Director David Page is currently celebrating ten years with Charter Tax, having joined in January 2010 as its first employee, after Janet Pierce had set up the firm a few months before. He had previously worked with Janet but admits that leaving the fairly large firm he’d been at for a few years to join a start-up could have been regarded as a bit risky.
“To be fair, I made the decision in my pre-children days,” he says with a smile. “But, I could clearly see where Janet wanted to take the business and I was keen to be involved with something which was clearly growing. I also relished the challenge of being onboard from basically the beginning, as it offered me the opportunity to learn every aspect of the business.”
David joined as Corporate Manager and is now Corporate Director and has seen Charter Tax grow from three people to 32.
Today his role includes running the corporate department alongside Chris Page – which covers aspects including VAT, pay roll and corporate tax, as well as outsourced FD services. David is also responsible for quality control across the corporate department, in addition to practice management.
“What I enjoy most is the variety of my role, getting involved with all aspects of the corporate department,” says David.
He adds that even though the firm has grown considerably over the past 10 years, it has maintained the same values and culture that it was built on.
“We offer a friendly environment to work in, yet are professional when it comes to our approach with clients,” he says. “We also have a culture of working with our team to get the best out of the them, encouraging them to study for exams and supporting them to do that. Charter Tax is a firm where it’s possible to really make your mark in a supportive, professional environment.”
David continues: “In addition, we like our team to be as client facing as possible, although this can be challenging if they are based overseas, which quite a few of them are.”
He admits that he ‘fell into’ accountancy.
“My business studies teacher pushed me towards work experience at a local accountancy firm,” says David. “While there, I met Mark Howard – who has since joined us at Charter Tax – and he encouraged me to consider accountancy as a career. He must have seen potential in me and I ended up doing my training there.”
David moved from the corporate department there into the consulting team.
“I enjoyed the breadth of work that involved,” says David. “I became qualified at a fairly young age and moved up to manager level. What I found really interesting was working with clients which had an international aspect to their business. It created complexity and meant that each day was different. It was the international tax side of the business which Janet created with Charter Tax which particularly interested me.”
David says that what sets Charter Tax apart from its competitors is how it tailors its services to suit their individual needs.
“When it comes to our sourced FD services, we can offer clients as much or as little of the service that they require,” David explains. “Sometimes we work with companies which have their own FD, but they need some support in a particular area.”
When he’s not at work, David has two small children who ‘keep him busy’, although he does enjoy golf and clay pigeon shooting when he can, as well as playing five-a-side football, often turning out for the Charter Tax team.
