We catch up with Julia Whistler to discuss her background, and thoughts on an attitudinal shift in the running of accountancy practices.
What is your current role and responsibilities? How has that evolved?
I’m head of operations at Foulger Underwood, responsible for ensuring the smooth running of our UK business and its alignment with our Asia Pacific regional activities. My role is broad and hands-on – I support key client relationships whilst managing my own client assignments and contribute generally to all aspects of the smooth running of the UK business, which dovetails into the work we undertake in the Asia-Pacific region.
We’re a small, bespoke team where relationships are central to everything we do. As for the professional services M&A world, well, a lot has changed in my 14 years here. In particular, the pandemic created a lot of change in working patterns and a renewed focus on skills and talent. These have also now become more of a core consideration in any deal: is the firm automated? working styles and team capabilities are now front and centre when practices come together.
People and resourcing are really my home ground, and that plays into how important people and clients are to a practice and how I approach both client work and internal strategy.
Speaking of ‘home ground’, tell us a bit about your background prior to joining Foulger Underwood
My background is in HR, recruitment, and resource planning—often in high-volume, specialised environments. I held roles at WH Smith and T-Mobile, both of which were undergoing significant transformation at the time. At WH Smith, I worked under CEO Kate Swann to help re-resource and rebuild teams during a major strategic realignment. At T-Mobile, following its acquisition of One2One, I led recruitment efforts with a brilliant team to source large numbers of head office staff which included cutting edge telecommunications, top-tier IT talent. It was fast-paced, complex, and deeply rewarding.
After WH Smith I had a family and career break before dipping my toe back into the world of work and M&A, undertaking research and managing assignments on a part-time basis. That evolved into a broader role encompassing PR, marketing, branding, network and association development, client outreach, recruitment and client liaison… it grew organically and I’ve enjoyed it all.
What interests/concerns you about the accountancy market?
There’s a huge amount of change taking place; particularly around the growing needs of clients, employees and where technology and AI fit into the plan. As such, mapping out the talent a practice has and will need, while finding successful and sometimes more creative ways to recruit, retain and perhaps even retrain, is absolutely critical for their sustainability and future success.
We’ve also seen a generation of managing partners retire, and new faces abound. The new owners and leaders have fresh ideas and different skill sets, and they’ll need innovative thinking to get by in the current environment. It’s challenging but hugely exciting.
As I mentioned earlier, people and talent have become much more important in the conversation as a priority in accountancy M&A.
What is your life away from Foulger Underwood? Hobbies, interests, family etc.
I have two older teenagers who I’m still running around after, whilst they try and run away from me (!) and then there’s my labradors, which get walked around the Malvern Hills quite a bit. I do some jogging and kick-boxing here and there, as well as gardening and watching cricket – anything outdoors really. And, of course, I keep up with – and meet up with – friends as much as I possibly can.
If you’d like to speak to Julia and the team, get in touch by clicking here.
