Career paths come in all sizes, and head in all directions, but one thing’s for sure - no JC path is ever the same!

Here, we celebrate four of our partners who, collectively, have been with Johnston Carmichael for 97 years. With 31 May marking the end of one chapter and the beginning of another as they retire from the firm, let’s take a walk down their JC paths and discover the lasting legacy they’re leaving.

Sandy Manson, Chair and Head of Client Service

Sandy joined Johnston Carmichael in 1991 from Arthur Andersen, as a manager to lead the Fraserburgh and Peterhead offices. At this point the revenues of the firm were £5m.

Sandy was made a Partner in 1993 and relocated to the Aberdeen office to help with the ongoing growth and development of that fast-emerging part of the practice. Sandy was made Managing Partner of the Aberdeen office in 1995 and was appointed to the Board in 1999. In 2007 he was appointed Chief Executive, and saw the firm grow from 350 staff and revenues of £18 million, to a Top 20 UK accountancy firm and revenues of £49 million, before moving into the Chair’s role in 2019.

In 2018, in recognition of his standing in the profession, Sandy was appointed president of ICAS, a role which saw him engage with CAs globally to help support the work of ICAS in promoting the highest of professional standards and ethics.

Latterly, in addition to being Chair of Johnston Carmichael, Sandy has been our Head of Client Service, a role which involves engaging with our clients and CRMs as we seek to continually improve the quality and range of services we provide.

Although 31 May will see Sandy retire from the firm, there’s no doubt he will be keeping as busy as ever! This summer will be a particularly lively time as he helps the country celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in his role as Lord-Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire – and watch this space for more exciting announcements!

Quote from Mark Houston, Vice-Chair and Head of Glasgow office

"It has been a real privilege to work with Sandy ever since I joined JC. The scale of the growth in terms of size and capability of the Firm over Sandy’s tenure as CEO and Chairman has been incredible. Sandy would be the first to say it has been a huge team effort, but his leadership has been absolutely critical to the development of the Firm. Sandy’s natural affinity to be around people and his infectious, positive attitude to life have been a real source of inspiration to all who have come into contact with him. 

Can I thank you on behalf of the entire Firm for all you have done and the enduring contribution that you have made to Johnston Carmichael. 

Finally, on a personal note can I thank you for all the support, counsel and leadership that you have shown to me over the years."

Douglas Rintoul, Head of IT

Douglas joined Johnston Carmichael in 1990 as an IT Graduate before becoming Partner in 2004.

During his time with the firm Douglas became a Chartered IT Professional and has grown the team from 2 to 21, with a focus not only on essential support services, but also systems development, projects, and moving with the needs of the business and our clients as the firm has grown.

As well as being Head of IT, Douglas held the role of Data Protection Officer and led the firm through the introduction of the GDPR regulations which came into effect in 2018. Cyber security has become a key focus for Douglas over recent years and in 2019 he became an accredited Cyber Security assessor under the IASME Consortium, a role which has seen him assess a number of our clients’ IT systems and controls.

Widely recognised as an expert in the professional services IT sector, Douglas has spoken at a range of industry events during his time, most recently focusing on cyber security.

Douglas will remain involved with JC on a consultancy basis, continuing to provide his expertise and guidance.

Quote from Emma Waterman, Partner and Head of Inverurie Office:

"Although Douglas was a presence in the Inverurie office long before I started in 2016, I didn’t get to know him properly until later.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Douglas was a regular attendee to the weekly virtual quiz, always ready to challenge the host! His dry sense of humour was a welcome distraction during those strangest of times, and we were introduced to his feathered friend on camera.

Sometimes he joined in with a Friday libation, other times he came on for a quick few rounds before heading off to his latest scout camp commitment.

They say you can tell the measure of a man by how he copes in a crisis. Surely dealing with the IT needs of an organisation the size of JC during a global pandemic must be up there with the biggest challenges! Douglas always appeared calm and unruffled whilst working away with his team to keep the firm connected. 

I’m sure Douglas won’t miss the Inverurie office power outages but I hope he leaves his phone number just in case. Although I’m sure there are others with the necessary technical skills, they might not match his witty repartee!"

John Todd, Tax Partner

John joined Johnston Carmichael in 2004 as private client tax specialist, and became a Partner in 2011. 

During his time at JC, John has provided tax planning advice to a large number of businesses and individuals mainly across the Highlands and Moray areas.

Part of the Private Client Leadership team, John became Head of Scottish Taxes in 2018. In this role, John has helped to shape our CRM training and key client updates as well as being our key media spokesperson for this specialism. 

Sadly, John has made the difficult decision to retire from the firm due to ongoing health issues.

Quote from Peter Innes, Business Advisory Partner:

"John, we have had some common employers in our careers, from our early days at Scott Oswald and now at Johnston Carmichael. In that time, I have only ever heard people comment on how they like working with you, whether that be colleagues or clients – I am no exception to this. It shows the level of respect that staff, colleagues and clients hold you in and this and your extremely personable nature will be greatly missed in the Inverness Office and at JC. 

I hope you now get the time to focus on your recovery so you can enjoy the future and hopefully we can get a game of golf at Nairn in the future – I need someone to help me dig up the course which I certainly did on my last round!!"

Matt Henderson, Restructuring Partner

Matt joined Johnston Carmichael in 2006 as Head of Business Recovery and Insolvency - as our Restructuring service offering was known at the time - leading the team through a period of strong growth and placing great emphasis on developing talent from within to maintain a strong, diverse leadership team.

During his time as Head, Matt oversaw the growth of the team from five people based in two locations, to 25 people across four locations, providing the full range of restructuring and insolvency services.

As part of the firm’s succession strategy, Matt stepped down from his role in 2018, with Donald McNaught appointed Head of Restructuring in his stead. Over the last four years, Matt has been focusing on supporting Donald and the team and transitioning his valuable contacts and relationships.

Like Douglas, Matt will continue to support the firm in a consulting role.

Quote from Donald McNaught, Partner and Head of Restructuring:

"Matt provided me with my opportunity to join the firm and I will always be grateful to him for that. Having worked with Matt previously I was keen to join forces with him and it is testament to him that this is also reflected in the loyalty of his team who have worked with him, in some cases, for decades! A calming presence in the office, his sense of humour has been a great fillip to us all on team calls when dealing with the challenges of the pandemic and his wise words are tremendously appreciated in our management team. The firm has seen tremendous growth during Matt’s time not least in the Edinburgh office where I know he will be missed by his fellow partners. 

I know that Matt and I were both immensely proud to have won the appointment to jointly wind up the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games vehicle. A truly unique insolvency appointment there was no doubt that Matt’s charm had a positive impact in our tender presentation!  Alongside that, Matt has worked on the full spectrum of insolvency cases and clients have valued his commercial and strategic advice. His calming presence also being a great reassurance to clients when dealing with challenging circumstances.  

Matt’s enduring legacy is the department he developed alongside Gordon MacLure making sure we had the right people and ensuring smooth succession, one of the major challenges in professional practice. I will continue to seek his counsel and the team will do too I am sure. We all wish Matt the very best in his retirement and are very jealous that he can now wave goodbye to AML, case checklists, IPS diaries etc!"

Our wishes for the future

While there is no doubt that Sandy, Douglas, John and Matt will be greatly missed, their tremendous contribution to shaping Johnston Carmichael into the firm it is today ensures that their impact will be felt for many years to come. We wish all four partners a very rewarding retirement, and we look forward to continuing to build on their legacies to make sure that Johnston Carmichael, our people, and our clients keep growing, evolving, and flourishing.