About Us
Ayr
Our Ayr office is centrally located in Miller Road with car-parking to the rear of the premises.
The office is housed in a magnificent late 19 th century property which still retains many of its original features from the days when it was the private residence of the Templeton family. The former music room of the Templeton family, with its original wood panelling, is now home to our audit team and the wonderful stained glass windows on the first floor are admired by many clients as they pass by.
We have 5 partners and over 30 staff based in our Ayr office providing a complete range of business services to our clients.
Born in England but educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh, Andrew has however lived most of his life in Ayr. Stewart Gilmour was the training office for the old five year exam system. After that Arthur Young McClelland’s doors beckoned and since 1973 Andrew has been a driving force at William Duncan & Co.
Now aged 60 he is the senior partner of the firm but still feels he has enthusiasm and commitment which he uses to try and inspire not only his team mates in the office but also his clients and when possible Ayr Rugby Club on Saturday afternoons.
Robert has acted as Managing Partner of our Ayr and Cumnock offices since August 2008.
Born and brought up on a farm in Ayrshire, Robert decided at the tender age of 12 that he wanted to be an accountant. This was the result of having met a well groomed gentleman in a smart jaguar car who had attended the family farm to meet with Robert’s father at that time. That man was Bill Mowat, the Accountant from William Duncan & Co, who went on to become Senior Partner of the firm. It never even crossed Robert’s mind that day that 30 years later he would be Managing Partner of the same firm dealing with many of Bill’s former clients.
Between the age of 12 and 23 Robert progressed on his path to becoming a Chartered Accountant, qualifying in 1986. His training contract was served in a local practice in Ayr before he moved on to join a national practice in Glasgow. After a few years there Robert moved into “the real world” of industry where he acted as Group Accountant for two factories within the printing industry. His time in industry was an invaluable personal development experience.
Robert knew that he wanted to return to practice and to Ayrshire where he had many farming and other business connections. After a short period with another firm in Ayr, he found his place in life at William Duncan & Co where he has now been a partner for over 15 years.
It is perhaps the case that you can take the boy out of farming but you can’t take farming out of the boy, because Robert thoroughly enjoys dealing with his portfolio of farming clients. In addition he manages a portfolio of family managed and owned businesses of varying sizes. Robert thrives in getting involved with his clients in all of the value added, advisory and corporate finance aspects of their businesses.
Away from business, Robert has a set of golf clubs (somewhere in a cupboard) and being a member of Glasgow Gailes Golf Club he threatens to one day become a regular golfer. Meanwhile his sporting activities are restricted to watching his daughter on the hockey pitch and his son on the rugby field.
Stephen has been with William Duncan for over 26 years, joining the firm in 1983. He trained and qualified with the firm, firstly as an Accounting Technician, before qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1994. He was appointed an Associate in 1997, becoming a Partner in January 2000. Stephen is responsible for a wide-ranging portfolio of clients, covering sole traders, partnerships and small/medium sized limited companies, dealing with accountancy, taxation, audit and business issues affecting the business and its owners. Client sectors include retail, service, professionals, construction and manufacturing.
Stephen is jointly responsible for looking after the firms’ medical sector clients, comprising Doctors (GP's, consultants, locums) and dentists - more information on this can be found in the "Healthcare" section of the website.
Stephen is also the firm’s specialist partner for Charity Sector clients, and is responsible for HR and staff matters within the Ayr office. Stephen is Secretary and Treasurer of the Ayrshire Association of Chartered Accountants, is Treasurer/director of the charity Heartstart (Ayrshire and Arran) and is a Past Chairman and current active member of Troon Round Table.
Stephen lives in Troon with his wife and three (very active) children. He relaxes through his involvement with the kids activities, whether spectating or being head chauffeur and also with his musical interests. He was a member of local choir, Marr Cappella for ten years, and you will find him happily relieving stress playing drums in a local band, supporting concerts to raise funds for charity.
John joined William Duncan & Co’s Ayr office in 1976 straight from school, he trained with the firm and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1987 and was subsequently admitted a partner in 1990.
With William Duncan & Co he has responsibility for a wide portfolio of owner managed clients who are engaged in a variety of trades and professions, advising them on a range of business services which are relevant to the needs of successful privately owned and managed businesses.
John is a past chairman of Ayr & District Round Table and enjoys the occasional game of golf, watching his favourite football team and playing 5 a-side football (unfortunately very occasionally now as the old bones start to creek!).
Hazel joined William Duncan & Co in 2000 as a senior manager, having previously worked with a number of mid-tier practices in England, and was appointed a partner on 1 January 2008.
With 20 years’ experience in public practice, Hazel has a varied client portfolio covering a broad range of business sectors, ranging in size from sole traders to owner-managed limited companies.
Hazel was recently appointed the firm’s Audit Compliance Partner.
She loves to fuss over her family at weekends and is attempting to play the piano again after a break of many years.
Sandy decided to take up a career in accountancy following his father’s deep words of wisdom, “you appear to be quite good at arithmetic”. Sandy subsequently took this advice and attended Edinburgh University, qualifying as a Bachelor of Commerce in 1981. He trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with the then Binder Hamlyn, latterly becoming BDO Stoy Hayward. Working in Glasgow and Ayr for BDO, Sandy was appointed a partner in 1998 specialising in mid tier corporate assurance work. Sandy developed his client portfolio working predominantly in Ayr and, when BDO’s strategic development took the firm out of Ayrshire, he decided to set up his own practice to look after his Ayrshire clients. At this time, working closely with the Ayrshire partners of William Duncan & Co, he decided that the interests of his clients (and his desire to work with a firm with a user friendly name!) would be better served by merging his business. Sandy joined William Duncan & Co as a partner in August 2010.
Throughout his professional career Sandy has developed a wide range of specialist skills covering assurance, accountancy, personal & corporate tax, forensic and corporate finance work. Despite the range of his skills he sees his main attribute as talking to his clients about day to day business issues. Many of the clients Sandy works with have limited resources and frequently they value the opportunity to discuss all aspects of their business. Sometimes common sense seems much more obvious when you have a chance to talk with someone freely about day to day concerns! Having the benefit of a wide ranging portfolio of clients Sandy does not limit his skills to certain sectors however he does have a sound knowledge of leisure and retailing and from his time working in Glasgow a good manufacturing awareness.
Sandy is a past Chairman of Ayr Kyle Round Table, hosting their 30th Charter Dinner back in 1997. His hobbies include golf and badminton. He admits it’s fair to say that his badminton skills somewhat exceed his golfing skills!
Ayr Office
Andrew Pickles
Robert Fergusson
Stephen J Bargh
John Wallace
Hazel Murphy
Sandy Dargie