Support Centre Staff

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Andy Gibbs

Head of Group Technical, ATT, CTA

Andy joined us from one of the big four accountancy firms where he looked after the affairs of high net worth individuals and private equity executives. Prior to this he worked at a local regional practice where he dealt with the affairs of owner managed businesses and private individuals. Andy has dealt with both tax compliance and tax advisory projects across a range of industry sectors. Andy is a qualified Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) and holds the STEP Advanced Certificate in Trust and Estate Accounting.

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Philip Youngs

Technical Manager, ACCA (Affiliate) and AAT

Philip is a fully qualified AAT and ACCA accountant and has had a career spanning 20 years ranging from practice and industry. His practice experience ranged from small regional practices through to the Top 2 where his primary focus was the preparation of Annual and Management Accounts from incomplete records to completion for small Limited Companies, Sole Traders and Partnerships. This also included VAT returns along with completing Personal and Corporation Tax Returns. Philip joined TaxAssist in 2011 as a Technical Manager providing Technical Support to Franchisees and their staff.

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Claire Trudgill

Technical Team Leader

Claire trained with a local firm of accountants, first completing AAT and then qualifying as a Chartered Certified Accountant in 2006. Claire worked in the Business Services Group, specialising in working with soletraders, partnerships and small limited companies covering accounts, personal tax, corporation tax, VAT, bookkeeping and software training. In her 16 years in practice Claire built very close relationships with her clients, helping and supporting them with various business matters. Claire joined the technical support team in March 2017 as a Technical Manager and in January 2022 became the Technical Team leader.

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Gary Clark

Senior Technical Manager, CTA, AAT

Gary has spent over 30 years looking after the tax affairs of individuals, small businesses and Trusts in East Anglia. This included a spell of 5 years working for Barclays in their tax department, 5 years managing the tax department of a large local firm and 10 years running his own tax practice. Gary is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and the Association of Taxation Technicians.

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Tim Duffield

Head of Group Compliance, BA (Hons), FCCA

Tim is FCCA qualified and originally joined the Technical Helpdesk in 2009, before moving into a technical project role. After a two-year spell in practice, he returned in 2018 and was promoted to his current compliance role in 2020. Tim manages compliance for the TaxAssist Group's UK companies, and acts as a source of best practice and guidance for the whole group.

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Kelly Chick

Head of Group Marketing

Kelly joined the Business Development Team in July 2020, following an extensive agency background working for a number of national brands in both B2B and B2C environments. Reporting to the Group Business Development Director, Kelly oversees the Marketing, Communication and Inbound teams, implementing the national and local marketing campaigns for the acquisition of network leads.

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Victoria Morgan

Group Marketing Manager

Victoria joined the Business Development Team in May 2021, as a qualified marketing professional, with senior management experience in developing and delivering marketing strategies to drive sales and growth, in both B2B and B2C environments. Reporting to the Group Business Development Director, Victoria oversees the Marketing, Communication and Inbound teams, implementing the national and local marketing campaigns for the acquisition of network leads.

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Danielle Fish

Marketing Manager, CIM Affiliate Professional

Danielle joined the marketing team in 2007 and was promoted to Marketing Manager in January 2013. Reporting to the Group Business Development Director, Danielle leads the marketing team in delivering; national and local marketing support; training to franchisees and their staff; and premises support to franchisees acquiring shops.

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Fraser McKay

Communications Manager, MCIPR

After a 20-year career in journalism, Fraser became the highly regarded editor of a leading industry magazine, writing news and features about a number of brands including TaxAssist Accountants.

Having gained further public relations and marketing skills within the NHS in Norfolk and Suffolk, he joined TaxAssist Accountants in May 2016 as Communications Manager. In this role he is helping to increase brand awareness for the network by overseeing media coverage, writing and editing content for print and digital, and managing the company’s social media presence. Fraser will also be using his extensive experience in the media and successfully coaching staff to provide communications training for the network.

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Dave Thomas

Inbound Lead Manager

Dave joined TaxAssist Accountants in June 2015, as a member of the Inbound team. Dave was promoted to Inbound Lead Manager in July 2016, managing a team of 3 Inbound Executives. The team are responsible for speaking with up to 200 enquiries a day.

The team discuss the clients' needs and qualify the lead to their local TaxAssist Accountant. He also works closely with the Business Development Director to ensure all new leads are managed effectively and to work on new initiatives to increase the number and quality of Inbound leads coming through to the support centre via the telephone and our website.

