Managing Director of PKF-FPM Accountants and outgoing President of Chartered Accountants Ireland Feargal McCormack delivered a Chief Executives’ Club Lecture at Queen’s University recently entitled ‘Leadership: Caring for and Empowering your Team’.

During his speech, Mr McCormack emphasised the importance of caring for, helping and serving others in business. He stated that his role as a leader is to lead, mobilise and energise people, and to foster trust, diversity and inclusion amongst team members.

Feargal founded PKF-FPM in 1991. Now operating out of 5 locations with over 120 highly trained specialists across the island of Ireland, the accountancy practice has won many national and regional awards and accolades.

A proud alumnus of Queens University, Feargal graduated with an Economics honours degree in 1982 and successfully completed the postgraduate diploma in Accounting in 1983. In the academic year 1982/83 he became the inaugural President of the Queens University Accountancy Society.

He is a current member of the Chief Executives’ Club at Queen’s, and also sits on Queen’s Management School’s International Advisory Board.

On 26 September 2018, Feargal was awarded Managing Partner of the year at the British Accountancy Awards 2018 in London, and was commended “for going above and beyond by demonstrating the highest levels of innovation, business strategy and quality of service”.

Feargal concludes his term as President of Chartered Accountants Ireland in June 2019.

Speaking at the event, Mr McCormack commented: “As a Queen’s graduate, it is a particular honour to be invited back to speak at the Chief Executives’ Club. I’ve chosen to talk about a topic that is very close to my heart – caring for and empowering your team – because I truly believe that it’s up to leaders to set a caring ethos at the very highest levels and show their personal commitment to their teams in everything they do. This leads to happier, more highly-motivated staff, but also secures better outcomes for business.”

Following the lecture, Feargal took part in a Question and Answer session with Wendy Galbraith, Head of Finance at Queen’s University, discussing leadership challenges in today’s changing climate.