Over 20 years of Opportunities

Often when people hit the supposed top of their career ladder, they quickly become desired by other companies or desire a new challenge. With the online world meaning employers can easily find talented individuals, employees are also more aware of the opportunities available to them.

But the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Although seen as a rarity in today’s world, developing and nurturing your career within one business can lead to just as many exciting new challenges as moving to a new workplace. This is certainly the case for Derek Mair, Audit Partner at Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP (AAB), one of the UK’s leading chartered accountants and business advisory firms.

Derek joined AAB as a university graduate in 1996 and qualified as a chartered accountant within the firm. When he joined AAB there were 30 people working across all departments… fast-forward to 2020, Derek now helps lead AAB’s Audit team of over 30 employees and is head of AAB’s growing Food & Drink specialist team.

Reflecting on his time at AAB so far, Derek comments “When I joined AAB we were a small firm with big ambitions and it was a fantastic place to start my career. We all had to help out across different departments which allowed me to gain experience in accounting services, tax, work with some great people; and ultimately it’s what helped me conclude that I wanted to specialise in Audit.

In so many ways, AAB is a completely different workplace to what it was when I joined; but it’s also still so similar. The value placed on every member of staff at AAB is the same, with everyone made to feel important and encouraged that there is no limit on their potential.

That is something that really struck about AAB. Through treating everyone fairly and giving everyone equal opportunities, people bring their best selves to work. This of course means teams not only complete high quality work, but also enjoy a positive work environment. As a Partner, it is up to me to make sure my team experience the fantastic opportunities I did; something that is truly rewarding.”

Through Derek developing his career within AAB, he has had many opportunities to get involved in different aspects of AAB on top of his day-to-day role. Derek says, “Although the firm has grown so much since I joined, we were all included in each new step so in turn I grew with the firm; meaning I am now able to play a valuable role in other key aspects of AAB’s operations. For example, although I have clients across many sectors, I lead AAB’s Food & Drink team. This new opportunity has allowed me to work with colleagues across all of our service offerings and meet some fantastic up-and-coming businesses across Scotland.

I also manage our strong Alumni network. So many individuals in the network are people that I worked with closely and it is great to keep in touch and build changing relationships with them. For many years now I have carried out the interviews for our placement programme. This is something I really love doing and it is so interesting to meet students with exciting new talents and outlooks. Now interviewing alongside me is former placement students I hired years ago, so it’s very rewarding to see this go full circle.

At AAB my career development has not been static. Although I have reached my goal of becoming Partner, there are still so many new directions that my career can take within AAB, and I can’t wait to seize the next opportunity.”

By Derek Mair, Audit Partner