An ambitious team of Chartered Accountants are aiming for growth after strengthening their management team with two senior appointments.
Waltons have appointed Sharon Hutchinson as operations director, with Paul Harrison taking on the role of managing director.
Paul, who has been a partner at Waltons for 13 years, succeeds Heather O’Driscoll as MD who is remaining with the business as a senior director following a successful 10-year period at the helm.
Sharon has been brought into the firm to free-up client-facing time for the senior team, with a remit to run all operations of the business.
Sharon joins Paul, Heather, Graeme Surtees and George Hardey as part of a new-look, five-person directorship.
MD Paul said: “We’ve brought Sharon in to work on and underpin the corporate structure of the business which will help us to accommodate our anticipated growth.
“Previously, ably guided by Heather, the directors were each responsible to look after different areas of the business, but Sharon’s remit is to take that off our hands so we can truly focus on our clients.
“We see the operations director position as a crucial new role to enable our development going forward.”
Sharon has previously worked as operations director for law firm Endeavour Partnership, as well as providing strategic support as a consultant to numerous businesses throughout the North-East.
“I’m thrilled to be joining a team with such a fantastic culture and values so closely aligned to mine,” said Sharon, from Newton Aycliffe.
“The fact they recognise the need for senior resource to run the business shows they’re thinking differently, and demonstrates their commitment to giving clients their full attention and the best possible service.
“There are challenging but also exciting times ahead on Teesside and our team is well placed to support our clients through it all.”
Waltons is a firm of chartered accountants and business advisers, based on The Marina in Hartlepool, with a team of more than 30.
The business was established in 1885, under the name of W T Walton, and has grown to become one of the leading firms of advisers in the North-East region, with a growing client base of more than 1,000 clients, with turnovers ranging from £50,000 to over £100m.
Their team includes specialist auditors, accountants, tax advisers, grants and funding and cloud accounting advisers.
Waltons is also part of the membership organisation, Accelerate, which in turn is part of a wider global association of firms.
Paul added: “We’ve maintained a steadily growing turnover over the last 10 years while making the business more efficient.
“We work with the full range of clients from private individuals requiring assistance with a simple tax return, to large companies whose needs are more complex and varied.
“While we have been around for more 135 years as a firm, we have achieved this growth in recent years by ensuring that we are embedded in the Teesside business community.
“We also draw on our close connections with other local professionals, meaning our clients get the best combination of the depth of knowledge and expertise from our highly-qualified and capable team, while also being able to refer them to an expert at the right moment – whether that’s locally or nationally.”
