Mike takes over as new president of NSCA

Jun 3 2009 by Iain Laing, The Journal

THE new president of the Northern Society of Chartered Accountants (NSCA) plans to champion the professional role of accountants in the public sector and its economic importance to the region.

London-born Mike Ranson, 62, is head of financial control in Newcastle for the Pensions Carers & Disability Service, an agency within the Department for Work and Pensions. He takes over the role at the head of the 3,000- member organisation from Jim Summers.

Mr Ranson said: “Members through- out the North East and Cumbria have a key role in restoring business confidence which is so vital to the economic recovery,” he said.

“As Northern Society President, my aims include raising awareness of the part chartered accountants play in Northern businesses, including those working as professionals in the public sector, which is an important contributor to the regional economy and a major employer.” Educated at Felsted School, Essex, he began his career with Stoy Hayward & Co, London, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1971. Three years later he joined Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co (now KPMG), moving to the firm’s Newcastle office in 1978. Mr Ranson later spent 12 years at Tyne Tees Television, where he was finance director from 1993-95.

After that, he was finance director of Newcastle University, interim head of finance at One North East and an independent consultant, before joining the DWP in 2003. A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), he served on the ICAEW’s Board of Chartered Accountants in Business for six years in the mid-1990s.

He was chairman of the NSCA’s Tyne & Wear branch in 1997. A Newcastle magistrate for more than 25 years, Mr Ranson is chairman of the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee for Newcastle upon Tyne.

He and his wife Jenny, who live in Jesmond, have a son who is a commercial strategist in the Gulf.