The 4th Brunel Accounting Symposium was recently held in Brunel Business School. Organised by the Accounting and Auditing Research Centre (AARC), this year’s event was focused on corporate governance and promoted discussion on contemporary issues in accounting bringing together policy makers, accountants, academics and students of the MSc in Accounting and Business Management and the PhD programme.

BBS Accounting Symposium 2014
A total of 65 delegates from the USA, UK and Europe attended. The keynote speakers were:
- Catherine Woods, Corporate Governance Policy Advisor, FRC, Remuneration, risk management and revisions to the UK Corporate governance Code
- Paul Moxey, Head of Corporate Governance and Risk Management, ACCA, Creating value for governance
- Jo Iwasaki, Head of Corporate Governance, ICAEW, New challenges in corporate governance
- Prof Mark Clatworthy, University of Bristol, The timeliness of private company financial reporting
- Prof Christopher Napier, Royal Holloway, University of London, Lords on the board: Titled directors now and in the past
Professor Robin Jarvis led the morning and afternoon panel discussions with Brian Coyle, author of the ICSA Corporate Governance Handbook, and Professor David Cairns, University of Edinburgh. This encouraged lively debates with delegates in the audience and contributed to a stimulating and interesting symposium for all.

Dr Jill Collis
Dr Jill Collis, the Director of the Accounting and Auditing Research Centre (AARC), commented:
“It’s always a pleasure to organise this event! It provides an excellent opportunity for continuing professional development and fosters relationships with the accountancy profession, regulators and standard setters. It was the first year we included students of the MSc in Accounting and Business Management programme and, given their positive feedback, we will continue to do this next year to ensure our most current research is shared with the entire accounting community in Brunel, which our students are also an important part of.”