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finance director - Central & Eastern Europe Motorola UK

While completing a course in Business Studies, Steve discovered that his two strongest areas were finance and law. Ultimately he concluded he had a greater aptitude for numbers than words, and it was this that led him towards a career in accountancy.

Having begun his career in public practice, Steve then joined a US start-up company. He followed this with spells in Germany and Italy before taking on an internal audit role with a US petrochemical company which allowed him to continue his international travelling through the Middle East and Africa. Twenty-two years ago, he joined Motorola, initially as general accounting manager for a product group. This led to an appointment as UK finance director at the start of a rapid expansion of the UK business as a result of the new cellular phone market. Following this Steve spent six years as corporate finance manager for Central & East Europe, opening up the business in the region.

When explaining his decision to qualify through ACCA Steve explains: 'The ACCA qualification gives a broader range of experience than that of other professional bodies. In particular the experience I have gained by spending some time in public practice has been tremendously useful. You gain an international qualification, providing you with both the technical and commercial skills to succeed in a career anywhere in the world.

'Membership affords gravitas among your peers - and respect from others who look to you for advice. ACCA publications are also extremely useful in enabling you to keep up to date.'

The combination of qualities required of a modern finance professional are, in Steve's view: 'business acumen blended with the ability to stay abreast of and absorb the ever-growing plethora of standards and regulations.

'The integrity of accountants has been brought into question and the image of the profession needs to be rebuilt', he adds. 'In Motorola finance professionals are seen as ethical champions and the conscience of the company, but sadly this is not always the perception. We need to find a way of renewing professional standards, to get back to being associated with reliability, trust and highest standards of ethics for the general public.

'Responsibility in accounting means, in practice, to be able to produce information and accounts that are truthful, meaningful and can be relied upon by all their various users.'