After 3 years of running my own business Focus Tax Consulting LLP between July 2005 and April 2008 in May 2008 I merged my business with my friend Mark Woollett's business to become Watts Woollett LLP. After 16 successful years working together we agreed that Watts Woollett LLP should cease trading on 31st March, 2024. This is an amicable demerger in recognition of a number of business and personal factors and I started trading again through Focus Tax Consulting LLP from 1st March, 2024.You can contact me via Linked In and/or via david@focustax.com and/or via +44 (0) 7771 946292.

I grew another executive/personal tax consulting business at Smith & Williamson. Some of my old team followed me across and whilst our business paid its way it soon became apparent this opportunity was not for any of us long term. Whilst I enjoyed my stay at Smith & Williamson and made more good friends there, with hindsight I now realise that this was the perfect stepping stone for me between working at E&Y and running my own business.

One of my favourite times in my career whilst working for someone else. Over this time my executive personal tax consulting idea became a multi million pound business for Ernst & Young and it evolved into consultations, seminars, surgeries, helplines, intranet support in the UK and around the world with all the project management skills required to make it happen on time and within budget. I also helped to build another great team and I was virtually left alone with my team to develop, win, manage, deliver projects and recover costs for the business so I acted like a partner but wasn't. Ultimately that became the stumbling block. I was making so much money for some other partners it seemed that I was not going to make partner myself and the personal rewards no longer matched what I delivered. No-one's fault - that's just life and what I learned made me so much better both personally and professionally. So with sadness about leaving E&Y but optimism about the future I left to become a director at Smith & Williamson Limited.

Coopers & Lybrand supported my executive personal tax consulting idea and helped me to develop that consulting business which was hard work but great fun. I soon had a great team to manage and then the PWC merger happened which was disruptive. At the same time the Ernst & Young merger had completed and they wanted me back to develop and run a similar consulting business for them and I could not resist the challenge of going back to a firm and making it work.

Joined Arthur Young in May 1983 as a senior to deal with complex personal tax clients and promoted to supervisor and then assistant manager but that was not enough as I wanted to be more proactive. So I had an idea for developing a personal tax consulting business for executives. However, without obtaining partner buy in for my idea at that time I left in July 1989 to work for Coopers and Lybrand.

Various at Deloittes, Menzies and the Inland Revenue. Prior to Ernst and Young I dealt with private client work at Deloittes in London for 2 years, prior to that I dealt with private client work at Menzies in Weybridge for over 3 years and prior to that I helped people pay the right tax at Victoria District when I worked at the Inland Revenue for 4 years.