The document summarizes the winners of ACCA's Achievement Awards for 2007 in four regions: Africa/Middle East, Americas, Asia, and Europe. It provides details on the accomplishments and contributions of each winner in their respective regions that have helped develop the accountancy and finance profession through their commitment to raising standards, education, training, and promoting best practices. The winners include individuals from Mauritius, Bahamas, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cyprus who have played instrumental roles in their countries and regions.

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Achievement Award 2007 winners
The ACCA Achievement Awards recognise
individuals who have made an outstanding
contribution to the development of the
accountancy and finance profession. Awards
are based on merit and given to individuals
whose contributions deserve global
recognition and whose efforts reflect ACCA’s
core values of accountability, diversity,
innovation, integrity, and opportunity.
Awards are made annually in each of
the following regions: Africa and the Middle
East, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The
2007 winners were invited to ACCA’s annual
International Assembly dinner which took
place in London on 22 November 2007.
AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST
Swadeck Taher, deputy CEO, CFO, and
company secretary, British American
Investment Co (Mauritius) Ltd, Mauritius
Swadeck Taher is one of the leading figures
in the accountancy and finance profession in
Mauritius. Through his work in promoting and
developing national accounting standards,
helping establish the Mauritius Institute of
Professional Accountants and improving
corporate governance, under the auspices of the
National Committee on Corporate Government,
his impact has been felt across the whole of
the business community in Mauritius. For his
relentless commitment to raising standards and
instituting best international practice, Swadeck
Taher wins the ACCA Achievement Award for
Africa and the Middle East.
AMERICAS
John Bain, partner, HLB Galanis Bain
Chartered Accountants, Forensics and
Litigation Services, Bahamas
John Bain has taken the lead in raising ACCA’s
profile, both through a personal commitment
to education and training, and by taking the
initiative in anti-money laundering. Since
gaining his ACCA qualification in 1987, John
has become an ambassador and mouth-piece
for ACCA in the Bahamas. He has served as a
Bahamas Institute for Chartered Accountants
(BICA) Council member, heading both the
educational committee and the student body.
He has cascaded his anti-money laundering
knowledge through presentations and seminars
and worked with ACCACaribbean to bring
seminars on emerging issues such as forensic
accounting to the islands. He also lectures with
the Bahamas Institute of Financial Services,
the College of the Bahamas Becker CPD
Review, and has offered free tutorial services
for students taking ACCA exams. For his
single-minded commitment to his professional
body, John Bain wins the ACCA Achievement
Awards for the Americas.
ASIA
There are two winners for the Asia region,
Bui Van Mai, director, accounting policy
department, Ministry of Finance, Vietnam;
and Tan Sri DatukArshad bin Ayub, director
(retired), Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
As director of the accounting policy department
within the Ministry of Finance, Bui Van Mai
began reforming the profession in the
mid-1990s. He encouraged the adoption
of corporate accounting and began work on
bringing Vietnamese standards into line with
international standards. He also achieved
the formation of the Vietnamese Association
of Certified Public Accountants (VACPA)
in April 2005 and was elected chairman.
Recognising the need to train future generations
of accountants in line with global standards,
VACPA – under Bui Van Mai’s leadership
– signed a Joint Examination Scheme with
ACCA in 2003. No-one has done more to
make the Vietnamese accountancy profession
the forward-looking model it is today than
Bui Van Mai.
Tan Sri Datuk Arshad is a former director of
the Universiti Teknologi MARA, formerly known
as the Institut Teknologi MARA (ITM), and is
fondly known as ‘Bapa ACCA’ or the ‘Father of
ACCA’ for his role in introducing and supporting
ACCA education in Malaysia. Back in the
1960s, the then ITM was the first institution in
Malaysia to offer ACCA tuition. This pioneering
move gave Malaysian students the opportunity
to study for ACCA in their own country for the
first time. This visionary act would encourage
more educational institutions to follow suit.
Today, full-time enrolment on ACCA programmes
has increased from just 20 in 1966 to more
than 20,000 just over 40 years later.
Tan Sri Datuk Arshad left ITM in 1975 to
become Deputy Governor of the Malaysia
Central Bank. As a far-sighted educationalist,
he has had a tremendous impact on business
in Malaysia for nearly half a century. By
introducing ACCA education in Malaysia, he has
bequeathed an incredible legacy to his country.
His advice, influence, and vision encouraged
more professional accountants to take up high
profile positions and make lasting contributions
to the business world.
EUROPE
Christodoulos Papas, manager, Marfin Laiki
Bank, Cyprus
Christodoulos Papas is the recent past President
of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants
of Cyprus (ICPAC). One of the most significant
achievements for ICPAC in the past 10 years
was receiving Recognised Supervisory Body
(RSB) status in 2002. Christodoulos was
one of three members of the ICPAC Council
sub-committee which was in charge of bringing
this to fruition. Christodoulos is also a member
of ACCA’s International Assembly. He has used
his dual roles to develop and strengthen links
between ICPAC and ACCA, leading to extensive
and close cooperation, including ACCA’s JES,
CPD scheme, and audit monitoring and ICPAC
quality checked systems for practising firms.
As ACCA honours 30 years of international
collaboration in the profession, Christodoulos is
an extremely appropriate and worthy recipient
of the Europe region Achievement Award.
8 student accountant January 2008