McLaren Hunt Financial Group director Christopher Kol has been named the chair of the Chartered Accountants Rural and Regional Advisory Committee of Australia and New Zealand, a position representing the interests of the country's regional accountants.
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"I was asked to become a member to represent Victoria four years ago," Mr Kol said.
"We represent all regional charter accountants and their interests outside of Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane.
"The issues for our regional are quite extensive; we cover drought, bushfires, even the depression in the dairy industry and now COVID-19.
"Mental health has been a prime interest for regional members and their communities. We support them for mental health and how to work with farmers to get on the front foot with banks through discussions and we have tools and resources on our website.
"We ensure the head office in Sydney knows the interests of our members."
One of Mr Kol's first requirements in the role was to conduct an Australia-wide live webinar about COVID-19 and how to navigate it.
"We have hookups a couple of times a year via zoom and also face-to-face," he said.
"We were meant to have a meeting here in Warrnambool with the Sydney tax consultants stopping in Geelong and here. But because where we're at we had to do a live webinar but we still had the people from Sydney online.
"We were talking about the government's stimulus packages and how to navigate them.
"We had more people on then may have come to Warrnambool which is a good thing."
As coronavirus is forcing people to work from home, Mr Kol has been able to maintain his staff at McLaren Hunt Financial Group through innovative methods.
Within this time of the pandemic, the financial group is providing support and advice to people navigating coronavirus funding.
"At the moment we have to be adaptable and work through secure online platforms and different software," he said.
"Working from home seems to be going well.
"I have two staff who are originally from Melbourne and they've gone back there but are able to work from there.
"The way we do busy could well change because of this."
One of the Chartered Accountants committee and McLaren Hunt Financial Group's aims is to entice people to regional areas to work.
"We've gone back to basics," he said.
"We're talking to students at a school level about what a great career accountancy is, we also have an affiliation with Deakin University. We're talking to people at all levels.
"I employ people out of Melbourne because I can't get people here. We show them what the community is like and they stay.
"I've been to a lot of regional centres and two years ago we hosted members here. They always seem so impressed by Warrnambool, especially its greenery and the lifestyle."
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