Meet the Beanies | Small Business Accountant Online | Beany

Meet the Beanies

Introducing some of our Beanies

Susannah De Bievre

Susannah De Bievre, CEO

Sue is a qualified Chartered Accountant in both NZ and the UK. Not only has she worked in well regarded professional accountancy practices over many years, she has in addition, owned small businesses of her own. This gives Sue great insight into just how demanding, and rewarding, small business ownership can be. She loves working within the entrepreneurial community in New Zealand and is involved as a mentor for Startup Weekend, which promotes entrepreneurship globally.
Jeanette Tollan

Jeanette Tollan, Beany

Jeanette has spent 23 years working in a wide range of admin and accounting roles. She joined the Xero revolution and is now a Xero certified expert and works closely with our clients to ensure they are up to date with their tax responsibilities.
Her passion is to have happy clients who have met all their compliance responsibilities on time. She is a mother to two small, very energetic boys and is the person to have in your team if you are in a pub quiz!
Jennifer Hodgson

Jennifer Hodgson, Beany

Jennifer’s career in accounting followed a change of direction after first finishing a Master’s degree in Chemistry. Jennifer has worked hard to complete her accountancy studies while also managing a family. She has been an accountant in chartered accountancy practices for the last seven years and gained membership to NZICA in early 2015. Jennifer now combines her accounting expertise and drive for success to help Beany clients to fulfil their accounting needs, as part of the Beany team.
Jenny Marklew

Jenny Marklew, Beany

Jenny is a qualified Chartered Accountant in both NZ and the UK. Jenny started her accounting career at the age of 17 and qualified as a Chartered Accountant at the age of 21.
Following a career break to start a family, Jenny became a Tax Specialist. 2010 saw a move to New Zealand and a senior appointment to a Tauranga-based chartered accountancy practice. Since 2014, Jenny has held a leading role within the team at Beany.
Christine Tyler

Christine Tyler, Beany

Chris is a very experienced Chartered Accountant with a wide range of practical experience from working for the IRD, being a financial controller for a software company and doing the accounting for a NATO airbase! She has also run her own accountancy practice for 8 years so brings huge technical knowledge to her wide accounting experience. She lives in Rotorua with her husband Nigel and daughter, Jet, as well as her four cats, six chooks, and three goldfish. She also enjoys enjoy gardening, cooking, walking amongst nature and yoga.
Donna Seiga

Donna Seiga, Beany

Donna is a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience in public practice. Previously a Senior Manager at one of the NZ's largest accounting firms, Donna worked with a diverse range of clients from across the Waikato region. Donna enjoys helping business owners with their accounting compliance needs and providing them with day to day business advice. Living in Hamilton with her husband Rob and two children William and Danielle. Health and well-being are important to Donna and she likes to keep physically fit by running (and not just around after the kids!)
Louis de Bievre

Louis de Bievre, Beany

Louis has a strong business background, having started and run many different kinds of businesses with a particular focus on hospitality. He was also general manager of Huka Lodge and other luxury properties for a number of years so combines his hospitality knowledge with tourism and an in-depth knowledge of running large teams focused on excellence. Louis works with our clients to help them develop their businesses and assists them with understanding how we can help.
Sarah Fellingham

Sarah Fellingham, Beany

Sarah is originally from London having worked in the banking industry for 6 years until a move to NZ and change in career working as a qualified ACA at a Chartered Accountancy practice in Auckland for 13 years before moving to the sunny Bay of Plenty earlier this year. Sarah, with a wide range of accounting knowledge loves working with clients, particularly helping them upskill in cloud accounting, such as Xero. She is enjoying living in Bay of Plenty, hanging out with her husband and son, taking the dogs for walks and generally enjoying the Tauranga lifestyle.
Amy Wilson

Amy Wilson, Beany

Amy is passionate about helping people achieve their goals. She began her career in Sydney working for AMP Re as a Senior Accounting Officer. Amy then travelled to the UK where she worked for All Tax UK.
Ambitious for further travel, Amy embarked upon a new career direction within the world of super yachts, travelling throughout Europe and the Caribbean. Returning to the world of commerce, Amy now combines her accounting knowledge and excellent customer service skills supporting clients day-to-day at Beany.
John Curtis

