Roger Grafton – co-owner and managing director

I played the Monopoly banker before I was old enough to go to school and am anything but your archetypical accountant. I’m a lateral thinker, love problem-solving and (I’m told) have a talent for telling awful jokes.

I am commercial in my approach: it is all too easy to save tax in one direction, but to trigger costs or other taxes in another.

Previously one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Taxes, I joined the accountancy profession over 20 years ago and qualified as a Chartered Tax Adviser before returning to work in Bristol and becoming tax partner at one of the UK’s top 20 practices. In 2000 I started Grafton Jones, my own business, to specialise in tax advice, problem solving and accounting for small and medium-sized businesses.

I have a daughter, am an avid fan of Bath Rugby, but also support Bristol. In my spare time I cycle (abroad once or twice a year) and play golf from a handicap of 15. In 1998 I started a local, social cycling club at Kington Langley, Chippenham, which is still running and involves cycling out for a lunch or a beer. I have cycled the WW1 and WW2 battle sites in France and Belgium - and the Isle of Wight in a day.

I like to cook for fun as well as respite and enjoy good food and wine and am an energetic (some friends call me Tigger) chap with an active sense of humour. I can wiggle my ears. I love the company of others but am private/protective of my own home environment. Outside of work, I hate conflict.