A HAMPSHIRE accountant and lecturer has been named as one of the UK’s most influential people with a disability.

Richard Cartwright, the immediate past president of ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) was named in the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100, an annual listing of the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK, and this year, more than 700 nominations were received for the 100 places.

The names were announced at a reception at the South Bank Centre.

The list is compiled by an independent judging panel, chaired by Kate Nash OBE, a world leading authority in Networkology – the science behind the growth of workplace networks and resource groups – who was honoured for services to disabled people in 2007.

Besides his academic career and current role as principal teaching fellow in Accounting at Southampton Business School, Richard has a long track record in supporting the profession.

He served as a committee member of ICAEW Southern for a number of years, before his two-year stint as president, and remains on the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

In October 2017 he became the youngest member of the accountancy panel, one of the government’s new technical education panels, tasked with helping to shape the future of technical education.

Richard said: “I am honoured to be on the 2018 Disability Power List, especially as this is the fist time I have been nominated.

“It is certainly inspirational and motivating to be listed with such distinguished individuals as Alex Brooker, the disabled TV presenter from Channel 4’s 2012 Paralympics programmes, actor Warwick Davis and Nancy Doyle, an expert in neurodiversity, who runs a social enterprise helping others with such conditions.