In February 2026, AAT Comment featured Mark Clayton alongside Victoria Wainwright — office managing partner at Azets — in a career profile piece exploring how two former AAT apprentices built their way to the top of their respective fields.

Mark recounts how he studied AAT as an apprentice at a local practice in Northumberland, before leaving the UK at 20 with his qualification and not much else in his pocket — heading to China on what was meant to be a gap year, and ultimately building a 20-year career there.

On continuous learning, Mark is direct: after AAT, he studied CIMA, earned a master’s in global management, became a CPA, and has constantly upskilled beyond finance into supply chain, leadership, psychology, and diplomacy — and is now learning AI. As he puts it, this isn’t about logging CPD hours on a spreadsheet; it’s about becoming the kind of person who grows faster than their environment.

On what AAT gave him, Mark points to two things above all: discipline — accuracy, ethics, and doing the basics well even when no one’s watching — and humility, which he describes as the mindset of always being a student, one that has stayed with him for 20 years.

His advice to anyone starting out? Don’t pigeonhole yourself as “just finance.” Great CFOs understand operations, sales, IT, manufacturing, HR and customers. Get out from behind the desk, learn the business, and build relationships — that’s how you become indispensable.

Read the full article at AAT Comment.