In this series of ‘Emma Meets', Emma Peterson, Director of Recruit 121 Finance & Accounting Solutions, finds out more about the sponsors of the Finance Awards Wales 2025.
Finance Awards Wales is designed to recognise, attract and invest in the talented finance professionals working in Wales, showcasing the best of the best in the finance industry. In this edition, Emma meets Emma Owen Davies BSc FCA, Co-Founder & Director, Barford Owen Davies
Can you share a bit about yourself, your role at Barford Owen Davies (BOD), and what your company specialises in?
I’m Emma Owen Davies (the “OD” in BOD!). I co-founded BOD in 2017 and serve as Director, specialising in Management Accounts, Financial Models, Fractional FD/CFO and Board support.
I started my career at PwC Cardiff, where I became a Chartered Accountant and progressed to Senior Manager, managing a portfolio of owner-managed businesses. After 14 years I left PwC to become Finance Director for two clients experiencing significant growth.
I then founded BOD with Carrie, sharing a belief in the importance of client relationship building and a passion for helping people and businesses reach their potential. Originally from Colwyn Bay, I’m fluent in Welsh and aside from BOD enjoy travelling, reading, walking, and spending time with my family.
Barford Owen Davies (BOD) is a multi-award-winning team of finance professionals based in Wales. We work closely with ambitious owner managed businesses, entrepreneurs and organisations across a range of sectors. We are passionate about helping our clients grow and realise their potential. We are proud to be a trusted part of their leadership teams and their successes.
We are not your traditional accountancy practice. We provide growing businesses with flexible, outsourced solutions to help strengthen their internal finance and leadership teams, deliver projects and ultimately achieve their goals. We also specialise in providing financial due diligence and transactional support to potential funders, investors, vendors and acquirers.
We are a team of 12 finance professionals, eight of which are ex-PwC, with over 220 years of experience between us.
Barford Owen Davies has been a proud supporter of Finance Awards Wales for a few years now. What do you enjoy most about being a sponsor? Any standout moments from past events?
This is my favourite awards ceremony for finance professionals. From personal experience, I think the process of being nominated by your peers and clients, and then being put through a rigorous interview process shows a thorough review of candidates – and eventual winners truly deserve the accolades they receive.
The shortlists for each category are always impressive and the night itself such good fun too. BOD has been honoured to win the Independent Accounting Practice of the Year award three times and have seen the numbers in our BOD team grow on each occasion. The pictures from the events are a wonderful memento of our journey together so far. We’re also very proud to be in a position to sponsor the awards for the third time, and give back, and look forward to celebrating with this year’s finalists and winners.
What would you say to other companies considering sponsorship, and why do you think it's a valuable opportunity?
I would say go for it! The awards event is a great fun evening, full of talented finance professionals and businesses. Being involved in the judging process is an honour, with the high calibre of entrants and wonderful panel of judges. Plus, the awards are very well-respected in our profession, and you get to be associated with the best in our field.
How does Barford Owen Davies’ commitment to celebrating excellence in finance reflect its broader mission to support innovation and drive progress within the industry?
We work with some amazing businesses and have such a supportive network around us in all the other advisory firms we work with too. We also have the best team anyone could possibly wish for – funny, vibrant, hardworking, excellent people. Our approach is always collaborative and fair, and I find others then generally treat you with the same respect in return. We are constantly innovating and have to keep up the pace with the entrepreneurial characters we work with. If you haven’t got accurate data, you can’t make informed decisions, so having high quality management accounts and regular board meetings mean our companies excel.
What exciting plans or initiatives does Barford Owen Davies have in store for this year? Knowing Carrie and Emma, quite a few?
Ha! Life is always exciting at BOD and the year ahead will no doubt be the same pace. We set ourselves a really challenging budget last year and smashed it and will be doing the same this year I have no doubt. We have a huge milestone in our turnover growth coming this year and we want to take the time to enjoy the journey too and be proud of what we’ve built. We also have our 10th anniversary of trading as BOD coming up in 2027, so that will be a great celebration for us and our clients as well (we’re already planning the party!).
BOD isn’t work for me, it’s part of my life and I want to look back in another ten years and feel satisfied that I’ve taken every opportunity and enjoyed every moment. Our growth will never be at the expense of the amazing culture we have created, so we will get there in an enjoyable and fulfilling way.
Where’s your happy place and why?
I’m loving my 40s, and with BOD I feel empowered and confident and in control of my own destiny. I’d say I always feel happy when the sun is shining, and if I’m by the sea I feel calm and relaxed. If I’m with my husband Gareth and our two girls, then life is good.
