At the top – but Mick still has a fairway to go

Jun 9 2008 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

Mick Thompson, the new senior partner at KPMG in Newcastle, is a serious player in the North East business world. But away from work his sporting efforts do not always attract great plaudits, discovers Peter McCusker.

AS a former Northumberland county schoolboy rugby player and cricketer Mick Thompson thought his achievements on these sporting fields would be matched when he took up golf 20 years ago.

Still playing off a handicap of 24 (not very good for those to whom golf talk is alien!) his friends are quick to remind him of his golfing frailties.

“With my mates at my regular weekend four ball at Bamburgh Castle Golf Club I am often asked how I can be so good at some sports, but so bad at golf.”

He takes solace in that oft-heard refrain of those whose fairway dreams are more faraway hopes. “It’s more of a social thing. I enjoy the opportunity to take in the great views at Bamburgh and the company of my mates.”

Thompson also finds time to tend to his garden ponds and exotic fish at weekends, in fact he even professes to having a desire to run an aquarium.

“This started off as a childhood passion which has transferred into adult life. It’s my escape from working life,” he says.

Golf and pondkeeping are passions which help ensure Thompson keeps his work and non-work life in balance, and there is a further parallel that links the two. “When people hear about my interest in pondkeeping they laugh at me,” he chuckles.

Thomson, 46, has been with KPMG since graduating from Durham University in economics. He admits to kind of drifting into the accountancy profession.

“I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do. Obviously being a sporting superstar would have been the most appealing career move, but I settled for accountancy.

“I had an uncomfortable interview with one of the other big four. Other people I spoke to also had an uncomfortable interview with the same firm, but when I went to Peat Marwick Mitchell (who later became KPMG) it was nothing like the interview I expected. We talked about rugby union for most of the time. I felt totally at home.

“I still think that it is one of the core values of the firm to this day. The people we employ are the key to the success of the firm.

“It is absolutely fundamental to make people feel appreciated. We like to make our staff feel we want them and that helps build a two-way relationship.

“There is no brainwashing at KPMG. The people we employ are intelligent. They are people we want to nurture and allow to flourish. That is how I felt when I first joined and I believe that is how our staff feel today.”

Thompson’s appointment as the senior partner at KPMG last month saw him become the first North East born and bred head of the practice for over 30 years.

He succeeds Richard Bottomley, the Halifax-born former head, whose family hail form the North East.

Mr Bottomley was head of the Newcastle office since 1997 and is now the new President of the North East Chamber of Commerce.

Thompson said: “Richard brought the office on significantly and will be a hard act to follow.

“In the last five years alone it has grown by over 30%. We now have seven partners and 160 staff and can now offer, from Newcastle for the first time in our history, the full range of services North East businesses need.

“The office has grown to become a full service office with M&A, restructuring, forensic and public sector advisory teams complementing our long established audit and tax service lines.

“Much of KPMG’s strength in the local market is down to the commitment and ambition of Richard. I wish him a fulfilling retirement.

“I take comfort in the fact that he has every intention of continuing to work in the North East after his retirement from KPMG and add further value to the local business community.

“And, in particular, as the new President Chamber of Commerce, Richard will bring a great deal to this influential organisation.”

Thompson professes he had been favourite to take over from Richard once word slipped out a few years ago that his boss was planning to retire.

He continued: “Richard and I work well together. In the last few years it has been something of an open secret that I would succeed him.

“I have always been very happy here. There has always been a lot of goodwill towards me from the firm and I am extremely proud to become the first North East born and bred partner for 30 years to be appointed senior partner.

“North East business people generally want North East advisers. Clients hanker for people with a good understanding of the North East business community.

“I have been with the firm for 25 years and have had opportunities to leave over the years but there have always been career paths available at KPMG. I have worked hard and remained committed to the firm and believe I have been rewarded for that commitment.”

During his time at the firm Thompson was instrumental in the consolidation of its regional presence at its current Quayside location, which was completed shortly before he became a partner in 1997.

He has worked with many of the North East’s most high profile private and public sector organisations, including Greggs, Bellway, Northgate, Hargreaves, Port of Tyne, and One NorthEast, as well as a wide range of owner managed businesses and AIM-listed clients.

