ICAS announces top 35 business professionals under 35

The global body of finance professionals said the list, which includes entries spanning six continents, recognises “the best and brightest Chartered Accountants who are making a difference to the profession and to society”.

The 35 under 35 CAs were selected from a record number of nominations for their outstanding contributions to their fields and are split into Entrepreneurship,

Leadership, Sustainability and CSR, and Influence and innovation finalists

Anton Colella, ICAS CEO, said: “I would like to extend my congratulations to each and every one of our top 35 CAs under 35.

“The response we’ve had to the competition has been phenomenal and we’ve received a record number of outstanding nominations.

“For each person to be recognised as a top CA under 35 is a tremendous achievement and is testament to the calibre of business leaders that we have in our membership.

“This competition speaks to the heart of what ICAS is and what we want to be. Our young members are driving us forward and instigating change on a global stage.”

The ICAS judging panel will now proceed with the next stage of the competition to narrow down the winners from each category to find the 2016 ICAS One Young CA who will be announced in September and will represent the ICAS membership at the global youth summit, One Young World in Ottawa, Canada.

For the next 15 days Scottish Financial News will be profiling each of the Scottish finalists:

Kevin Harvie CA, 30, (Entrepreneurship Finalist)

Founder, Hectares Food Limited, Glasgow

After studying Law at university, Kevin trained to become a CA with Grant Thornton in Glasgow, initially in their Audit practice before moving to Corporate Finance. He worked with a range of businesses providing advisory and due diligence services and built up a real interest in the Food and Drink sector. In 2013 Kevin left his job at Grant Thornton to launch his own snack company called Hectares. Since launching, the company have sold over half a million packets of sweet potato crisps and secured a number of high profile clients.

“Whilst working at Grant Thornton I had been looking for an idea to start my own business and I spotted the growth in demand for sweet potatoes. At that time there wasn’t a company doing sweet potato crisps so I decided that was what I was going to do.

I then went on to launch Hectares, which is a premium snack brand. Our focus is on producing snacks for busy people living and working in cities across the UK. As a big fan of snacks I noticed there were no sweet potato crisps on the market. I also believed the big snack companies had become lazy in developing new, innovative products. Consumers were, and continue to, look for healthier snack alternatives without compromising on taste.

The sweet potato crisps were our first product launch and we hope to launch two new ranges during 2016. Our snacks have to meet strict criteria of being simple, nutritious and delicious.

Since launching we have sold over half a million packets of sweet potato crisps and secured customers including BP, Whole Foods and Harvey Nichols.

In 2016 we have big plans to expand our range of products and drive revenue to £1m. It’s very difficult to achieve this but companies like Hectares are pushing ahead with innovation leaving the big brands behind to focus on large volume white potato based products.

Hauling a business off the ground from scratch has been very tough and we are still in the very early stages. There have been many challenges including developing a robust supply chain and managing cashflow. However, we have a very clear idea of where we want to take the business and huge determination in the team to succeed.