Governance

Background to Ancoram

Ancoram Limited was incorporated as a private company limited by shares in England on 14 April 2023, with registered number 14803214. At present, Ancoram is owned by its sole shareholder and director, Tim Dee-McCullough. Tim is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), as well as a Member of the Institute of Directors. Tim is passionate about sustainability and high quality corporate reporting, but was saddened to note how few small- and mid-tier accountancy practices, together with their SME clients, are prepared for the tsunami of sustainability reporting requirements heading their way. And so the idea for Ancoram was born.

Our journey to B Corp accreditation

On 17 April 2023 we changed our Articles of Association to start our journey to becoming a certified B Corp. The new Articles clarify that:

• Ancoram exists to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole and to have a material positive impact on society and the environment through its business and operations;

• Decisions made by Ancoram should have regard to stakeholder interests without considering the benefit of any particular stakeholder interest as more important than another; and

• Ancoram is required to publish an annual impact report to accompany its annual accounts.

Full B Corp accreditation is only possible when a business has a minimum of 12 months’ trading experience. On 24 May 2023 we submitted our provisional B Impact Assessment to B Lab UK, outlining our prospective commitments. Over the next year, we will refine our commitments and collect data for our first impact report, covering the years ending 30 April 2024 and 30 April 2025. Thereafter, we will publish our impact report annually.

Relaunching Ancoram

Our director accepted a permanent role with MHA / Baker Tilly Ireland in 2023 and accordingly Ancoram was closed to business between December 2023 and February 2025. Ancoram relaunched in March 2025.

Employee participation

Full employee participation is one of our founding principles. As our business grows and more people join our paid staff, we will offer new employees an equity stake in the company and critical input to our strategic, tactical and operational decision-making processes. At this stage, we are exploring the best legal mechanism to embed employee participation and ownership. We will provide further details ahead of advertising any employee roles. As an accountancy and consulting practice regulated by ACCA, a minimum of 50.01% of issued share capital and voting rights must be held by a qualified accountant and ACCA member.

ACCA regulated practice and professional indemnity insurance

Ancoram is a firm of Chartered Certified Accountants and regulated by ACCA. We hold professional indemnity insurance to a limit of £2,000,000, consistent with ACCA requirements. Ancoram is authorised by ACCA to practice in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man. We do not provide services to legal entities that are not incorporated in the countries listed above.

Advisory Council

Accountability, transparency and integrity are three values that Ancoram seeks to live by and promote within the business community. We recognise that, as an owner-managed business, there is usually only one person responsible for strategic, tactical and operational decisions – our director, Tim Dee-McCullough.

To practice what we preach, we are in the process of establishing an Advisory Council to act in a similar capacity to non-executive directors. The terms of reference are being determined, however we expect that the Council will provide strategic oversight of critical decisions which might otherwise be less transparent than we would like. While the committee would not have any legal powers, we envisage the committee:

• Assessing the company’s and director’s performance in relation to environmental, social, governance, financial and operational matters;

• Reviewing and advising on Ancoram’s sustainability framework;

• Receiving, assessing and acting upon any grievances or whistleblowing disclosures made by an employee, supplier, client or other stakeholder in relation to the conduct of the director, Tim Dee-McCullough; and

• Acting as a critical friend and advisor to the director as and when necessary.

Council members attend quarterly meetings with the director and be available for ad hoc questions or advice.

The initial Advisory Council will consist of three members:

• Christian Sykes (Chair of Advisory Council) – Over the last 20 years, Christian has been working with 300+ companies to help them figure out “what next?” and “how?”. Christian is a fractional COO who loves working with people that are really having a go, and navigating the unknown together.

• Sean Davey BA (Hons) – Sean co-founded his first social enterprise at university, crowdsourcing traditional Caribbean recipes and creating opportunities for the local community in Hackney. Since then he has run projects for global medtech companies and FTSE 100s, local schools and colleges, innovative start-ups and long-established financial institutions.

• Efforts are ongoing to recruit the third member of the Advisory Council.