Farewell PKF

Thursday was my last day at PKF, in fact it was everyone's last day at PKF. From midnight on Thursday, the trade of PKF was merged into BDO; the combined firm will be known as BDO going forwards. The origins of PKF date back to the late 19th century, with Pannell Kerr Forster being created in 1980, latterly rebranding as PKF. Whilst the UK firm has been sold, PKF International continues, so I'm sure at some stage, a new firm in the UK will be branded under the PKF International umbrella but without any of the history associated with the current holder of the name. We're not moving offices quite yet, but the office will be rebranded over the weekend and so any mentions of PKF will disappear. It's sad to be at the end of an era and so I took a few photos throughout the day as a memento.

Coming into the office for the last time.

Passing through our reception area.

Our old scrap books were out, who'd have thought we used to have a hot air balloon? I guess shaping it like a bowler hat wasn't too stereotypical back then!

My boss always buys everyone an Easter egg. Best thing about the merger? This time we got one from our new employer too.

We all ended up outside when the fire alarms went off, no doubt someone breaking all the health and safety regulations by cooking hot cross buns.

There are a number of members of staff, not just in their 20s and 30s, but also in their 40s, 50s and 60s who have worked at PKF (or its predecessor firms) since leaving school. For these people who have never worked anywhere else, the change will clearly have a massive impact. For the rest of us, it'll be odd going from our spacious office of about thirty people, where everyone knows everyone, with contacts in every office around the country, to a more populous environment where initially we're bound to forget peoples' names and have new procedures and policies to learn. Whilst no merger is ever completely smooth, and there are bound to be some difficult issues to surmount initially, hopefully it will be a good thing for the firm in the long term. 

For now though, I need to start practising introducing myself as Rachel from BDO, not Rachel from PKF. That alone will take a little while.