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An auditor whose contribution to the development of audit sector and building one of Estonia’s most successful audit services companies has been recognized with a state decoration
07 Mar 2023
Mati Nõmmiste has been the CEO of Grant Thornton Baltic since the very beginning. For decades, he contributed to developing the sphere as a member of the board of the Auditors’ Association and in 2015, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves bestowed on him the Order of the White Star. Last year, the Auditor’s Association thanked Mati for his outstanding work in developing the profession.
Over the years that he spent on the board of the Auditors’ Association, Mati managed to serve both as vice president and acting president, but he declined a run at the presidency because he felt he couldn’t devote himself to two jobs with full commitment. Mati decided to put his focus on his company's development and leadership. He has got on splendidly in that, since Grant Thornton is today one of the biggest companies in the sector in Estonia.
From a company called Rimess to a local success story
After graduating from secondary school in Tallinn, Mati went on to study economics at the University of Tartu where he graduated from the speciality of commercial accounting. He then had to serve in the Soviet army to become an officer, and he was stationed in Buryatia on the far side of Lake Baikal, where he was able to work in his speciality, as an accountant. “Although the accounting was as it was, subject to local standards. Not double-entry, but single, a very simplified version.”
After military service, he started working for the Estonian Consumer Cooperatives organization, then called ETKVL, later ETK and now Coop. It had an arm that handled the accounting for all of the production companies in the Estonian cooperative system. From ETKVL, Mati went on to be chief accountant at the Pioneer plant, but returned to ETKVL, since the accounting team at one of the companies, the agricultural plant Agro, with its 1000 workers, needed a leader.
The 1990s were tough times for the economy and the flower growing business in large greenhouses required major investments if the system was to function, so Mati pondered the idea to make a change to auditing. He and Eva Veinberg founded Rimess in March 1992. Rimess means a “payment voucher”. The company got off the ground in October of that year and by December they obtained certification as sworn auditors.
Mati’s goal from the outset was to join an international company, with efforts in this area starting in earnest in 1994. The whole conversation with Mati is sprinkled with reminiscences, which Mati is able to pinpoint to at least the nearest month. He recalls that a year after the company started preparing to go international, there was an international conference in Copenhagen in May 1995 where it was agreed that Rimess would become a correspondent member of Moores Rowland International. Today, we can say that Rimess is a local success story.
The same year, Mati became a member of the board of the Auditors’ Association, where he would serve for close to 25 years. He himself considers his most outstanding accomplishments to be the quick transition from local standards to international ones and the drafting of the first Estonian law in the field of auditing. “In the 1990s, there were big differences in audit philosophy between providers, but now the quality has risen to a consistently high level. The Auditors Activities Act of 2010 and the whole quality control system are also successes. I haven’t done anything by myself – they’re all collective exertions, we did it together,” he says.
“It’s pretty hard for me to say how big a success story,” said Mati, “but our success is surely a combination of planning, consistent activity, good colleagues, happy coincidence, and avoiding unfortunate cases. It is quite complicated to explain individually why some things work and others don’t.”
The future of Grant Thornton and auditors activities
Mati’s goal is for Grant Thornton to be among the best advisers in its field, which requires growth, development training, new colleagues and rewarding work for them. Mati is himself a valued lecturer, but lately he has been teaching less. “I do training because I like public presentation and teaching but I also do it out a sense of mission. If you don’t do it, you can’t really grumble if employees happen to make mistakes.”
Mati chuckles that he tends to like training in fields that aren’t completely unfamiliar to him, but in auditing, he doesn’t have a favourite field, since everything is fair game: “Given the small size of our market, we can’t be choosy, or we could find ourselves with no work.”
Regarding the future of the field, Mati says developments and cycles are all getting shorter compared to the 1980s and 1990s: “We currently see that what previously took place over five or ten years is happening now in two to five. Processes and developments are speeding up, new fields are coming into existence where our assistance and advice is needed. I don’t know how many people knew about crypto assets ten years ago? I think they didn’t know anything. In my opinion, we really have no idea where we will have to aim the thrust of our auditing activities three years from now.”
The necessity for sustainability reporting
“This planet is all we have and if we ruin the environment, we don’t have a better backup option. The problem is that today’s violators are robbing themselves and the next generation. The attitude can’t be, oh, things went awry, but so what, we’ll do it better the next time. These things don’t just take care of themselves. Today we are trying to figure out as a society what the important events and parameters are that we have to include in reports. What to report, what the public is interested in, how to audit these matters and give assurance?”
Mati says that reporting may include elements of bureaucracy, but if you look at what must be reported, it isn’t bureaucracy but a standard operating procedure: “No man is an island, everything we do has some impact on others. If you’re a company who doesn’t take a prudent, caring attitude to resources, I think it’s everyone’s business. The balance has to be found on how much and what we report. It’s critical that there has to be some kind of reporting – there’s no alternative, of that there’s no doubt. What’s unsettled is how we reflect it to others.”
Active in his free time, too
Due to commitment to making the world better, Mati is an active member of the Nõmme Rotary Club, which he joined 26 years ago: “In one sense, if you’ve received something, you want to give back to society – Rotary is undoubtedly a charity, compassionate and helping organization. It’s also an interesting way to spend free time – people from different fields meet up, and it's fascinating to talk to them, you grow through that.”
He also plays tennis, and has participated in the Auditors’ Association’s tennis tournaments. In his youth, he was a cross-country skier, which has given way to downhill skiing – “the influence of gravity is always a positive thing,” he chuckles. In the last few years, he has skipped the ski trips, but before that, starting in 2005, he would try to make it to the Alps for a week or so each year. “Travel is definitely something I like. Every place has something that is intriguing and eye-opening. Travel definitely changes you, and at the least it gives you a better understanding of why people are different.”
Finally, Mati has a long career in the accounting field and thanks to his experience, he encourages everyone to enter the field: “You have to start by developing a solid footing – from principles of accounting and analysis all the way up to public speaking. Building that foundation means you become a valued and diligent specialist. Everyone who has attained a certain level in auditing companies are people who are actively courted by companies in other fields.” But Mati himself has not even considered exiting auditing: “I’ve made it my goal to build and develop this company and I haven’t envisioned myself anywhere else.”
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