ireland.   
It is a cause close to Sadlier’s heart, having trained as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers and Lybrand (now PwC) in the early nineties after graduating from Queen’s University Belfast with an economics degree.

“I am immensely proud to be a Chartered Accountant and I feel hugely honoured and privileged to now hold the position of Chair of Chartered Accountants Ireland Ulster Society,” Sadlier says.

“My Dad always told me that accountancy was a solid career choice and maths was my first love at school, largely thanks to an inspirational teacher. I later found myself embarking on my Chartered journey when I started applying for jobs in the November of my final year of university and went on to train with Coopers and Lybrand in Belfast.”

Having trained on the small business team at Coopers and Lybrand, Sadlier moved into audit and took the opportunity to relocate to the firm’s Singapore office on a three-month secondment.

Already, she could see how building a career as a Chartered Accountant could open doors and enable mobility and opportunity on a global level.

“The Chartered Accountancy designation offers a wide range of career benefits – that’s very clear to me. Most of my career has been spent working in roles that have required me to hold the qualification, or an equivalent,” she says.

“Though I haven’t strayed too far from home, several of my peer group took advantage of the mobility offered by the qualification to progress their careers overseas in places like Australia, the US and the Cayman Islands.”

In her own early career, Sadlier chose to leave Coopers and Lybrand to join ASM Chartered Accountants in 1996. After nine years with the firm and having risen to Director level working across accountancy, audit and corporate finance, she moved to Invest NI, Northern Ireland’s economic development agency.

“I really enjoyed being involved in commercial due diligence work, which allowed me to get right ‘under the bonnet’ of a business, so when the opportunity arose shortly after the birth of my second child to join Invest NI as a Corporate Finance Executive, I took it,” she says.

 Sadlier spent seven years with Invest NI, carrying out commercial appraisals across a wide range of businesses.

“I was privileged to work with some of the largest and most successful indigenous businesses and inward investments in Northern Ireland, something I don’t think I would have experienced working elsewhere,” she says. 

 “In 2012, I joined Bank of Ireland as part of their ‘challenged’ team, spending two years working closely with a portfolio of business customers with stressed borrowing, before moving into the lending team in 2014.”  

Sadlier moved to her current role as a Senior Manager at Bank of Ireland’s UK Chief Executive’s Office in 2021.

“Based on my career experience alone, it’s clear that the skills required for, and developed through, the Chartered Accountancy qualification are highly transferable and can open doors to a very broad range of careers right across the public, private and third sectors.”

It is this message that Sadlier is intent on imparting to younger generations during her term as Chair of Chartered Accountants Ireland Ulster Society. 

Against the backdrop of skills shortages in Northern Ireland, she will focus on the need to attract and retain accountancy talent, so that the profession can continue to support economic growth and development. 

“Northern Ireland has so much economic potential, with unique access to Great Britain and EU markets, strong transport links with our neighbours, an educated workforce and a stable business environment,” she says.

“However, the skills shortage affecting so many companies is threatening our ability to realise this economic potential.” 

Recent research carried out for Chartered Accountants Ireland Ulster Society found that three-in-five (61%) of member businesses and organisations are currently experiencing skill shortages, compared to 62 percent in 2022 and 48 percent pre-COVID. 

Seventy-five percent of the Chartered Accountants Ireland Ulster Society members surveyed reported difficulty finding the right people for jobs in Northern Ireland. The same percentage said they expect the shortfall in skilled labour to negatively impact Northern Ireland’s economic performance in the year ahead.

“My focus in the coming months will be on promoting Chartered Accountancy as a profession. I want to show potential new entrants to the profession just how varied and full of opportunity a career in accountancy can be and to demonstrate the reality that being a Chartered Accountant genuinely allows you to become a ‘difference maker,’” Sadlier says.

This work will include engaging with second and third level students and working closely with trainees and young professionals to support them in the early stages of their careers.  

“Our qualification is widely regarded as an indicator of a broad range of skills and attributes, including professionalism, analytical ability, technical capability and commercial acumen,” Sadlier says.

 “Taken together with the mobility of the qualification, opportunities to develop personal and professional skills, pursue related specialisms and network effectively, the qualification really can open doors to endless career options.”