James Ridley

James is a qualified chartered accountant and registered company auditor with over 25 years' experience in professional services and industry.  James commenced his career with a Big4 firm in the UK before emigrating to Australia in 2000.

Throughout his career, James has specialised in providing external audit services to his clients, from owner operated businesses and partnerships to large proprietary companies and small cap ASX listed companies.  James has experience across a range of industries including manufacturing, retail, logistics, mining, financial services and state and federal government, spanning multiple geographical locations including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, China, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.  James has developed expertise across a number of disciplines under the wider umbrella of litigation support, including forensic accounting, fraud investigations and business valuation.  Further, James has valued businesses that the owners are preparing for sale or listing, in addition to providing an accurate value for family estates and separations.

Immediately prior to joining Baumgartners Audit, James completed an assignment as Chief Executive Officer of a Registered Training Organisation.  This role gave James a clear understanding of the challenges and pressures that executives and managers face when running a company as well as being on the client side of the external audit process.  This has allowed James to feed this experience back into his audit approach to ensure that an effective and efficient audit is delivered that meets his clients satisfaction and needs, with minimal disruption to their daily operations.

Outside of work James competes internationally in ironman triathlon and marathons and to date has completed races in Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Zimbabwe and the US.  Port Philip Bay is his second home, whether cycling or running along Beach Road or braving the icy waters in the Bay itself!