Stefan Payne, Chief Financial Officer at Titan Airways, studied AAT with Gareth John, Director and tutor at First Intuition.

What attracted you to a career in accountancy?
I was looking for a career with opportunities, a career that could satisfy my ambitious nature and that paid well too. I chose accountancy as it provides all of those things whilst perfectly suiting my analytical, logical nature and my desire to be involved in the heart of a business.

How did you get started?

My route into accounting was not a typical one. After my A levels I worked in the hotel and retail industries for six years in an operational capacity. I started as a waiter working my way up to management level, before deciding on a change of career. In 2005 I joined the accounting firm Price Bailey as a trainee auditor.

How long did it take you to move from that position to your current role as CFO?
Eight and a half years.

What qualifications do you have?

I didn’t do a degree, which surprises a lot of people. When I was in full-time employment I studied and completed my AAT assessments before going on to complete the ICAEW qualification.
I chose to start with the AAT qualification because it seemed to be the logical choice for me. AAT provided me with all of the fundamental knowledge and core skills I needed to become a good accountant and it also perfectly complemented my workplace learning. This combination of technical and practical skills turned out to be the ideal preparation for the ICAEW studies that followed.

What do you enjoy most about your position?

The variety and being at the heart of an interesting, fun, dynamic business. Yes, I’m a qualified accountant, but the role of CFO becomes so much more than this. For me, becoming an accountant was always the route to open the doors to business leadership. However being an accountant at heart, I still enjoy rolling my sleeves up and getting stuck into the accountancy work, especially on the technical and tax side.
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