Aston University: Business and finance leader receives honorary doctorate from Aston University
A prominent business and finance leader, who graduated from Aston Business School in 1981, has been awarded an honorary degree by Aston University.
Dr Fiona Fry (née Roche) received the honour at a ceremony at Eastside Rooms in Birmingham on 4 April 2022.
After graduation she trained as a chartered accountant at Peat Marwick Mitchell Co and then moved to London to work in corporate recovery with a different firm.
Fiona then took up the opportunity to work in financial services regulation in 1987. Between 1990-1999 she became head of investigations for the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and held to account some of the most powerful organisations in the country, to ensure that where misselling or wrongful advice had been given she was fighting for the investor who had lost out, who could not take on these huge institutions themselves.
Dr Fry has dedicated her career to corporate ethics and accountability – an area of business that is becoming increasingly important in the context of organisations not only doing the right thing technically but also the right thing morally as the sustainability and accountability agenda for business becomes increasingly important.
She is a former partner at KPMG (1999-2021) and has worked with the company on many initiatives and was a leading part of KPMG’s response to the FSA’s ‘Treating Customers Fairly’ initiative. Fiona has been one of the key founders of this work.
Colin Chapman, deputy dean of the College of Business and Social Sciences at Aston Business School, said:
“It is wonderful to see this honour bestowed upon an Aston Business School alumna.
“Fiona has continued to be engaged with the University and helps to support the university’s connections with KPMG in particular but also business and the professions more generally.
“Added to this Fiona speaks regularly about women in leadership and is a keen mentor for young women taking their first steps into industry.
“This is wonderful recognition of her significant contribution to business ethics and women in business.”