Stereotype doesn't wash with this accountant

Judith Stanway will be formally recognised by her peers tomorrow. Photo/Stephen Parker

Judith Stanway has put her heart and soul into her career, so it's only fitting she's been awarded one of New Zealand accountancy's highest honours.

Mrs Stanway, a partner at BDO Rotorua, will tomorrow night be presented with a New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants Fellowship.

To be awarded a fellowship, an accountant must have given outstanding service to the profession or brought distinction to it over and above the normal course of the job. He or she must be nominated by two people and recipients are decided by a committee.

Mrs Stanway found out late last year she had been made a fellow, but it will be formally presented at tomorrow night's dinner in Tauranga.

She said receiving the fellowship was an honour and "a big deal".

"A lot of the time you're working away on your own and you don't have any feel for how you're seen in the profession," Mrs Stanway said. "It's really nice to be recognised by your own peers."

She said she'd worked hard throughout her career, while also raising four children with her husband.

"I put my heart and soul into it over the last 25 years or so.

"I wasn't prepared to just sit there and do what comes but to take opportunities. The award is because a lot of those opportunities have been successful," Mrs Stanway said.

She has been an accountant for about 30 years, 25 of those in Rotorua. She became a partner 23 years ago. At the time she was one of just three female partners out of 39 BDO partners nationally.

She said the profession was always evolving and there were always new challenges.

"People think of accounting as being a bit boring and sitting behind a desk all day. My experience has not been that at all," Mrs Stanway said.

While she had gone down the chartered accountancy route, she now did a lot of advisory and governance work which she enjoyed.

As the chairwoman of the national BDO board for six years (she served 12 years on the board), she also got to travel the world, attending conferences and meeting a range of interesting people and she's adamant the "boring accountant" stereotype has no truth to it. Her role has also allowed her to give back to Rotorua through involvement with the Lakeside Trust, Rotary and other "bits and pieces".

Mrs Stanway is the sole woman in the Rotorua Business Hall of Fame, after she won the Business Person of the Year award in 2012.