Our Current President
About me:
My name is Martin Pollins, and I am now (July 2022) 83 years of age. I qualified as a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor in 1964.
I joined Haywards Heath & District Probus Club in 2010 and was its President for two years - from June 2020 to June 2022, during which time I launched a monthly magazine called Nil Desperandum. I am pleased to say it has been well received by the members of the Club.
I have a Master’s degree in Business Administration (taken when I was 60) and have wide experience in corporate finance, management buy-outs and business management. I have served on the boards of several companies, including those listed on the London Stock Exchange, AIM and OFEX.
I am Chairman and Founder of onesmartplace and was a full Council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales from 1988 to 1996.
I started in practice part-time as an accountant when I was 16 (in 1955), and after qualifying and gaining valuable experience in a prestigious London firm, I spent seven months as Finance Director of a TV commercial film company before starting in full-time public practice with two colleagues in 1968. The firm grew quickly and made several acquisitions. As the managing partner of PRB Martin Pollins, based in Sussex, we became the first Accountancy firm to advertise on British television in January 1984. I launched the CharterGroup Partnership (the UK’s first Accountancy network) in 1986 and then LawGroup UK (at the time, one of the largest networks of lawyers in the UK). In recent years, I have helped to raise several £millions to fund British films such as The Da Vinci Code, Bridge of San Luis Rey, Head in the Clouds and Merchant of Venice with actors such as Charlize Theron, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, F. Murray Abraham. Kathy Bates, Gabriel Byrne, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen, Audrey Tautou, Penélope Cruz, Steven Berkoff, Lynn Collins, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and many more.
I have written around 1,000 business and technical publications (see Glossaries at http://onesmartplace.com/resources/glossaries/), and I am the editor of Better Business Focus (see http://onesmartplace.com/resources/better-business-focus-magazine).
My Blog, on a wide range of subjects, can be found at: http://onesmartplace.com/blog/
I have written two books under the nom de plume of Norman Spillit and hope to have them published soon.
Co-ordinates
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)7710 356825
