An Aberdeen businessman is in pole position to become president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (Icas) next year.
It was announced yesterday that Aurora Petroleum chairman Ken McHattie had been appointed deputy president of Scotland’s top body of chartered accountants.
Icas, which has more than 20,000 members worldwide, has three top tiers in its chain of command, consisting of a president, deputy president and vice-president.
Mr McHattie has served as vice-president for the past year and has now moved up to second in the pecking order behind newly-appointed president Jim Pettigrew, who is chairman of Clydesdale Bank.
The new vice-president is Scottish entrepreneur Sir Brian Souter, the founder and chairman of Perth-based transport giant Stagecoach Group.
A qualified solicitor and chartered accountant, Mr McHattie was educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and Aberdeen University, where he studied law and accountancy.
He qualified as a solicitor in 1985 and worked with venture capitalist 3i before becoming a partner of the Ledingham Chalmers legal practice in Aberdeen.
He said: “I am delighted to be moving into the deputy president’s role for the next year. It’s a fascinating time to be doing this. In terms of the challenges, clearly we see Icas having a great part to play in rebuilding trust in business after the financial crash.
Mr McHattie, who is on the board of remotely-operated vehicle firm Rovop, was once part of the management team at oil start-up Tuscan Energy and chief financial offer at oil investment fund Energy Development Partners.