He said: “The private and public sector organisations based here represent ambitious, demanding yet friendly clients and I enjoy immensely the challenge of providing a broad range of first class professional services.

“KPMG’s success in this region lies in our ability to enhance our clients’ operations through the sharing of knowledge, leveraging on our global and sector specific expertise, delivered in a down-to-earth and pragmatic way by local professionals who are the backbone of our business and the reason why I have found my career to date so fulfilling.”

The Newcastle office now contributes £20m in annual fees to the KPMG group with a profit on that activity coming in at about £3m.

The extent of the firm’s recent diversification is witnessed when Thompson says that just 40% of its work is now audit based compared to 80% a number of years ago, although the actual volume of audit work has still grown in that time.

Following a period of sustained growth Thompson finds himself taking over at a time market conditions are tightening.

He said: “I would be naive if I was to think that we could keep on growing at the rate we have achieved in recent years. I expect we will be relatively flat over the next 12-22 months.

“We have established a platform. We have a strong team with a mixture of youth and experience. We have some of the best talent in the area which gives us a strong competitive edge.

“When growth kicks off again we will be right at the forefront of that growth. We might not be the biggest but we are the best. We are second to none.”

Thompson lives in one if the Newcastle suburbs with his wife Pepper, also a trained accountant, and their children Georgia, 12, and Charlotte, 10.

When he’s not golfing or pondkeeping or spending time with the family, he finds time to do work for the Lords Taverners charity organisation as the regional treasurer.

This gives him a great deal of pleasure. He testifies. “It’s a great cause and is supported by great people. Some people make the mistake of thinking it is all about cricket, but it’s much more than that. We raise around £50,000 every year for children.”

A devoted family man he professes to having a fondness for one of the modern world’s iconic family men.

“I nearly chose to nominate Homer Simpson as the person I most identified with in The Journal’s Q&A (see panel). He’s a layabout and he likes a drink,” laughs Thompson at the comparison.

No doubt he’ll be getting some more stick off his mates after that admission! Although his eventual choice of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones – creative, hard-working, intelligent, interested and well-travelled – is certainly more in tune with the Mick Thompson the North East business community is familiar with.

QUESTIONNAIRE

What car do you drive?

BMW M3 with a great engine but a squeaky soft top. I’m about to get a Merc CLS.

What’s your favourite restaurant?

Abroad – The Pearl, St Petes Beach, Florida West Coast

At home – Café 21 and Ahad Curry House, Gosforth High Street.

Who or what makes you laugh?

Little Britain, Morecambe & Wise and my children.

What’s your favourite book?

Pondkeepers Annual.

Finger print of the Gods, Graham Hancock.

What’s your favourite film?

Groundhog Day, although it’s a bit repetitive.

What was the last album you bought?

Led Zepplin – Mothership.

What’s your ideal job, other than your current one?

Professional golfer or aquarium manager (I could do the latter).

If you had a talking parrot, what’s the first thing you’d teach it to say?

Fancy a beer at the Don Cesar? (It’s a hotel on St Petes Beach).

What’s your greatest fear?

Losing the ability to three putt regularly and of course, losing family and friends.

What’s the best piece of business advice you have ever received?

Never keep a problem to yourself.

Worst business advice?

The invitation to leave KPMG for another job when I qualified as an accountant.

What’s your poison?

Budweiser and a good Rioja.

What newspaper do you read, other than The Journal?

Daily Telegraph – sports section first.

How much was your first pay packet and what was it for?

£65 for a week’s labouring on a building site aged 16. Spent much of it immediately in a pub.

How do you keep fit?

Golf, walking the dog and bicep curls with a bottle of bud.

What’s your most irritating habit?

I can’t narrow it down to just one – not arriving early for meetings and speaking loudly on the phone.

What’s your biggest extravagance?

My wife and children, plus holidays.

Which historical or fictional character do you most identify with/admire?

Indiana Jones – problem solver extraordinaire and still going strong.

And which four famous people would you most like to dine with?

David Bowie, Sir David Attenborough, Tom Watson, Sir Ian Botham with Andie MacDowell as waitress.