Ian Bremner

Hotel Accounting Managing Director

BA CA

0141 221 2984

i.bremner@frenchduncan.co.uk

Specialisms include...

• Hotel Accounting
• Hospitality & Leisure

Ian qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1984 after training with a Big four firm.  Since then he has specialised in the hospitality sector, having obtained direct experience as Finance Director of a Scottish Hotel company before focusing on the provision of hotel accounting services to a variety of clients across the UK.

Ian joined French Duncan in 2016 to develop an innovative accounting service for individual hotels, groups of hotels and hotel management providers.  Utilising over 20 years of expertise in the sector Ian provides a tailored service, quickly identifying individual requirements based on the type of business.

Leveraging his expertise in the Hospitality Sector  he leads a team that provides cloud based hotel accounting services.  Through a one stop shop approach, hotel owners and managers are able to access real time financial information whenever and wherever they want it.

Ian’s experience and dedication to top quality service, enables clients to concentrate on key operational issues, safe in the knowledge that all of their accounting and taxation needs are taken care of.

Giancarlo Porrelli

Hotel Accounting Operations Director

CA

0141 221 2984

g.porrelli@frenchduncan.co.uk

Specialisms include...

• Hotel Accounting
• Hospitality & Leisure

Giancarlo qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2005 and has significant experience working for a range of companies, from listed multinational to SME, along with accounting practice.

Giancarlo has held a number of senior positions over the years, latterly focusing on operational and commercial strategy in the Media and Hotels sectors.

He joined French Duncan in 2018 as Operations Director of the Hotel Accounting business.

 

Ian Pascall

Hotel Accounting Technical Director

BAcc(Hons) CA

0141 221 2984

i.pascall@frenchduncan.co.uk

Specialisms include...

• Hotel Accounting
• Hospitality & Leisure

After completing his ICAS training with a mid-tier Edinburgh accountancy firm in 2005, Ian went on to work in the assurance department of a Big 4 firm in the Cayman Islands for two years. Staying in the Cayman Islands, he went on become a captive account manager for a further ten years before joining French Duncan in January 2017.

Ian brings with him significant experience in providing high quality services to a range of clients, and prides himself on having excellent communication skills. As French Duncan’s manager within the Outsourced Service Department he will ensure all French Duncan’s clients are able to access and manage their accounting services through various cloud accounting platforms. He will offer assistance and expertise to ensure they can maximise the benefits of cloud-based systems and technologies.

Iain Walker

Partner

CA CBV

0141 221 2984

i.walker@frenchduncan.co.uk

Specialisms include...

• Corporate Advisory

As well as being a qualified Chartered Accountant and Chartered Business Valuator, Iain has over 10 years of experience in the corporate finance profession – both in the UK and overseas.  

Iain moved to Bermuda in 2009 where he worked in the corporate finance and valuations department of KPMG before taking on a role as corporate finance and strategy manager at London listed insurance company Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings Ltd.  He has also worked for other major professional services companies, including PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte.

Iain joined French Duncan in 2016 and is a key member of the corporate advisory team.  He specialises in advising on acquisitions, sale mandates, valuations, due diligence, fund raising and business planning. 

Iain was promoted to Partner in April 2019.

Barry Laurie

Partner

BSc CA

0131 225 6366

b.laurie@frenchduncan.co.uk

Specialisms include...

• Corporate Tax
• Tax Investigations Service
• Food & Drink
• Hospitality & Leisure
• Property & Construction

Throughout his extensive career, Barry has worked for HMRC, Arthur Andersen, Coopers and Lybrand and McCabes. He has been a Tax Partner with French Duncan since its merger with McCabes in 2008.

Barry has a wealth of experience in all aspects of tax matters, from corporate to personal and has a particular specialism in maximising capital allowances for clients. Whilst Barry can advise any business on its tax matters, he has particular expertise in the hospitality and property sectors.

He can also advise on tax incentives for investment.

Barry prides himself on taking the initiative to understand his clients’ needs to deliver results.

He enjoys building strong relationships with his clients and continually seeks opportunities which he believes will be to their benefit.

Eileen Blackburn

Partner & Head of Restructuring & Debt Advisory

CA MABRP

0131 243 0199

e.blackburn@frenchduncan.co.uk

Specialisms include...

• Personal & Individual Debt Solutions
• Hospitality & Leisure

Eileen is a practising Insolvency Practitioner, JIEB qualified with almost 30 years’ experience in Restructuring and Insolvency and a chartered accountant.

Based in Edinburgh, she heads up French Duncan’s Restructuring & Debt Advisory practice and specialises in advising owner managed businesses, corporate and personal.

Her experience ranges from multi location retail insolvencies to complex personal cases including appointments over insolvent solicitors’ practices. Included in recent cases is the Administration of a company providing specialist security systems in the Middle East and the winding up of a company providing innovative, patent-protected water treatment technology to the tertiary/polishing water treatment and reuse market.

She is chair of the Scottish Technical Committee of the Association of Business Recovery Professionals (R3) and also sits on R3’s Council and Policy Committee. She represents ICAS on JIEB and sits on the ICAS Authorisation Committee.

Eileen has been heavily involved in Scottish Insolvency matters over a number of years and has engaged with the Scottish Government and the Accountant in Bankruptcy on behalf of R3. Recently she has been involved in the working party set up to consider the modernisation of the Scottish Insolvency Rules.