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Terry Hawes

Marketing Trainer, FCIB, M.A. (Hons), ACIB, CMCIPD

Terry joined TaxAssist in 2014. He is a specialist in leadership, marketing, organisational and people development. He began his working career in banking with the Midland Bank progressing through a number of roles in retail and corporate banking marketing, operations and HR to become a Senior Training Manager in the early 1990’s for HSBC. As a consultant for the last twenty years, Terry has worked with a wide range of different clients both in the UK and internationally in many different cultural contexts. He has undertaken a number of significant learning and development assignments, working on business and people developed in emerging and developed nations in the Far and Middle East, Africa and Europe.

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Ray Robertson

Marketing Executive DIPM DIPMM

Ray Robertson joined TaxAssist in March 2015. Prior to this Ray worked in retail marketing and then further education where he held various posts including lecturer in marketing, Head of Faculty Creative Arts and Academic Technologies Manager. As head of subject marketing, he devised and delivered marketing curriculum to undergraduate and Institute of Marketing students and has delivered lecturers at the Said Business School Oxford University and at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the USA. Ray holds a CIM Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing and a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management.

Ray works within the Business Development Team primarily on managing and auditing Google and online directory entries for our UK and international shops and offices. He delivers webinars to the network on client reviews and social media and provides franchisees with advice in these areas. Ray also undertakes regular research into current developments in search marketing ensuring TaxAssist Accountants can remain ahead of competitors in this area.

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Amanda Graham

Marketing Executive, BA (Hons), FPC

Amanda joined TaxAssist Accountants in March 2017 following more than 10 years as a successful Sales Manager at a leading Financial Services company. During this time, she gained her full Financial Planning Certificate (FPC). Amanda also holds a BA (Hons) degree in Business Studies.

Amanda brings to her Marketing Executive role over 17 years’ experience in running a profitable bespoke joinery business with her husband. Amanda has valuable knowledge in all aspects of running a small business including; bookkeeping, VAT Returns, payroll, marketing and finance.

Amanda is a key member of the Business Development team. Her role focuses on providing comprehensive shop support to new and existing franchisees. Amanda is also responsible for centralised mailing, helping to deliver new clients to the network.

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Alisha Huckle

Marketing Executive, Award DDM

Alisha joined TaxAssist Accountants in 2012 working with the Inbound team before moving over to the Marketing team in 2015.

Alisha assists with a range of marketing initiatives. Her main roles consist of shop front support to new and existing franchisees, artwork requests, newsletter delivery and aiding with general marketing queries.

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Richard Washington

Head of Group Technology

After 5 years of working with one of the UKs leading franchise consultancy and recruitment companies Richard joined TaxAssist in 2010, bringing with him a high level of technical knowledge in programming and database administration. Since joining Richard has pushed forward the TaxAssist Accountants online presence, implementing a local website for each franchisee, rebuilding from scratch the TaxAssist Accountants Support Site and implementing a custom ticketing system for the Technical Helpdesk. On a day to day basis Richard is responsible for the relationship management with our recommended IT, telephony and printing partners as well as for the continuing development of our web based systems.

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Simon Hutchinson

Head of Group Software & Systems

Simon is responsible for the delivery of Software training to TaxAssist franchisees and their staff. Prior to joining TaxAssist in 2016, Simon worked for 8 years as an IT Trainer across the Housing and Health industries and has experience as an IT Service Delivery Manager and Customer Relationship Manager. Simon has designed courses and trained staff on multiple software implementations and has a keen customer focus to ensure that the right solution is being delivered. Simon will be the main point of contact for software training or support issues and he will ensure that all franchisees have access to the right information at the right time and in the right format.

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Lee Currell

Software Training & Support Officer

Lee is responsible for the delivery of software training and support to franchisees and their staff, including TaxCalc, PI and Office 365. Lee brings with him over 20 years of knowledge and experience in the IT training sector. Immediately prior to joining TaxAssist in 2019, Lee worked for a local NHS Trust for 14 years in the IM&T department, predominately as an IT Trainer, delivering training on a broad spectrum of both NHS specific software, including the largest clinical system in the UK and non-specific NHS software including Microsoft Office. Lee has experience of designing courses from scratch and has trained staff from all walks of life with different IT abilities and skills.

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James Clarkson

Senior Software Accountant

Before joining TaxAssist in 2019 James worked within practice for over 9 years, becoming a fully qualified accountant in 2017. During this time he developed a strong interest in utilising the available software to gain efficiencies and improve best practice wherever possible, sharing this knowledge across the firm.

James has joined the Digital Technology Team to bring his accounting knowledge and practice experience to the software training, providing support and assistance with the adoption and integration of software, and to help suggest best practice use of the software estate to enable more efficient processes and systems across the network.

