The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica (ICAJ) honoured Past President, Mr. Alastair Macbeath FCA, CA, as the 2022 Distinguished Member Awardee at a ceremony held at The Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.

 This prestigious award is presented annually and seeks to recognize a member of the Institute for his/her outstanding contribution to ICAJ and the Accountancy profession in Jamaica.

Born in Perth, Scotland, Alastair is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh where he received an MA in 1956 and an LLB in 1958.  He passed the final examination of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland in May 1960 after apprenticing in that country. He migrated to Jamaica in 1960 to take up a position as Senior Accountant with the firm of Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co (now KPMG), where he spent fourteen years, ending his tenure as a Senior Partner.  

 Macbeath joined the ICAJ shortly after it was established in 1965 and served as President from 1974 to1976. During his presidency, the Institute’s proposal for the University of the West Indies to offer a MSc. Accounting programme was accepted in 1975. This was a significant achievement as the MSc. degree programme provided a new route for qualification for membership of the ICAJ.

Retired Senior Partner of Deloitte Jamaica, Don Reynolds said “Alastair was one of the first persons I met at Peat Marwick when I left university in 1965.  It was a time when there was little respect for people of colour but he was very welcoming and inclusive and he made me feel that it was worth it to get a degree even though I was Jamaican. He was also a great friend of my dearly departed brother Lenny Reynolds who was also a past president of the ICAJ”

Macbeath was a member of the ICAJ Taxation Committee and also served on committees for the Bar Association and for the PSOJ. He served as group financial director and company secretary of the Pan-Jamaican Investment Trust, financial director and company secretary of the Island Records Group’s Bahamian Holding Company. He was group financial director and company secretary of Rothman’s International and he was the CEO of Carreras Group Limited for over 5 years. He also contributed to the development of the Accountancy profession as a part-time lecturer in ACCA Accounting subjects at the College of Arts, Science & Technology (now Utech) and part-time lecturer at the Norman Manley Law School, where he lectured in principles of trusts and trust accounting. Additionally, he served as an independent financial advisor representing Mondial International Investments, which provided financial services throughout the Caribbean.

ICAJ President, Allison Peart stated that “Alastair Macbeath is one of the quiet giants in our profession in Jamaica who contributed greatly to Jamaica’s national development and we salute him as our 2022 Distinguished Member”

Alastair Macbeath receive the 2022 Distinguished Member Award at the ICAJ’s Annual Awards Banquet on April 20, 2023.