Establishing AAB in the Central Belt

AAB was described to me early in my career as a “small firm with big firm opportunities”. I think the “small firm” definition is now being stretched, having grown significantly in the 11 years I have been with the firm, however there has certainly been no shortage of opportunity for me in that time.

I joined the firm in 2008, and after spending my first year in the accounting services team I moved to the audit department, achieving my ACCA qualification in 2012. The firm is committed to personal development and working in the audit department has given me a diverse range of opportunities to progress and develop throughout my career so far, the first part of this being my promotion to Manager 2014.

Throughout my time at AAB I have worked with a number of the same clients, some of which since my first day. I have progressed and developed along with these clients and their businesses over the past 11 years creating many great working relationships along the way.

In 2017 I was promoted to Senior Manager, with this role came much more responsibility and shortly after obtaining my new title, I was offered the exciting opportunity to relocate and be a part of establishing our new office in Edinburgh. The past two years since we relocated to Edinburgh have been exciting yet challenging, and in that short time I have watched us grow from an initial team of 4, to our current team now fast approaching 50. We have also just completed our second office move, which is double the size of space we had previously. We can now proudly say all seven of AAB’s business units are represented in the Central Belt – a real testament to what we have achieved in Edinburgh in 18 short months. To see AAB continually becoming more and more established in this market along with the team growing so rapidly is great to see and be a part of.

My role at AAB changed significantly during the move into Edinburgh, I now have a lot more responsibility in not only the Audit department but also in the wider Business Development of the firm in this brand-new market. Alongside establishing our brand in Central Belt, a big part of my role has been working with new clients on a number of business advisory areas and working with new members of our team who have expertise in these services. Moving into the Capital City and starting with a very small team of 4 was a major change for us but so far has been exciting and beyond rewarding.

As we continue to build the business in Edinburgh, we try to emulate the aspects of the firm that have contributed to our success in Aberdeen – amongst other things, our commitment to awesome client service, and our thriving company culture. I have played my part in developing this in the new team, and of course we wanted to make sure we all enjoyed ourselves along the way! Ultimately our Edinburgh office is still in the early stages after 2 years, and I look forward to continuing my involvement in the growth and development of the team going forward through a number of different initiatives.

By Stuart Rose, Audit Senior Manager