Alison McCarthy

Background

About Alison McCarthy

I am a chartered accountant with 30 years’ experience working with media and entertainment companies. My business, New Bohemians, helps creative people build viable commercial businesses. My roles have included - The financial leadership of businesses ranging from start-ups to listed companies. This has included fundraising, recently as part of the team raising a £40 million venture fund- Operational roles including creating, managing and developing teams- Strategic work including business planning and pricing modelsBefore setting up New Bohemians I was a director of Edge Investments, a venture capital company focusing on investment in the creative industries. As CFO, I was responsible for the running of the investment house as a whole, as well as evaluating potential and existing investments. My career began as a technical trainee in BBC post production and progressed to business manager for TV entertainment programmes - Negotiating deals for acquisition and production of TV shows - Structuring deals for on-screen talent - Analysing the impact of new technologies on film and TV business models e.g. video on demand and PVRs such as Sky+ While I was qualified by experience, I felt that my career prospects were restricted by not having an accountancy qualification so I took time out to train as a charted accountant at Shipleys LLP where I worked as part of their highly regarded media team. My work included - Working with film producers looking to maximise the use of tax efficient schemes - Tax auditing film costs, preparing tax claims and liaising with HMRC - Statutory audit of media companies e.g. film distribution companies, production companies and collection agents From there I worked with Disney, managing the finances of their worldwide dubbing services and moved to Edge Investments in 2010.