New Faces at Haggards Crowther

If you have been into the office recently or spoken to us on the phone, you may have noticed some new faces/voices around the building. September and October have been incredibly busy with several new members joining the growing Haggards Crowther team.

Today we say hello to Era Baja, Waqaas Khan and Marios Djakouris who join us as Junior Accountants and Philip Tyson as a Senior Accountant, all in our Corporate team.  We’ve asked them all a few probing questions so you can get to know the person behind the books.

Era Baja

Our fast typing, piano playing, traveller that enjoyed early fame treading the boards

Era joins Haggards Crowther from a similar sized practice and will be working with other members of the Corporate team producing year end accounts and managing VAT liabilities and returns. Despite being relatively early in her career, Era was keen for a fresh challenge and she was pleased to be offered the role with us having enjoyed a “Friendly and easy-going interview”.  Era has already made her mark amongst the team due to her significant speed typing skills. So much so that a challenge has developed, and Era is leading the way on a speed typing test against her Haggards colleagues.

Her quick typing fingers may owe something to her early proficiency on the piano, mastering Grade 8 just before heading off to University and now playing regularly at home. Away from work Era is a keen traveller, from short breaks to longer holidays and has clocked up six different destinations in 2018 already. But its not all sitting by the poolside for Era who prefers to explore and taste the local cuisine when overseas.

Whilst not one to seek the limelight, Era’s claim to fame is her appearance in the local newspaper as a primary school pupil, when they covered the first production by her school’s drama club. But Era does not let the fame affect her and has continued, quite successfully, in her chosen career of management accounting!

Waqaas Khan

Fresh to the world of accountancy an early love for basketball put him next to a star of the game

Following his graduation from University, Waqaas was keen to find the right first role that would put his degree to good use. Having continued in retail for a short period, basketball loving Waqaas joined us as Junior Accountant in summer 2018. Having had an interview that Waqaas says was “Really friendly”, the mutual choice for Waqaas to join us has allowed him to sample the working atmosphere that he says was one of the reasons for accepting our offer.

As part of the Corporate team Waqaas will be carrying out bookkeeping and reconciliation activities in preparation for his colleagues to pull together management or year end accounts on behalf of our clients. Already keen to progress, Waqass says he is looking forward to “Dipping into other areas such as VAT and payroll” which he hopes will allow him to widen his knowledge and experience.

Super-active Waqaas likes to keep on the move outside of work either at the gym or indulging in his chosen sport of basketball which has seen him compete at club and regional level.  Basketball has played a major part in his life, throughout school and university, and his claim to fame relates to the sport too, when his secondary school team came second in an all-England competition, which gave Waqass the opportunity to meet one of the stars of the NBA. Like all of us, Waqass enjoys travelling and before starting with the company took time to fit in a road trip, before ‘settling down..’!

Philip Tyson

Does running 10k in a monkey suit for charity count as a special talent…?

For trainee accountant Philip, his role with Haggards Crowther is his first ‘on the other side’ having previously worked in industry as an accounts assistant, a varied role that covered credit control, bank reconciliations and managing a host of day-to-day accounts activities.

The opportunity with Haggards Crowther appealed to Philip for a number of reasons, not least of all the chance to look after his own portfolio of clients and work on the accounts for a range of different businesses, which he says will allow him to “Engage with various clients each with their own unique requirements” and this will “Offer a real variety in my day-to-day role”.

Currently studying for his ACCA qualification, Philip is looking forward to turning his learning into reality as part of the Corporate team, managing accounts preparation, VAT and corporation tax matters for our clients.

Brought up with musical influences including The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and The Beach Boys, Philip still enjoys heading to concerts and festivals whenever the chance permits. The musical influence even connects him to Elvis Costello as his father played drums with Elvis in a band, before he (Elvis) hit the big time. We like to celebrate the special talents of our team members here at Haggards Crowther and when we asked Philip what he would class as his special talent, he asked us whether “Running 10k in a monkey suit for charity counts as a special talent?”. We think so Philip!

Marios Djakouris

An analytical accountant to the core, Marios is still looking for his five minutes of fame

Marios joined us during the summer of 2018 as a Junior Accountant and is already getting to grips with the role, although for someone that claims being “Extremely organised” as his special talent and being driven by process and deadlines, adapting to a new role in a different company is a walk in the park.

Originally from Cyprus, Marios graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2017 and his role with Haggards Crowther is his first in practice accountancy. Family is a key theme for Marios and he says that it was the “Family feel” at Haggards Crowther and the opportunity to work with lots of clients, including family run businesses that really stood out to him following his interview.

Analytical with a strong attention to detail, Marios is happy working in Excel calculating often complex VAT and year end figures for clients. A self-confessed perfectionist, Marios believes that being professional and friendly are key traits for helping clients and working in a team. As well as all of his learned skills, Marios knows he is an accountant at heart and nothing says this more than his commitment to the gym which he knows he has to attend at least once a week to justify the spend! Only a figures man could have an ROI on the gym.

Away from the office, Marios is a social animal, spending time with friends wherever possible but when asked if he has a claim to fame he simply responds “Not applicable….yet!”. We will watch this space Marios.

Please join us in welcoming all our new team members who are looking forward to support you with your business accounting and tax needs.

We will also be welcoming Stuart Adams, David Chandler and Donald Ah Choon, to the team in November and so stay tuned for their introductions.

Need to put a face to the name? Head to our Meet the Team page to see all of our team members?