Richard Percival joined the College’s Audit Committee as its independent Chair in May 2016 and became a governor in July 2021. He is a qualified accountant who worked in public sector audit for most of his career. He has a thorough understanding of financial governance and financial management in the public sector.
After graduating in economics from Leicester Polytechnic Richard pursued a career in public sector finance, initially in Local Government then with the Audit Commission and latterly with Grant Thornton. During his career he was responsible for the delivery of external audits for a broad range of public sector bodies across the West Midlands, including large local authorities and major NHS organisations. As well as financial audit his also assessed organisational arrangements for securing value for money in the use of resources. Richard is an experienced communicator at Board level.
As well as his audit responsibilities Richard is also an experienced trainer and presenter. He has helped to develop and deliver technical training to auditors and public sector finance staff and designed and led the delivery of a career development programme for local authority finance staff.
Richard is also a Lay Member for Coventry and Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group and is chair of their Audit Committee.