About Inglis
A word from our founder, Donald Inglis
My parents have a mixed arable farm near St Andrews (yes I do play golf, but not for 20 years and I was rubbish even then), so agriculture and the stresses, strains and headaches (and enjoyment) of running a small business were an intrinsic part of my upbringing and family life.
I vividly remember seeing the horrendous pictures of the Ethiopian famine in the 1980’s on TV and I knew then that I wanted to make a positive difference to the world. By growing up on a farm and studying agriculture at College – I knew I had the skills to help (in a very small way) to achieve this. To this end I worked as a school farm manager in Papua New Guinea, a farm manager in Ukraine and then finally as a parchment coffee buyer in Tanzania.
A common challenge in all of these countries was the lack of long term sustainable planning. The root cause of this was obvious. With extreme poverty - the vicious cycle of hunger and illness is never far away. I realised that if I could gain an internationally recognised professional qualification then I would be able to continue working within international development.
To this end I started accountancy as a second / third career at the age of 30. Going back to study at that age was not easy, but with determination and support I achieved first time passes in all my exams and qualified as Chartered Accountant in 2002.
With the uncertainty in the world at the time (the 9/11 attacks, Anderson's going bankrupt with the Enron scandal etc), it was clear that in the long term my overseas ventures had ended – and I began specialising in becoming a business advisor and accountant to small and medium sized businesses.
In 2010 I started my own accountancy practice with the vision to inspire businesses to be brilliant, as ultimately this is the only way to achieve my aim of reducing global poverty.