A young County Down Chartered Accountant has won the ‘Young Chartered Star’ 2018 competition and will represent the Irish Chartered Accountancy profession at the ‘One Young World’ conference in The Hague in the Netherlands later this year.

Michael J Walls will represent the Institute at the prestigious international conference from 17 - 20 October 2018, along with other representatives of the Chartered Accountants Worldwide network.

Michael, 34, from Hilltown, County Down, qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2011. He trained with KPMG in Belfast and worked in industry for a number of years. His most recent role saw him become Finance Director with UrbanVolt. Michael has since stepped down from his full-time role at UrbanVolt to pursue his own business venture.

To enter the competition, Michael wrote an article on his career and particularly impressed the judging panel with his activity as an advocate for the Chartered Accountancy qualification, and his honest portrayal of his path to qualification. The panel also noted his involvement with the Young Professionals Committee as Chair in 2014.