AFTER spending time in Adelaide, Sydney and Canberra, chartered accountant Adam Douglass has returned to Sunraysia.
Originally from Red Cliffs, Mr Douglass did work experience with his current colleague Paul Meredith when he was 15, and spent time working with him in Mildura before heading to the big smoke.
He recently turned down an opportunity to be made partner at a firm in Canberra to return to the region, bringing a wealth of experience along with him.
“Being away for so long, for the best part of 15 years, and having seen family probably once every quarter at best, the desire to be closer was probably the number one reason to come back,” Mr Douglass said.
“Another part was the country lifestyle, you’ve got more accessibility to that work life balance that you probably wouldn’t always get in the city.”
During his time away Mr Douglass worked with PwC Australia, joining a financial services tax team that audited the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s tax affairs.
He said his career had given him time to reflect on what he enjoyed the most and got the most out of, and settled on returning home.
“There’s tax from the larger end of the corporate town that still apply to their everyday business operators,” he said.
“Hopefully bringing some of that skillset to that smaller end of town can help them out as well.”
Mr Douglass has joined the team at Precision Accounting, who are all pleased with his return.
“The accounting industry is a big changing industry at the moment,” Certified Practicing Accountant Paul Meredith said.
“There’s a lot of regulation and compliance changes behind the scenes, the government is changing a lot of things, good people are hard to find and he’s one of those.
“It’s hard to recruit and bring quality people back because you’re trying to bring city talent back to the country.”
After moving back in December, Mr Meredith said the biggest upside for his new colleague is the short commute to work.
“He was driving an hour to and from work,” he said
“A lot of people in the cities do that and it’s very draining, very hard on their life and lifestyle.
“The only commodity that’s worth anything is time and we’re all just giving it up every day.”
