A young accountant whose hobby is playing in a brass band is helping to orchestrate a secure recovery from the recession for companies in North East Wales.
Joanne Evans, 37, has just joined the team of financial maestros at Coxeys Chartered Accountants and Registered Auditors, who have offices in Wrexham and Saltney.
She spends her days off playing the baritone horn with the Glyndwr University Brass Band and is now tuning up to use her expertise in the fields of audit and tax to help Coxeys’ clients.
The expanding accountancy firm says the local economy is showing “encouraging signs of recovery” from the financial traumas of the past five years.
Welsh-speaker Joanne, who lives in Wrexham, was born and raised in nearby Coedpoeth and attended Ysgol Morgan Llwyd.
Leaving school in the early 1990s, her first job was an office administrator with a Wrexham town centre estate agents.
While she was there and in her own time she studied to become an accountant, obtaining the Association of Accountancy Technicians qualification in 1997.
Joanne qualified as a Certified Chartered Accountant in 2001 and was delighted to land the job with Coxeys which represents a wide range of clients from sole traders right through to international market leaders.
In her spare time, Joanne swaps financial spreadsheets for musical scores as a member of the Glyndwr Brass Band with which she has been playing at events across the UK since she was a teenager.
In fact, it was as a result of the band that she met her 39-year-old husband Neil who is a cornet player with the same outfit.
The couple have two children, six-year-old Callum and Mia, three.
Of her new appointment with Coxeys Joanne said: “One of the main reasons I wanted to join the firm was because it offers such a wide range of training in all aspects of accountancy and is also extremely committed to the personal development of its staff members.
“I’ve always worked in the area of audit but with the training Coxeys provides I am now learning many new aspects of the job such as tax and accounts preparation. This means I’m not just dealing with one speciality but gaining experience of every aspect of the organisation.
“Coxeys is famous throughout the industry for its commitment to its staff and their training which was shown when it became the first and only firm of accountants in Wales to be awarded in Investors in People Gold Award in 2011.
“That’s an internationally recognised standard and really counted for something when it came to me deciding to come to Coxeys.
“The training may be good but the people in the office are also great. There’s a fantastic atmosphere and everyone has been very helpful since I started my job here.
“I think that sort of friendliness also comes across to the clients and enhances the service we are able to provide for them.”
Coxeys Director Anthony Lewis explained that Joanne is the most recent addition to a great of key staff who would enable the practice, which is one of the largest and oldest-established based in Wrexham, prepare for local companies’ emergence from recession.
He said: “There are encouraging signs of economic recovery in some areas after a number of very difficult years.
“Many local companies will be needing special help as they recover and that is exactly what we are able to provide for them.
“We have built up a strong team of qualified accountants plus trainees to supply that high level of professional expertise and Joanne is a very important part of that.
“I think our new staff members are a sign not just of the confidence we have in the future of our practice but also that of the whole local economy.”
Anthony added: “We are an approved training practice for the three main accountancy bodies, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England, Wales and the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants and Association of Accounting Technicians.
“We place great emphasis on the personal development of our team members, which is why we gained the Investors in People Gold Award two years ago.
“This commitment is one of the main reasons why people of the highest quality such as Joanne decide to join us.”
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New member of staff at Coxeys, Wrexham Joanne Evans with, from left, Amy Bell, Ellen Plack, Joanne, Gruff Hughes, Rhiann Williams and Anthony Lewis
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New member of staff at Coxeys, Wrexham Joanne Evans with, from left, Amy Bell, Joanne, Ellen Plack, Gruff Hughes, Rhiann Williams and Anthony Lewis