John Curtis, CTO / Developer

Here's John in his studio. He's got over 25 years experience as a software developer and general technologist. After a 10 year stint at Weta Digital John turned his attention to developing cloud-based services. As a Beany co-founder, John's goal was to make it easier for business people like himself to interact with their accountants in a modern and efficient way. When he's not writing code and managing servers, he enjoys hanging out with his 3 kids and playing bass for a variety of bands around Taupo.
Jonty Perry

Jonty Perry, Beany

Trained as a photo processing technician and founded several companies in this industry. He became passionate about delivering high quality, value for money products through technical knowledge and great processes with a strong entrepreneurial streak. Direct marketing and data driven tech evolved as part of the skill set needed for these enterprises. A passion for exceptional customer experiences is a constant driving force. Living in Taupo provides a perfect environment for indulging a love of the outdoors with his mate Mac, the black labrador.
Beth Aldridge

Beth Aldridge, Beany

Beth is originally from the UK and to take a break from the corporate ladder in recruitment, came to NZ as a backpacker back in 2004 and never left! Her time here has been spent in hospitality and tourism and she owned her own backpacker hostel for 5 years, providing invaluable insights into small business. Her passion for exceptional customer care is met with a love of yoga, which she teaches, or you can find her out on her mountain bike in the forest. Beth provides customer support to our Beany customers.
Andrea Bassick

Andrea Bassick,

Andrea is currently studying Accounting have worked as an administrator for the last few years. She is keen to pursue a career as a Chartered Accountant and loves the Beany environment that supports and encourages her personal development. A Taupō local, Andrea spends most of her spare time studying (although she squeezes in a good coffee and book combo when she can) and enjoys walking and hiking when she can fit it in.
Bernadine Boucher (Bibi)

Bernadine Boucher (Bibi), Beany

Bibi is a qualified Financial Accountant with several years of accounting experience in South Africa. After travelling the world working on cruise ships she’s settled in Taupō and is loving the New Zealand work life balance. When she is not chasing clients she is chasing her toddler, spending time with her family, working her way through every recipe in the family cookbook, and indulging her love for seeing new places. Bibi combines people skills with accounting knowledge and is excited to bring the best service possible to Beany clients.
​Angelina Barratt

​Angelina Barratt, Beany

Angelina joins the Beany team as a qualified Accountant with a varied background. She has worked in both traditional accounting firms and at accounting software companies delivering training and consulting with clients. This blend of skills and experience from a software perspective add value to the Beany mix. She lives in the sunny Bay of Plenty with her husband. In her spare time, Angelina enjoys horse riding and pottering in her vege garden.
Alan Richardson

Alan Richardson, Beany

Alan worked for 19 years at the IRD in both Whangarei and Wellington and brings a wealth of tax knowledge with him to Beany. He went offshore to the Cook Islands followed by a stint in PNG working for KPMG to fill out his experience and has spent the last few years working with SME’s in a variety of roles. He is a highly experienced, qualified accountant. He lives in the winterless North with his partner and 4 children and loves hanging out with his kids, coaching football and, when time permits, getting out on the boat fishing.
Leanna Petherick

Leanna Petherick, Beany

Leanna was originally from the Windy Capital where she had a long journey in the Travel Industry, plus she dabbled in the Construction & Banking Industry, while also taking care of the Bookkeeping. Now in our Business Support team, Leanna's vast knowledge and experience makes sure that our Beany clients are looked after based on their needs whilst also giving them confidence in a stress-free accounting experience. In her spare time, Leanna enjoys spending hours with her 2 girls and walking for miles around Lake Taupo!
Sue Bunch

Sue Bunch, Beany

Sue moved to Taupo from the UK in 1995 after falling in love with the area whilst backpacking. Sue has over a decade of experience as an Accounts Administrator and owns her own small business. Sue is looking forward to the opportunity of providing an efficient solution to your admininstration problems. She lives on a lifestyle block near Taupo with her husband Deryck, daughter Mackenzie plus a menagerie of animals. Most of these animals have been rescued or hand raised by the family and none are for eating!
Phil Wood

Phil Wood, Beany

Based in Christchurch, Phillip is a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 5 years of industry experience. After completing his studies, Phillip worked towards his Chartered Accountancy qualification whilst working to help small businesses based in Wellington.

