Alan Edwards, the new Managing Partner at Carpenter Box has always had a clear vision of where he wanted to be, as he explains to Ian Trevett
“I was always very clear that I wanted to be on the Board.” On the face of it, it’s not an unusual statement. It’s an expression of healthy ambition and a determination to succeed. But what is slightly unusual is that Alan Edwards is recalling his teenage ambitions. Most youngsters have no idea what they want to achieve, but Alan had no doubts at all. He had joined a local firm and he was going to work his way up the ladder.
“I’ve lived in Worthing all my life. And when I made the decision not to go to university, I committed to joining a local practice and felt that I wanted to make a difference, in an independent firm rather than going to join one of the big four, or the big five as it was then, which was a potential option. But when you qualify, it is a defining moment in your life and you say, ‘Do I stay where I am or do I move on?’ I was very clear in my mind that I wanted to stay where I was, aspire to become a manager and then an associate, and I was always very clear that I wanted to sit at the Partners’ table. So that’s the decision that I took.”
“I knew that I wanted to be a partner at Carpenter Box. We only had six partners when I joined, and I liked the ethos of the firm which had a family feel, and was always client centric. I worked for about two or three of the partners, one very closely, and was very focused early and I began to realise that I could bring something positive to the partnership.”
It’s quite unusual for someone so young to have such a clear vision of where they want to go in life, but Alan always had that vison from quite early on.