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Nick Ruddock

Web Developer

Nick joined TaxAssist Accountants in 2018 and has responsibility for improving and maintaining the TaxAssist websites. He is currently studying for a BSc (Honours) Computing and IT in his spare time with the Open University.

Nick is passionate about writing high quality, secure code and works to ensure the team continues to improve its technical knowledge and deliver websites which perform increasingly well for franchisees.

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Jo Nockels

Head of Group Finance, FCCA FMAAT

Jo is AAT and ACCA qualified and before joining TaxAssist Accountants in 2010, looked after a range of clients in the small business sector at Larking Gowen.

Formerly, Jo was the Senior Training & Technical Communications Manager and worked alongside the Business Development team, to ensure communications to clients were accurate, timely, relevant and easy to understand. The other part of her role saw her managing the TaxAssist Accountants Training Academy, as well as delivering courses herself.

Jo has been promoted to Financial Controller and is responsible for the day-to-day management and ongoing development of the group finance team and functions for the TaxAssist group of companies. The commercial element of her role sees her supporting the TaxAssist network to realise commercial opportunities to improve growth, efficiency and profitability.

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Stef Muffett

Finance Manager, MAAT

Stef is FMAAT qualified and has worked with the Company since its began in 1996, working originally in John Westgarth’s own accountancy practice, founder of TaxAssist Accountants, before moving to TaxAssist full time.

Stef has previous Practice and Finance Dept experience and is currently the Finance Manager looking after all the finance functions for the UK franchising side of the Group. Included in her responsibilities is the administration of The TaxAssist Direct Group share market which is unique to our Franchise.

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Rebecca Hollis

Finance Officer AATQB, MAAT

Rebecca joined TaxAssist Accountants in 2013, following 18 years working within personal banking and financial services for a major High Street bank.

Having spent three years as part of the Support Centre’s Inbound Team assisting potential clients and delivering qualified leads to the network. Rebecca then moved to the Technical Team where she studied for her Association of Accounting Technician (AAT) qualifications whilst providing support to the network with Payroll. She supported Franchisees with ongoing training and assisted them with Payroll related queries.

She joined our Finance Team in April 2021, where she is running the payroll for all our UK entities, maintaining the purchase ledgers group-wide, processing VAT returns and accounts from franchisees, supporting our Network Data Analyst and assisting with the administration of the share market.

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Vicky Taylor

Finance Manager

MAAT qualified, Vicky Taylor, joined TaxAssist Accountants in January 2022 as Finance Manager. Prior to joining TaxAssist, she worked for five years for an online casino, where she started as Accounts Assistant and worked up to Finance Manager. Vicky also worked for twelve years in the finance team for a motor insurance claims recovery company.

Vicky’s role is to look after the finance functions for international franchisees.

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Samantha Skyring

Head of Group Training, FCCA, MAAT, ACIPP

Samantha Skyring qualified in 2014 with a medium sized firm of accountants in Norwich and developed strong relationships with her clients and helped them with bookkeeping, VAT returns, Payroll, Accounts preparation and tax issues.

Samantha joined the Technical Support Team in November 2014 as a Technical Manager, assisted franchisees and their staff over the phone with technical queries, headed up training courses and undertook due diligence visits to franchisees.

In October 2017 Samantha took on a new role as Franchise Development Manager for England & Wales, visiting franchisees to help them develop and grow their businesses. She used her experience in practice to help ensure that systems and processes were being used effectively to maximise efficiency and profitability.

On 1st April 2019, she was promoted to Group Senior Training & Technical Communications Manager with responsibility for looking after all of the training needs for the network, alongside preparing client facing technical marketing material. In this role, Samantha is looking to bring in technology within all of the applicable training courses to ensure the network is ready for the digital revolution.

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Jackie Bourner

Training Administrator

Jackie joined TaxAssist in 2008, after working for more than 20 years at a major High Street Bank. Initially, Jackie worked in the Finance Department supporting the Finance Manager with administrative duties, before moving to a new role as Training Administrator after the launch of the TaxAssist Training Academy in 2011. Jackie's role is to deal with the administration for Business Development, Software & Technical training, which is delivered through webinars (live & recorded), face to face classroom and self-led & virtual courses.

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Helena Parke

Training Administrator

Helena joined TaxAssist in 2019 and has over 30 years’ administration experience, having previously worked within the NHS, financial services and local, independent businesses. Helena works closely with new franchisees from their initial sign-up, through to completion of their full training programme and her primary role is to ensure the smooth and efficient delivery of the Initial Training Course. Reporting to Samantha Skyring, Helena also provides additional support and backup to her colleagues in the Training Academy.