Tracy Wood, 31

Partner

Ernst & Young LLP

Greatest professional achievement: Being appointed as partner at Ernst & Young in Manchester at the age of 28 — the youngest person to be made partner in the firm’s history.

Current business goal: To double the size of Ernst & Young’s northern tax practice by 2010.

Wood has enjoyed something of a stellar rise in her brief career to date since joining Ernst & Young in 2001 from Blackburn-based accountancy firm Lathams.

Among the honours she has achieved so far have been nominations for the Accountancy Age Accountant of the Year award at the age of just 25 and achieving the highest test scores in the region in her Association of Chartered Accountancy exams.

She now leads Ernst & Young’s 160-person tax team across five regional offices — Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull and Belfast. “I initially hesitated at the prospect — it was a huge challenge,” she said. “But I felt I had the enthusiasm and support of my colleagues to give it a go.” And give it a go she has.

Despite leading senior team members who are often twice her own age, she has overseen a department that in its most recent year has seen its revenues increase by 18 per cent. Her Manchester tax team recently won national recognition by taking the Best Big Four Tax Team award at the LexisNexis Taxation Awards 2008.

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