Profile: Matthew Stroh

He is nicknamed “chief anorak” by his wife for his role as chairman of Keighley and Worth Valley Railway but Dr Matthew Stroh is proud of his passion for trains.

He says he has a train set big enough to rival just about anyone’s and his ambition is to qualify as a steam engine driver.

When Stroh, 42, was growing up, The Railway Children was his favourite film. Every Christmas he would scour the television listings until he found when it was on and once his family entered the video age, nothing would stop him watching it over and over again.

“There is something about it that is really special. It’s a great family film that has stood the test of time and it’s always near the top of the 100 best films as a result,” he says.

When he qualified to operate the level crossing at Oakworth, near Keighley, a few years ago, Stroh became his idol, Mr Perks.

“My wife, Catherine, grew up near the railway but it’s fair to say she doesn’t share my passion for it, although she respects and understands it,” he says. “She calls me chief anorak.”

Stroh’s enthusiasm has paid off and through his work as chairman, he has turned around the fortunes of the railway and planted it on a firm financial footing.

In the last three years, the volunteer-run and managed tourist attraction, which attracts over 120,000 visitors a year, has gone from making a loss of £50,000-£100,000 a year to a surplus of £200,000, without, he says, losing the support and ethos of the organisation.

Part of this turnaround involved transforming the organisational structure of the railway into a more commercial operation, which includes a company limited by guarantee and a charitable status.

“This makes us much more appealing to funding bodies,” says Stroh. “But it was a big change into a new regulatory and litigious environment.”

The organisation is currently embarking on its biggest commercial development to date. Developing a cafe/restaurant at Oxenhope Station at the end of the line.

“It will be the most significant commercial development the railway has undertaken in 45 years,” says Stroh. “It was a really difficult decision for the railway but there is a lot of support because we should have done it decades ago.”

In his spare time, Stroh is also deputy president of the West Yorkshire Society of Chartered Accountants (WYSCA), committee member of the West Yorkshire Institute of Directors and a Welcome to Yorkshire Ambassador.

That’s on top of his day job as associate audit and assurance director at Grant Thornton and his family commitments in Long Preston, near Settle. He is father to Harvey, 11, Oliver, nine, and stepfather to Gabrielle, 20.

“I’ve always managed to fit seven or eight days into a week,” says Stroh. “I have always been someone who never stands around doing nothing, but you have to make it work for you. I make sure everything I do is complementary – joining the different networks together.”

During the day, Stroh works across the Leeds and Sheffield offices of Grant Thornton with clients ranging from start-ups to £150m turnover private equity and AIM-listed businesses.

He is also head of the professional practices sector group in Yorkshire. “I trained with Grant Thornton so I grew up with a lot of these clients. I like taking a business on a journey as it grows,” he says.

“For a lot of these companies, they reach a point in their journey where the business wants to go to the next level so they go down the route of a private equity backed transaction or flotation.”

Stroh says there is currently a positive sentiment among his clients.

“I have been fortunate that there have been no corporate failures among my client base. Businesses are having to reflect hard on what are the positive areas of the business so difficult decisions have to be taken.

“There has been a lot more soul-searching and heart-felt discussions with clients. But they are becoming more robust in their decision-making because they have to be.”

He adds: “I was talking to the Stock Exchange last week and there are a number of IPOs in the region coming to fruition in the next few months. People thought it was too expensive but the cost of debt has been adjusted so an equity sale on to the market is an option again, which is great to see.

“In addition, more investors are coming to the market again. There is a risk attached but the potential return can be greater than keeping cash in a deposit somewhere now.”

Accountancy is Stroh’s second career.

Born on the Isle of Sheppey, off the northern coast of Kent, he grew up in Surrey and Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, but says his heart lay further north.

“As soon as I could I started moving north,” he says. “I realised London wasn’t for me.”

After studying for a geography degree at the University of London, Stroh completed a PhD at Sheffield University before working as a geography lecturer at Leeds University. But he soon decided he wanted more from his career.

“Although I really like the light bulb moments with students, when they suddenly understand something you’re explaining, I was being pushed into choosing between research or teaching.”

A careers adviser suggested he moved into management consultancy so he applied for Grant Thornton’s graduate training scheme.

“It was strange because one day I was writing references for students and the next I was sitting next to them in training sessions,” he says.

He describes the training as the hardest thing he has ever done. “The subject matter is no more complicated but the intensity with which it is taught is a very different learning experience,” he says.

Stroh continues to use his teaching and mentoring skills in his role at WYSCA and also Grant Thornton’s Educate to Innovate programme, which brings together schools and businesses.

“I like making these bridges and linking businesses and universities where I can,” he says.

Stroh describes himself as “adaptable”, a trait that came in particularly useful when he was a student with a part-time job at Harrods in London.

“I worked in the Barbour jacket department but every other weekend I was in charge of the fishing department and I had to advise people on something I knew very little about,” he says.

He adds. “On one occasion I had to serve Mohamed Al-Fayed who I thought was talking about shark fishing.

“It turned out he was going carp fishing.”

Matthew Stroh Factfile

Title: audit associate director at Grant Thornton and chairman of Keighley and Worth Valley Railway

Date of birth: June 23, 1971

Education: BA Geography at the University of London; PhD at Sheffield University

First job: Harrods

Favourite holiday location: Agios Ioannis, Mykonos, Greece

Favourite film : The Railway Children

Favourite song: This is the one, The Stone Roses

Last book read: Fifty Shades of Grey, by EL James

Car driven: Mini Cooper S convertible

What is the thing you are most proud of? Everything the children (and the dogs) achieve