Kim Antonio is the first woman to be appointed a director at Cambridge’s Accounted4.
The chartered accountancy firm (formerly Shannon Wrigley & Co) has been in the town for 65 years and Kim has been with them for 16. She’s one of 12 chartered accountants in the practice.
“Working with numbers always came naturally to me, so when I was studying at the University of Waikato it was logical that I’d major in accounting. What surprised me was how much I enjoyed studying taxation.”
Her first job after graduating was with Ernst & Young, in their entrepreneurial services tax division. While she enjoyed her time in Auckland, she was drawn to a more rural lifestyle.
“So I returned to the Waikato, found a house on a horse stud and worked with the horses for seven months before returning to accountancy.”
While she’s based in Cambridge, Kim has clients all over New Zealand – a dairy farm in Gore for example, a vineyard in Alexandra, her mum and dad’s farm in Northland – and some offshore clients too. “Many of my clients are dairy farmers – it’s an industry I know well. But I also enjoy advising clients on the taxation of their investment portfolios.”
Kim says she’s worked hard and is proud of her achievements. But the hard work doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon. “When there’s a change in government, that’s usually a signal that legislation will change and as accountants we will be interpreting and applying new and often complicated legislation. The recent changes announced to the brightline test, a case in point!”
And after a day with clients and numbers, Kim always has her family and lifestyle block to return to, animals to look after, and always the dream of breeding a thoroughbred champion.