He is a Xero certified expert and works at Beany to help support our clients day-to-day. When he’s not helping Beany clients, he enjoys social basketball, cooking up a storm on his BBQ and listening to music.
Carrie Anne Pratt

Carrie Anne Pratt, Beany

Carrie-Anne is a qualified Chartered Accountant with more than 10 years industry experience. She moved from her hometown of Piopio to study and work towards Chartered Accountancy in Albany, Auckland. She eventually craved a change of lifestyle closer to home and took a position in Taupo. Carrie-Anne enjoys helping clients meet their compliance needs and make sense of the numbers and has a specialisation in farming. In her spare time she enjoys running around after her three children and spending time in the beautiful Taupo scenery.
Kerryn Mills

Kerryn Mills, Beany

Originally from the Manawatu, Kerryn has held varied Management Accounting roles for manufacturing, importing and exporting businesses, specialising in inventory and reporting. Now in the bookkeeping team for Beany, she uses the business knowledge gained from the various companies, as well as accounting skills to ensure every client's accounts are accurate and communicated to them clearly. In her spare time, she looks after her very active son and walks her three rescue dogs for exercise.

What our customers say

As a brand new business, with limited accounting knowledge and even less time, I’ve found the team at Beany to be incredible. No patronising jargon, no scary big bills in the mail, just great friendly service.
Kylie Hawker-Green , PR Plus Taupo
Moving my business to Beany was a great decision. They were really personable and helpful. They have made the whole accounts process so simple.
Sean Wakefield , PAINT-IT
This has been the best experience we've had with accountants. Ever. Can't believe how easy, quick and succinct the whole process is. Thanks Beany!
Tracelee Hooton , Four Seasons Kindy
I was looking at purchasing a business, but the numbers were confusing me. Beany provided clarity, solid advice and reassurance relative to me making the investment.
Trish Boyte
First class support. Just like moving to Xero, I'm very happy moving to Beany.
Tim Morgan
Swift response. Consistent with all past responses. Just superb! Setting the standard for services online. I'm very impressed. Thank you.
Richard Murcott
You have been brilliant and have relieved me of the horrible angst I always feel when faced with a tax return to complete! Thanks a million.
M Bryson
Beany provided me with excellent advice on transferring my United Kingdom pension and in doing so rescued me from having to pay a large New Zealand tax bill!
Trevor Davenport

Case Study

Kylie Hawker-Green, PR PLUS
Kylie Hawker-Green, PR PLUS

In early 2013, Kylie Hawker-Green took the plunge from corporate life as a Public Relations expert into the world of self-employment. Like many working mums, Kylie juggles the demands of her growing business and those of her growing family! Although she is understandably time poor she does appreciate the value of doing everything properly. Kylie consulted with Beany prior to setting up her business and her Xero file.

Kylie is by nature a perfectionist and wanted to know as much as she could about her business and how to do the bookkeeping. She used to do her own GST returns but really liked the support provided by Beany during her start-up phase.

As well as guiding and assisting Kylie through the start-up phase of her new enterprise, Beany has also finalised her financial statements for the 2014 year and has made sure that she is in the best possible position to manage her tax affairs.

ROBIN GAYRAUD, Working Holiday Starter
ROBIN GAYRAUD, Working Holiday Starter

Robin’s business Working Holiday Starter is helping young backpackers from all around the world to work and travel around New Zealand. workingholidaystarter.com is one of the most helpful websites for a working holiday visa in New Zealand with an ever evolving online platform providing resources to anyone interested in spending time in New Zealand.
Beany has helped Robin improve his financial systems so that he can focus on growing his successful business.

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