After helping build the Cayman Islands into one of the world’s leading international financial centres, Michael Austin says it is time to invest in the people who will shape its future.
The 90-year-old chartered accountant has established the Michael Austin Scholarship, a new programme designed to help high-achieving Caymanian students pursue careers in accounting and related financial professions.
The first recipient has already been selected and will study actuarial science, an area Austin believes is critically important to the continued development of the Cayman Islands’ financial services industry.
“KPMG finds the candidates – my role is to fund it,” Austin said, describing the scholarship as a way of giving something back to the country he and his wife, Joan, have called home for almost six decades.
“We have been blessed throughout our lives,” he said. “I felt I had to give something back to Cayman.”
Arrived in 1968
Austin’s own journey began in England, where he qualified as a chartered accountant before answering what he describes as “the call of the Caribbean”. After working in Kingston, Jamaica, he was asked in 1968 to establish what was then the Cayman office of Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co., which, after a 1987 merger, became KPMG.
His wife initially agreed to move to Cayman for just one year. “At the time, Cayman was infested with mosquitoes,” he recalled with a smile.
The fledgling office occupied a single room in the historic Watler Building on the George Town waterfront, where the Royal Watler Terminal is now. Austin was the firm’s only employee and Joan volunteered as his secretary while the practice became established.
“In the first year, we only did one audit,” he said. “Most of the work was clerical.”
From those modest beginnings, Austin spent 23 years as managing partner, overseeing the firm’s expansion from a one-man operation into one of the jurisdiction’s leading professional services firms. Today, KPMG employs hundreds of people in the Cayman Islands.
Furthering Cayman’s financial industry
Alongside his private sector career, Austin played a central role in the development of the jurisdiction’s financial services framework. He served as the first president of what is now the Cayman Islands Institute of Professional Accountants, chaired the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority from 2003 to 2004 after joining its board in 1997, and also chaired the Auditors Oversight Authority.
He advised successive governments on the growth of the financial services sector, including recommending reductions to company fees in the mid-1990s, a move he believes helped attract significant new business to Cayman.
“That had a very positive impact, directly as a result of the fee reduction,” he said. “Maybe there’s a lesson for today.”
His public service also included appointments to the Agricultural and Industrial Development Board, the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange Committee and the Government/Private Sector Consultative Committee. In recognition of his contributions to business and public service, he was appointed an MBE in 1990.
Despite turning 91 in November, Austin continues to serve as a director and trustee for several companies and remains active in the financial services community. “I still find it enjoyable,” he said. “It gives one a sense of purpose, keeps me connected with the business world and I find it highly satisfying.”
For young Caymanians considering a career in accounting, his advice is straightforward.
“Go abroad, get experience and then come back,” he said. “Nothing compares with gaining experience in the big wide world and bringing it back to Cayman.”
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