14 Sep Grant Thornton hires new Partner in Chelmsford
Andy Hodgekins has joined Grant Thornton’s Chelmsford office as a Partner to further grow its Audit offering in the region. Andy was previously with a Big Four firm, where he started out as a graduate trainee in 2002 in London, before focusing on the East Anglia market where he lives with his wife and family. As an audit specialist, Andy’s experience is predominantly in the Consumer and Industrial Products and Services sectors, working across a diverse range of industries from pharma and life sciences to retail and supply, as well as technology, travel and mining.
Andy regards Chelmsford as his local market with a lot of interesting high growth businesses and will use his expertise to assist organisations at various stages within their lifecycle. He has worked with a broad range of clients and businesses, from FTSE 100 corporates to SMEs, charities and Joint Ventures with the NHS.
Andy’s appointment is a further sign of Grant Thornton’s continued investment in Essex. Having opened the Chelmsford office in 2015, the local team continues to grow and strengthen, combining a wealth of experience across assurance, tax and advisory services.
Commenting on his role Andy says: “It was the midmarket focus that really attracted me to the role at Grant Thornton and I’m really looking forward to working with a range of ambitious business leaders and innovators.”
Whilst there are many challenges for businesses at the moment, Andy believes that this is an exciting time for many firms.
He comments: “There is an increasing amount of regulatory change going on and this demonstrates the importance of what we do. Auditing needs a lot of smart young people and I think that in the past it hasn’t always been highlighted as a career, but what we do is actually really important. Helping my team to take pride in what they do is paramount – really getting under the skin of a business and understanding its business model and how it works is ultimately, what we need to be doing to genuinely add value to our clients and provide the assurance that stakeholders and the wider economy requires. I really believe in encouraging my team to rise to the challenges they have been set and to help people to look at their business in a different way.”
