Committee election candidates

Claire is an Audit Director in KPMG and has been with the firm since joining as a trainee in 2011. She has extensive experience providing audit and assurance services in a wide range of sectors, across the UK & Ireland from PLCs and multinationals to family owned and local businesses.

Claire has been actively involved in Ulster Society for a number of years, joining Main Committee in 2021. She is currently convenor of the Teaching, Education and Careers Committee having previously been a member of this sub-committee from 2017-2020. Claire has also been part of the Young Professionals Committee, joining in 2016 and taking on the convenor role in 2021.

Jenna is currently Finance Director at Whiterock and, as part of the senior management team, is integral to delivering the strategic plans and driving the future success of the business. Prior to Whiterock, Jenna was an assistant manager in KPMG Audit Belfast, working on a variety of NI companies. 

Throughout her career she has developed an extensive network across the NI business community, working in partnership with local SMEs, advisors and other stakeholders. She has an in-depth knowledge of the opportunities and challenges facing businesses and is keen to represent these companies at committee level. 

Jenna has completed the Certificate in Sustainability Strategy, Risk and Reporting and sees this as an area in which accountants will play a vital role going forward. She has demonstrated strong commitment to the Ulster Society over the last 10 years through her involvement in various sub-committees including Member Services, CAB and YPG.  As temporary convenor of Member Services, she has taken a lead role in organising some of the society’s largest events. Jenna is Chair of Leaders NI, a volunteer committee that aims to foster leadership development in NI, organising the highly successful Young Leaders Conference and a new flagship event in 2024.

Karen trained as a Chartered Accountant with PwC and qualified in 2005.  Initially based at their Dungannon office, and in later years, Belfast, she had the opportunity to work with a diverse range of audit clients in many industries across both private and public sector. Her tenure at PwC culminated in a senior manager role with the Internal Audit team, providing compliance and advisory services to iconic Northern Ireland companies.

In 2019 Karen joined EY audit and currently works with both locally based large groups, and UK statutory entities that have globally based finance teams. Karen progressed to EY Audit Director in October 2023 and now serves as a UK wide audit representative voice to the EY UK Managing Partner.

Karen has a long association with Chartered Accountants Ireland, in particular with the examinations team, and she has been an active member of the Ulster Society’s sub-committee, Training, Education & Careers, since 2019. 

An enthusiastic participant in Ulster Society events, Karen is eager to leverage her background and network to contribute to the main committee's activities.

Jason is a current member of Main Committee, having first been elected in 2020, and has served as convenor of the Chartered Accountants in Business sub-committee for the past two years. His involvement with the Ulster Society goes back to his student days, and he has remained an active member of the society ever since, greatly enjoying the opportunity to contribute to the Institute and profession.  

His current role is Senior Finance Manager for Global Accounting at Seagate Technology, with responsibility for regional controllership in the UK and Ireland (as well as a number of other global locations), external reporting, and global travel and expense. Prior to this, he trained at Deloitte in Belfast before progressing to the role of audit manager.  He is keen to play an active role in Main Committee, representing all members’ interests with a particular focus on members working in business as well as members in the north west. 

Outside of work, Jason is married to Gemma (also a Chartered Accountant) and has two young sons, Alex and Luca (not yet Chartered Accountants…but he's working on it!).