Pam Dyson, a Goostrey (Cheshire) resident, has been elected 29th President of the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT). She was sworn in at the Association’s AGM held on 21 May.  The AAT is the leading professional  qualification and membership body for accounting technicians. Pam will be President of an organisation with 120,000 members across 90 countries.

After achieving the AAT qualification when the AAT was first established, Pam became more involved with the finance profession after joining the NHS in 1980 as a general administrative assistant. She was encouraged further her accountancy studies, and in 1984 Pam became the Chief Internal Auditor for Macclesfield District Health Authority. In 1989, the Department of Health funded an initiative to improve the skills of the NHS finance function and Pam took a role as the Regional Finance Staff Development Officer for Cheshire and Merseyside. Over the years, Pam evolved with this role and in 2002 she became the National Head of Finance Staff Development (FSD) with the overall strategic responsibility for the professional learning and development of NHS finance staff across England – approximately 17000 people.

During her time as the National Head of FSD, Pam was required to have close relationships with all the professional accounting bodies, the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) and the AAT. One of her key achievement was to support the finance function in the implementation of the new national pay system, “Agenda for Change”; a system based on Learning and Development milestones.

In addition to her AAT qualification, Pam also has a Masters in Management Learning and is a fellow of the ACCA. She is also a member of CIPFA; the Institute of Healthcare Management (IHM); the Chartered Management Institute (CMI); and HFMA.

Pam has almost thirty years experience as a member of the AAT, holding both national and local responsibilities. She established the Cheshire & Staffordshire branch in the early 1980s and has been continually involved ever since. Pam is currently the Chair of the branch, a position she has held from this January. In the early 1990s, Pam was co-opted on to the AAT’s Education and Training Committee and subsequently was elected to council on four separate occasions.

Pam’s message to the Association is to ‘Make a Difference’ and will be encouraging members to see how they can benefit the finance profession and the wider community as a whole.

Speaking of her appointment, AAT Chief Executive Jane Scott Paul said: “I am delighted to be able to introduce Pam as our new President and very much look forward to working with her over the year ahead.”

After a career spanning 37 years, Pam retired from the NHS in March 2008 and is now establishing herself as a Learning and Development Consultant. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time at her home in France and visiting the theatre.