How Richard turned tragedy into success

Feb 18 2008 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

With his feet now firmly under the table, new NECC president Richard Bottomley tells Andrew Mernin how a tragic event changed his life and reveals what the future holds for the region’s economy.

IT was the tragic, untimely death of his brother which shaped Richard Bottomley’s early career and spurred him on to the success he has achieved today.

His life, culminating in his lofty role as a senior partner at finance giant KPMG and president of the North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC) may have been completely different if not for the family tragedy which shook his world.

As a teenager, Richard idolised his older brother and embarked on a similar career path to his sibling: “When I was younger I literally worshipped the ground my elder brother walked on. As he studied for a food science and technology degree I felt the need to follow in his footsteps and began botany, geology and zoology at Oxford Brookes University.”

And so the Yorkshireman seemed destined for a life in science – a world away from the financial world he would ultimately find himself in.

But everything changed when tragedy struck and Richard’s brother Keith was killed in a car crash just three weeks after buying his first car.

“My brother worked for Rowntree Mackintosh on the team which developed the Toffee Crisp. When he developed it, it was such a successful launch that he bought his first car with the bonus he received and within three weeks he had the car crash which ended what would have been a very exciting career.

“I had to come back up North to hold the family together after that and didn’t want to go back to doing what I was doing, I wanted to do a one-year course in accountancy to get into work as quickly as possible.”

Rowntree gave the Bottomleys compensation for Keith’s death and Richard used his share to fund an accountancy course – something for which he seems eternally grateful.

“I’ve always been driven to succeed because I’ve always felt that I was doing it through my brother. I still like zoology and science and I used to bore my children on hikes as I told them about plants and animals as we walked along, but it’s just a hobby now.”

Clearly Richard will never forget the impact his brother had on his upbringing and beams with pride when reminded that Toffee Crisp is as popular today as it was when it was first launched.

“He didn’t invent the Toffee Crisp but, without boring you, he dealt with the cooling co-efficiency of chocolate and developed the chocolate to bind the rice crispies.”

For a man who admits he has a “low boredom threshold” Mr Bottomley did well to persevere with his accountancy training and land himself a job signing articles for Wenn Townsend in Oxford.

It was here that he met his Dutch wife Anita whose teaching career eventually took him back up north to Bradford.

The Halifax-born boss took up a role at a small accountancy firm called Rawlinsons where he gained vital experience, although he soon found himself looking for a new challenge.

“I was going to leave the practice and join another firm but they told me they would make me a partner if I stayed for another two years. But after two years they only offered me a salaried partner position instead of a profit sharing partnership which was just a glorified employee.”

And so, with everything to prove, Richard left Rawlinsons to set up his own practice, Booth and Co.

This was at the dawn of the 80s when the Iron Lady reigned supreme and accountancy firms were just awakening to the need to become more sales-driven.

In just a few years Richard, then a young father, turned his fledgling practice into the largest independent accountancy firm in West Yorkshire.

Between 1982 and 1987 the company’s workforce grew from six to 55 with five partners and during this time, his former employer Rawlinsons even approached the firm and asked to be bought out.

“This was the most exciting time of my life. The 1980s weren’t as sales orientated as today. I was sales orientated so was able to build a practice very quickly and it was an easier place to do business as other firms hadn’t woken up to the need to be sales-driven.”

As the sun was setting on the eighties, Richard realised he had “created a monster” which was too big to handle and he eventually merged the business with the Bradford office of Arthur Young, just days before their own mega-merger with Ernst and Whinney.

“Looking back, having my own practice undoubtedly helped me develop a real empathy with clients. While all qualified accountants have got to be technically competent it is these inter-personal skills which allow you to build long term, lasting business relationships.”

Once again Richard’s low boredom threshold kicked in and he decided to join one of the “big eight” in KPMG. “I’m always looking forward and I don’t like to dwell on the past,” he said. “You should always look to drive things forward.”

In fact the mild-mannered Yorkshireman had been head-hunted to run privately-owned business accounts in West Yorkshire, and eventually the North East.

He took up the helm at the Newcastle office in 1997 in a move which was something of a homecoming, given that his mother and grandfather both hail from the North East.

Speaking from his gleaming vantage point high above Newcastle’s Quayside, Richard tells me KPMG has big plans for the North East.

“It’s going tremendously well here and I don’t think we’ve ever had a better group of partners than we do today.

“We’re bringing skilled people back to the North East, where as in the past we had to rely on places like Leeds and Manchester for skills.

“We employ around 160 people in Newcastle at the moment but we hope to take this up to 300 in the next two to three years. As a result of its geographic position Newcastle is very important to KPMG and we’re delighted with the strides we have made over this period.”

And so to Mr Bottomley’s latest challenge – his role as president of the NECC.

With the seat of power still warm from the tenure of his predecessor Maggie Pavlou, the 54-year-old is already getting to grips with the challenges facing the North East economy. “The hand over was only last month so it’s still early days and I’ll be looking to keep in close contact with all the members. I also need to ensure I’m more visible in the Tees Valley and in Northumberland.

“My main concern is around business confidence. We must make sure we make the North East a better place to do business and the Chamber has a very important role to play in terms of policy and being able to lobby government for better business controls. We are also pushing hard to try and encourage North East businesses to buy goods from each other.”

With the Northern Rock situation still unresolved, financial market turmoil still bubbling away across the world and soothsayers predicting a national recession, Richard certainly has his work cut out in his new job.

However the NECC president seems confident that the North East economy is well armed for the battle ahead in 2008.

“Our economy tends not to get the highs and lows that you get in the South East. We don’t get to the heights the South East gets to so we don’t fall as low and I think we’ll be in a better condition to ride out tough economic times and our economy can grow faster than other regions in the country.

“We still lag behind other parts of the country in many ways but if we can grow our economy faster than the national average we can close that gap.” While what lies ahead for the region’s economy in the next year remains uncertain, for Mr Bottomley the next twelve months is likely to bring retirement from his role at KPMG.

As well as his NECC position, the father-of-three will focus on charity work particularly with St Oswald’s Hospice while he is also looking to spend more time at Durham County Cricket Club, where he is a director.

He may be bringing to an end a 25-year career in accountancy but he certainly shows no signs of slowing down. “I’m looking forward to retirement with excitement. I don’t intend to stop working and while I’m still young I tend to do other things and meet new challenges.

“Life certainly does not stand still”.