Lab team

Phil Fitz-Gerald

Director

Phil became Director of the Financial Reporting Lab in 2017. He is a Chartered Accountant in the UK with over 20 years of experience in accounting and audit.

He has worked for the FRC since 2009 and was previously the Head of Case Examination and Enquiries where he led the first phase of the FRC's project on improving the quality of reporting at smaller listed and AIM quoted companies.

Phil started his career in the audit practice at a large audit firm where he spent ten years, the latter half of which he worked as a senior manager in the firm’s professional practice department. After leaving practice, he spent five years as a training consultant helping companies with their corporate reporting requirements before joining the FRC.

You can reach Phil on financialreportinglab@frc.org.uk

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Thomas Toomse-Smith

Project Director

Thomas joined the Lab in late 2013. Thomas led the Lab’s ‘Towards Clear and Concise Reporting’ project and is now leading the ‘Corporate Reporting in a Digital World’ project looking at how the use of digital reporting might be optimised in the future.

Before joining the Lab, Thomas worked in the Corporate Reporting team at a FTSE 100 company for 2 years. Prior to this he worked in insurance audit for 10 years both in the UK and the US. Thomas is a UK Charted Accountant.

You can reach Thomas on financialreportinglab@frc.org.uk

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Hannah Armitage

Project Manager

Hannah joined the lab in 2017. She moved from the FRC’s Corporate Governance Team, where she worked on reviews of the Stewardship Code and UK Corporate Governance Code.

Hannah is a qualified lawyer and prior to joining the FRC, worked in the Australian Department of the Treasury on corporations and corporate law policy.

You can contact Hannah at financialreportinglab@frc.org.uk

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Marie Claire Tabone

Project Manager

Marie Claire joined Lab in June 2020 from PwC, where she was on secondment to the IASB and worked on their Management Commentary project since 2018. Previously, Marie Claire was a manager in PwC’s global investor engagement team, where she engaged with investors, standard setters and regulators on corporate reporting practices.

Marie Claire is a qualified accountant, and prior to working in investor engagement, worked in audit in PwC London, the Channel Islands and Malta.

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Joan Hill

PA to the Lab

Joan Hill became the PA to the Lab team in 2017. She joined the Lab from PwC where she worked in the Insurance and Investment Management Assurance team. Joan supports the team across the full range of activities of the Lab. If you would like to contact her email her at financialreportinglab@frc.org.uk

Andrea Tweedie

Research Assistant

Andrea joined the Lab in early 2018. She is performing an implementation study to assess how companies have responded to previous Lab reports on risk and viability reporting, business model reporting, disclosure of dividends, and debt terms and maturity.

Andrea has a background in science and engineering, and prior to joining the FRC she performed research at the Queensland Brain Institute specialising in neuronal mitochondrial biology.

You can reach Andrea at: financialreportinglab@frc.org.uk