Our Chief Executive
Sarah Palmer
Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
Sarah Palmer became Chief Executive of the IAB in 2024 — but her relationship with the Institute, and with the profession it serves, goes back much further. A qualified bookkeeper who built a thriving practice from the ground up, Sarah leads the IAB with the perspective of someone who has done the work our members do every day.
At a Glance
A career built in the profession
Her Story
From practitioner to Chief Executive
Sarah Palmer leads the Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers (IAB), connecting professional education, business and public policy to create opportunities for finance professionals in the UK and internationally.
Her focus is on ensuring the IAB’s qualifications lead to employment, its membership supports professional progression, and its partnerships respond to the skills businesses need. She works with governments, national bodies, employers and education providers to strengthen the connection between learning and economic opportunity.
Sarah is driving the IAB’s international development, building relationships that bring British professional education into new markets and help finance professionals work confidently across borders. Alongside this, she champions professional standards and the contribution accountants and bookkeepers make to business resilience, financial integrity and economic growth.
Having joined the IAB Board in 2017, Sarah became Chief Operations Officer in 2019 and Chief Executive in 2024. Her leadership draws on first-hand experience of building Women Who Count Ltd, giving her a practical understanding of the pressures facing practitioners and the businesses they support.
Her ambition is to build on the IAB’s heritage while shaping an organisation equipped for the next generation of finance professionals.
The Journey
Sarah's path to the IAB
Founds Women Who Count Ltd
Establishes her own bookkeeping practice, growing it to around ninety clients and a team of eight.
Joins the IAB board
Brings her practitioner's experience to the governance of the Institute.
Chief Operations Officer
Takes on responsibility for the day-to-day running and operational strength of the organisation.
Appointed Chief Executive
Begins leading the IAB's modernisation and its renewed focus on integrity in process, practice and performance.
Her Vision
A clear mission: modernisation and integrity
Since taking the helm, Sarah's leadership has centred on modernisation — completely restructuring the organisation and redefining its focus on integrity in process, practice and performance. Her aim is an IAB that is fit for the future: rigorous in its standards, generous in its support, and unwavering in putting members first.
It is a vision shaped by experience. Having built and run a practice herself, Sarah understands what members need from their professional body — credibility that opens doors, support that is genuinely useful, and standards worth being held to.
My ambition is to change perceptions, challenge expectations and help build a profession — one defined by confidence, capability and credibility.Sarah Palmer, Chief Executive
Stay Connected
Follow Sarah on LinkedIn
Keep up with Sarah's thinking on the future of the profession, the IAB's journey, and what modernisation and integrity mean in practice. Connect and follow her on LinkedIn.
