Conor Burke
Treasurer since 2017.
A Tax Specialist in Large Business based in the Midlands Region at Nottingham. Before joining the Civil Service and HM Revenue & Customs nearly six years ago, I had worked in the private sector.
I worked initially as a pensions administrator in Ireland before moving to the UK over 30 years ago to work as a trainee accountant. On qualification as a Chartered Certified Accountant, I moved to another life insurance company to work as an investment accountant for several years. Whilst working there, I started dealing increasingly with tax matters and decided to start studying for the Chartered Institute of Taxation exams.
Following qualification I worked as a Tax Manager for several life insurance companies and spent several years working as a life tax adviser for a Big 4 accountancy firm. Following my Big 4 stint, I studied law for 12 months before returning to work in the life insurance industry. With the life insurance industry undergoing significant restructuring and consolidation, I eventually decided to change course and joined HM Revenue & Customs in 2013 to work “on the other side”.
Since my move to the Public Sector, I have felt no strong desire to return to the Private Sector and now feel a great sense of achievement challenging tax avoidance (or “aggressive tax planning” as we used to call it) of the sort I once expended so much mental energy and enthusiasm developing.
I was a member of a Trade Union during my first years in employment but most of my subsequent workplaces were non-unionised. In some of those workplaces, I witnessed some very shoddy treatment of employees both junior and senior as the life insurance industry went through significant change and downsizing. Shortly after joining HM Revenue & Customs, I joined FDA and ARC as I considered it sensible to have representatives to voice the concerns of myself and others about workplace issues and to negotiate on my behalf about pay and conditions.
Having been a treasurer of several voluntary bodies including the constituency association of a major political party (a role from which I had to resign on joining the Civil Service), I felt that I could assist ARC with my knowledge and previous experience by volunteering to be Honorary Treasurer when the position became vacant in 2017.
Since then I have maintained ARC’s accounting records and prepared ARC’s Annual Accounts for two years and brought them successfully to AGM for approval by our members. I look forward to helping keep ARC’s finances in sound condition to support FDA’s and ARC’s future work improving members’ conditions and defending our interests. I also appreciate and look forward to members returning their completed expenses reclaim forms and vouchers to me on a timely basis.
