Ayla Majeed became the first member from Pakistan and South Asia who elected as president of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
Currently, founder and CEO of Planetive Middle East and Planetive Pakistan, Ayla Majid has more than 20 years of experience in energy, transaction advisory, mergers and acquisitions, investments, and corporate governance.
She will lead more than 252,500 members and 526,000 future members of ACCA across 180 countries during her year-long term of office.
Ayla is an international speaker on energy, decarbonization, hydrogen, and climate tech with an emerging market lens. In addition to being an advocate of sustainability, Ayla has over 15 years of governance experience having served on boards including chairing companies in the energy, pharmaceutical engineering, and banking sectors.
She said: “I would like to thank ACCA members for putting their trust in me. The themes I wish to highlight in the months to come can be summarised under the broad heading: ‘A new future for accountancy with a strategic lens and a stakeholder approach”.
“The accountancy profession is dynamic, forward-looking, and endlessly evolving. We’re working to promote it as an exciting, purposeful and attractive career choice, embracing sustainability and social value. I look forward to speaking about how the role of the accountants is widening and working to update perceptions of the profession in the age where technology is a dominant player.”
Ayla Majid takes office in the year in which ACCA celebrated a major landmark of exceeding a quarter of a million members and will also celebrate its 120th anniversary.
As well as her ACCA work, Ayla Majid is a member of the Global Future Council of Energy of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and is a Young Global Leader of the WEF. She is also an Eisenhower Fellow.
In addition to ACCA qualification, she holds an MBA degree from Lahore University of Management Sciences and an LLB (Hons) from the University of London. She has also attended leadership modules at Harvard, Oxford, and Princeton Universities.
This is the first time in ACCA’s history that women have held all three officer posts at the same time.
She takes over the presidential role from Ronnie Patton, a retired lecturer from Northern Ireland, to whom she paid tribute to his strength and for his inspirational leadership during his year in office.
