Posted November 28, 2022

Celebrating Female Led Businesses

Joanne Whiteside and Sarah Greenwood have been jointly won an MP HERoes award.  The award was created by Savvitas in partnership with NatWest, the MP HERoes awards allow local MPs to celebrate female entrepreneurship throughout the country across all sectors and industries – each MP is able to nominate only one business – which makes this all the more special for Joanne and Sarah.

Stuart Andrew, MP of Pudsey, Horsforth and Aireborough, nominated Joanne and Sarah to be his MP HERoes due to the integrity that shines from within the firm which Joanne has run for over 30 years. He stated in his nominations that the friendly and professional way in which they operate has made them a key contributor to the local community.

“I was delighted to nominate Joanne Whiteside and Sarah Greenwood of Whitesides Chartered Accountants as my MP HERoes. Joanne and Sarah do excellent work in my constituency of Pudsey, Horsforth and Aireborough by making a longstanding contribution to the community, assisting local businesses, and creating local jobs. I’m glad to support the MP HERoes programme and proud to champion women-owned businesses and the wide-ranging benefits they bring to the UK economy.” – Rt Hon Stuart Andrew MP.

Whitesides is one of few second-generation female-run family businesses.  Joanne Whiteside founded the practice in 1989 with Joanne’s daughter, Sarah Greenwood, joining in 2015 after 8 years working for BDO LLP and Deloitte.  In the time since Sarah joined the business, Joanne and Sarah have more than doubled both the turnover of the business and the number of staff.  Whitesides ethos of a friendly, family firm is at the heart of the business, Joanne has always wanted to help train and develop future accountants, and they currently have 4 trainees working in the practice.  Sarah was made a director of the firm in 2020 with Daniel Dufton joining the business as a Director in 2021 to continue to build on the growth and allow Joanne to take a step back as she looks to retire from the business.

“Women need to see, and have access to, other women who have managed to be successful in their chosen career. I was lucky enough to have that role model in my mother, but that isn’t always the case, so it’s great to see initiatives such as MP HERoes showcasing this.” – Sarah Greenwood, Director of Whitesides Chartered Accountants.

The MP HERoes award is a great achievement for Joanne and Sarah and a brilliant way for the company to celebrate the success of Joanne Whiteside in the year of her retirement.