Former Carpenter Box trainee crafted into managing partner

ALAN EDWARDS has taken up the reins of West Sussex and Gatwick-based chartered accountants Carpenter Box as its new managing partner.

The former trainee, who joined the firm when he was just 17, succeeds John Billings who led the firm over the last decade and now becomes senior partner.

Edwards joined the firm in 1993 and qualified as an accountant five years later before being appointed to the board on becoming a partner in 2006. He has seen the firm grow from 42 employees and six partners to 120 staff, with 11 partners, and over 4,500 clients.

In 2010 the firm was founding member of MHA, a national association of leading independent accountants, giving Carpenter Box the ability to provide larger clients with accounting solutions across the UK. The firm is also a member of Baker Tilly International, which provides client access to a global network of trusted advisors.

Edwards said: “I look forward to building on the work of my predecessors and working alongside such a strong group of partners as we pursue a policy of measured expansion, notably in the immediate term via our new Gatwick office. As always, central to our success in the future will be the specialist support that we are able to provide to our growing client list.”

For the last eight years, the keen golfer has performed the role of ‘student partner’, overseeing the Carpenter Box trainee accountant programme and helping to maintain its platinum accreditation under the ACCA scheme.