Stephen Haddrill was chief executive officer of the
Financial Reporting Council
The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is an independent regulator in the UK and Ireland based in London Wall in the City of London, responsible for regulating auditors, accountants and actuaries, and setting the UK's Corporate Governance and ...
(FRC) in the United Kingdom. In November 2018 he announced he would be leaving the post.
Biography
Educated at
Trinity School of John Whitgift
The Trinity School of John Whitgift, also known as Trinity School, is a independent boys' day school with a co-educational sixth form, located in Shirley Park, Croydon. Part of the Whitgift Foundation, it was established in 1882 as Whitgift ...
from 1967 to 1974, Haddrill then studied history and economics at
New College, Oxford
New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...
. During the summer months his first taste of industry started with Findlay Durham & Brodie Electrical Ltd.
He joined the
Department of Energy in 1978, where he worked principally on
nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...
, and rose to the rank of
Principal Private Secretary to the Energy Minister.
From 1990 to 1994 he worked in Hong Kong as a member of the Governor's
Central Policy Unit.
From 1994 until 2005, he had a succession of roles in the
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), as a director of the Competitiveness Unit, Director of Employment Relations, then in Consumer Affairs. In early 2002 he was appointed as Director General of the DTI's Fair Markets Group.
[FRC Board]
. Retrieved 21 June 2010
He succeeded
Mary Francis
Mary Elizabeth Francis (née George; born July 1948) is a former British civil servant who focussed primarily on financial and economic policy. She is a non-executive Director of Barclays plc and was a director of Valaris Limited. and Pensio ...
as Director General of the
Association of British Insurers
The Association of British Insurers, or ABI, is a trade association made up of insurance companies in the United Kingdom.
History
The ABI began in 1985 after several specialised insurance industry trade associations joined to form one trade associ ...
(ABI) on 3 May 2005. In this role Haddrill took a close interest in
accounting standards
Publicly traded companies typically are subject to rigorous standards. Small and midsized businesses often follow more simplified standards, plus any specific disclosures required by their specific lenders and shareholders. Some firms operate on t ...
.
In October 2007, Haddrill was also appointed Vice-President and Chair of the
Institute for Employment Studies, a leading employment and human resources body in the UK.
[ He stood down from this role in 2011.
The Financial Reporting Council announced in May 2009 that Haddrill would succeed Paul Boyle as its Director General. Sir ]Christopher Hogg
Sir Christopher Anthony Hogg (2 August 1936 – 7 December 2021) was a British business executive.
Early life and education
Hogg was born in Surrey, son of Anthony Wentworth Hogg and wife Monica Gladwell. He was educated at Marlborough Colleg ...
, chairman of the FRC, said Haddrill's experience at the ABI would 'enable him to bring a strong investor perspective to the work of the FRC.' He took up the post in November 2009.
In 2015 he became chair of the global RICS Regulatory Board.
Following criticisms of the FRC's role in overseeing auditors' work in the run-up to the January 2018 collapse of Carillion
Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018.
Carillion was created in July 1999, following a ...
, in November 2018, it was announced that Haddrill was to quit as CEO of the FRC, and suggestions that his departure might lead to the body's abolition.
Financial Crisis Advisory Group (FCAG)
Haddrill who was the only UK representative on the Financial Crisis Advisory Group (FCAG)—created by the Financial Accounting Standards Board
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is a private standard-setting body whose primary purpose is to establish and improve Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) within the United States in the public's interest. The Secur ...
and the International Accounting Standards Board
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is the independent accounting standard-setting body of the IFRS Foundation.
The IASB was founded on April 1, 2001, as the successor to the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC). ...
in 2008. The FCAG was an international group of standard-setting bodies—that coordinated responses "on the future of global standards in light of" the 2008 financial crisis
The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...
.G20
The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 sovereign countries, the European Union (EU), and the African Union (AU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stabil ...
in April 2009 meeting, and in reference to the political pressure placed on standards setters "to make changes to fair value
In accounting, fair value is a rational and unbiased estimate of the potential market price of a good, service, or asset. The derivation takes into account such objective factors as the costs associated with production or replacement, market c ...
accounting rules over suggestions that it exacerbated the financial crisis" Haddrill cautioned,
Views
In his first interview after taking office at the FRC, Haddrill signalled a change of emphasis from his predecessor on the domination of the accounting profession by the Big Four auditors
The Big Four are the four largest professional services networks in the world: Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC. They are the four largest global accounting networks as measured by revenue. The four are often grouped because they are comparabl ...
. He said that the FRC had looked at the level of competition, and increasing it by creating a fifth large player was not achievable in the near term; his priority was therefore maintaining high standards while also preparing for the possibility of another global firm collapsing.
He also criticised the effort to converge international accounting standards
International Financial Reporting Standards, commonly called IFRS, are accounting standards issued by the IFRS Foundation and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). They constitute a standardised way of describing the company's fina ...
with American standards, saying that the focus should be on the quality of international standards.
He has since also been critical of the European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
's proposals to reform the audit market.
References
External links
Investing in successful innovating businesses
ESRC (article by Haddrill)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haddrill, Stephen
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
English financial businesspeople
Civil servants in the Department of Energy (United Kingdom)
Civil servants in the Department of Trade and Industry
British chief executives
People educated at Trinity School of John Whitgift