Setting New Standards in Accountancy Tuition

VIVA Financial Tuition founder and CEO Thomas Newman is an entrepreneur who firmly believes in helping students find their own way to thrive. Thomas grew up in a family of entrepreneurs (on his father's side) and teachers (on his mother's side). After finding traditional learning methods frustrating, he developed his own winning formula, which helped him pass seven CIMA exams in just nine months. VIVA was founded so that he could pass on this learning to other students.

FCA BFP ICAEW Chartered Accountant, Associate Dean of Education, and previously the Director of Education at Newcastle University Business School and Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Finance. Chris has lectured on all stages in Financial Accounting, Audit and Assurance and Corporate Governance. In addition to outstanding academic credentials, Chris has elite experience in practice, having worked in two of the ‘big four’ accountancy practices in Newcastle as well as in industry in both the private and public sectors.

Hugo holds a PhD from University College Dublin, where he tutored for 3 years while researching the intersection of public policy, ethics and economics. He is the co-founder of VIVA.

Hugo teaches both E1 and E2 for VIVA, as well as the OCS, MCS and SCS, where he specialises in industry analyses and the application of Enterprise (E1, E2, E3) topics to the cases.

Nick Drape currently lectures at the University of Liverpool and was nominated by PQ Magazine for lecturer of the year 2020. He has extensive experience both in practice as an accountant, and in financial training, where he worked at Kaplan and PwC, before joining the University of Liverpool in 2015.

Nick teaches VIVA's P2 course.

Davinia has vast experience in both accountancy education and business practice. After tutoring Audit and Assurance at BPP for four years, Davinia went on to become Head of ACCA & FIA programmes and later Head of Programmes for International Markets at BPP. She has also worked as an Audit Senior at Mazars, as well as founding her own successful business ventures.

James Griffiths has 23 years of experience teaching financial accounting across both ACCA and CIMA qualifications. James is known for making the most complex financial topics seem simple and intuitive.

James teaches both F1 and F2 for VIVA and he is also involved in applying Financial pillar topics (F1 and F2) to the OCS and MCS.

Award winning tutor James Wright is one of the world's most prominent ACCA tutors. 

James is a senior lecturer and programme leader at the University of Lincoln. 

A former Senior Tax Manager at Deloitte, Laura is now an active financial tutor across the ACCA, AAT, ACA and CIMA qualifications. "Laura is simply the best instructor I've had, and virtually has no competition in the trade!" -John Cyriac, Nov21 SCS student.

Laura is VIVA's SCS expert.

A qualified accountant, following a successful 8 year career with a big four firm, Peter decided to move into education well over a decade ago. Peter has tutored students for both CIMA and ACCA. He is also a published technical author internationally having written textbooks, exams, question banks and other materials.

Peter teaches VIVA's P3 subject. He also applies F3 theories to the SCS.

An experienced CIMA tutor who worked with Kaplan for 16 years, Kelly has trained aspiring accountants at every level. To quote one of her recent students, Shaminda Angodage: "Kelly has been a really supportive OCS tutor and responded to my emails promptly. She was always there to provide guidance. I felt much more confident going into the exam."

Kelly is VIVA's OCS specialist.

A former Big 4 auditor, for the past 12 years Ben Wilson has worked at the top of the professional education market, working first as a lecturer and manager at Kaplan before moving to Avado as their Head of Learning.

Ben teaches VIVA's E3 and F3 subjects. He is also VIVA's MCS tutor.

Ashim Kumar has helped thousands of students to success in their accountancy examinations. He leads the ‘Strategic Leadership and Personal Development’ module on the MBA programme at the Gdansk University of Technology. He is a Director at ATC International (Europe/Central Asia) and the EY Training Centre (MENA). Ashim has merged technical knowledge with real-world experience to successfully grow international training businesses. He is currently the CEO at AKA Leadership, a consultancy specialising in the development of future leaders.

As VIVA's Director of CIMA, Hugh has in-depth expertise of the CIMA syllabus. CGMA Hugh knows a thing or two about how to ace CIMA exams: he passed four exams in four months and placed 1st in Ireland for the Operational Case Study exam.

Hugh has taught right across the CIMA syllabus, but he specialises in case studies (OCS, MCS and SCS). He also teaches VIVA's P1 course.