Playne Speaking, as the name suggests, means straightforward methods of communication.  We communicate clearly when providing our training workshops and speaking engagements and we actively seek client and staff feedback to ensure expectations are met and areas of improvement are identified and action is taken.

Yes, we’re accountants – but accountants with a difference!  Don’t think, “boring” or “gobbledegook”, we make a point of being completely understandable and current. Many accountants have strong technical skills but do not have the training and public speaking skills required to impart that knowledge to people outside the industry.  

We provide training workshops and speeches that are fun and interactive.   Audiences are engaged through a variety of training techniques and exercises.  This ensures that you and your staff come away with accounting knowledge you did not have before and a clear plan on how to employ your new skills.

Biography

Natasha Playne
BBus FCA FAICD

Natasha Playne is the principal of Playne Speaking.  She is an experienced trainer and speaker with a flair for explaining difficult accounting concepts in lay terms.  She is often described as “the accountant you can understand”.  

Natasha was admitted as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia in 1989, and has had a broad range of both large and small practice experience in Australia and overseas.

During the early part of her career Natasha specialised in litigation support services, and later in forensic accounting. This work involved applying investigative accounting techniques to a large range of problems, mainly insurance claim matters and commercial disputes.  As a result Natasha has given evidence in a number of court cases.  The key skill required in this field is the translation of difficult accounting concepts into terms that the judge and others could understand readily.

Natasha’s career began with Horwath in Brisbane.  Seeking more experience she moved to London, where she joined RGL International, a boutique firm of forensic accountants.  During her four years with the London office her work took her to destinations across the UK, Europe and South East Asia.

In 1995 she returned to Australia to establish the Sydney office of RGL International as the sole employee, and was appointed a partner of the international firm in 1998.  By 1999 Natasha had a staff of 12 and turnover normally associated with a two-partner practice.

From 2001-2003 Natasha was a director in Ernst & Young’s Litigation Consulting Services division.  Since that time Natasha has worked as a freelance consultant, including a foray into the world of entertainment as a technical advisor to the ABC television movie about forensic accountants, Loot, starring Jason Donovan.

During her career Natasha has regularly spoken at seminars and has now turned her love of training and speaking into her main occupation.  She has delivered training workshops to several life insurance companies and currently presents at the College of Law’s Legal Practice Management course.  She has also written two online units for the College of Law and the Australian Corporate Lawyers’ Association Graduate Diploma course in In-house Legal Practice.

Natasha has been published in professional journals including the Law Society Journal and the Journal of the Australian Insurance Institute.   She has written a chapter on damages in personal injury cases for the “Australian Product Liability Law and Practice” and has had an excerpt included in the text “Accounting Concepts and Applications” by Greig, Mackay, Beaumont & Sagner.