Director
Craig Williams
Originally a musician, Craig trained to be a Chartered Accountant in Bristol whilst being a director of a small independent record company. On qualifying in 1993, he worked in London for a number of accountancy practices that specialised in music business clients.
In 1995 Craig returned to Bristol to work as a consultant for a local firm, retaining some of his London clients. In late 1999 he set up his own practice, ‘MWM’ with some former colleagues. Craig worked in the company until ‘Zen’ was born in 2014 on the retirement of his partners.
Craig deals exclusively with entertainment and media businesses, with his particular expertise being the music industry. He has acted as a retained advisor to the Musician’s Union nationally on cross border taxation for touring artists and was chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Entertainment and Media special interest group for 13 years.
Director
Craig Williams Cont.
His current voluntary post includes Treasurer of the Basement Studio (a youth music project), Community First Responder for the South West Ambulance Service and a Coastguard Rescue Officer. Craig was an operation member of Avon and Somerset Search and Cliff Rescue (the local mountain rescue team) for 11 years,
In parallel with his work in practice, he was an artist manager for seven years, managing some internationally successful acts.
Craig has been asked to speak and lecture on many forums, including Falmouth University Academy of Music and Theatre Arts, The Watershed Arts Trust, The Musicians Union, The Welsh Music Foundation, The Music Managers Forum. MCPS, and is currently a lecturer on the Master’s degree in Music Business at Tileyard University.
Director
Kashif Ahmed
Kashif has over twelve years of senior global experience in delivering accounting and financial services with PwC and Deloitte. Kashif believes that the creative sector requires a unique combination of financial knowledge and state of the art innovative methods of data collection which is sensitive to the busy lives of media professionals. Kashif has acted for international star Leona Lewis for several years.
Being passionate about the industry, knowledgeable about financial advice and wealth management and committed to his client’s success, Kashif brings together a dynamic network of finance, legal and commercial experts together with tomorrow’s rising media stars.
Consultant
Anton Lane
Anton is a Chartered Tax Adviser with over 20 years of experience solving tax problems. Anton is an industry recognised specialist dealing with contentious tax issues. He is the author of the Practical Enquiries Manual, several annotated Finance Acts and writes regularly for Taxation, Tax Adviser and Tax Digest.
Areas of expertise:
- Resolving HMRC disputes
- Offshore structures
- Anti-avoidance legislation
Consultant
Mike Donovan
Mike has always worked within the music and entertainment world – as an accountant at a heavy-rock management company, then at the Robert Stigwood Organisation, at a time when they were very successful with artists such as Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees, and the Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar stage shows.
Since that time, he has worked with hundreds of artists, including several of the biggest bands in the world and iconic artists such as Johnny Cash, James Brown, Little Richard and Brian Wilson. He now handles tour accounting and tax planning for many well-known names, as was the business manager for the legendary band Motorhead.
Consultant
Julie Eyre
Julie spent several years working in music publishing before working at established entertainment accounting firms, concentrating on record and music publishing audits.
This experience has enabled Julie to build a solid background of royalty expertise and offer a reliable royalty audit service.
Julie is a member of the MCPS audit panel and regularly carries out royalty examinations on behalf of music publishers represented by MCPS.
