Meet Our Jersey Director, Daan van Heerden

Offshore Group's Jersey presence was built from the ground up by our Director, Daan van Heerden.

When Daan joined in 2023, there was no team and no local client base, just a desk at Kingsman Office Suites and a mandate to make it work.

Three years on, there's a five-strong team, a dedicated office, and a growing roster of Jersey clients who rely on Offshore for their entire finance function.

Read on to get to know Daan a bit better, including a breakdown of his role at Offshore Group, how his team adds value for Jersey clients (and beyond) and where you can find him beyond the office.

What is your professional background?

I started as a trainee accountant at BDO South Africa, which is quite the classic route for qualified accountants in South Africa.

I completed my standard three-year internship there, and as soon as I qualified, I decided to move to Jersey. I transferred from BDO South Africa to their Jersey location, thinking "I'll do two years abroad", and here I am in Jersey... seven years later.

I spent four of those years at BDO Jersey, starting off in the business services and outsourcing team, before my career really kicked off and developed. They ended up moving me from a trainee accountant to a senior manager, and I really quickly got quite a wide breadth of experience, dealing with various industries and clients.

And at that point, Craig reached out to me and said they were doing a bit of restructuring on the Guernsey side and were looking to open up a Jersey office.

At that point, I left BDO and then started up the Offshore Jersey team... and haven't looked back since. It's been three years now.

What brought you to Jersey?

You could say I was "incepted" by my director at the time. He had spent two years in Jersey and would always share photos and stories of his time in Jersey and travelling Europe.

That gave me the idea, and I followed in his path... the only difference is that he ended up back in South Africa, and I'm still here!

What attracted you to Offshore Group?

We've got such an interesting approach, and I think being able to take over the whole finance function for a company and be their financial function is so useful to clients.

And for me, the challenge of starting my own company and building up a team has always been very exciting. And I love that part of the job.

Plus, on the client's side, we do some really interesting stuff, especially when acting as a virtual Finance Director.

And with our consulting work, it's not just about the day-to-day processing, which is important, but it's also about being a real part of the team and adding that tangible value to clients. I find a lot of satisfaction in being part of a team that is so dedicated to making a difference in client operations and finances.

I find a lot of satisfaction in being part of a team that is so dedicated to making a difference in client operations and finances.

What is the main focus of your role?

This weekend, I actually took part in that trend where you get ChatGPT to roast you, and it did hit the nail on the head.

It said something about how, yeah, I'm a financial director, but I end up spending my time not only planning work, but also doing HR, business development, marketing... As a business owner, you kind of end up being a bit of everything. Whether it be compliance, HR, sales... You wear all of those hats. But the most important role, to me, is always a client-facing one, and making sure that we are consistently delivering and adding value to our clients.

What does your day-to-day look like?

It does change a lot, but a lot of it is client-facing. So I'd say 70% of my time is either working on client deliverables or spending time with clients.

More granularly, I tend to be running between meetings with the team and meetings with clients, as well as sitting on boards or preparing for board meetings. It can get pretty busy.

The other 30% of my time is what I would call the more internal part. Things like HR with the team, providing training for the team, examining our internal compliance, working on marketing and business development and the like.

With such an international team, do you do a lot of your work remotely?

A little bit. I prefer to be in the office with the team, but ultimately, being a business owner, as I travel, I do end up doing some work remotely. Having the freedom to always be there for our clients, no matter where I am, has been an especially rewarding part of being with Offshore Group. Just recently, I visited South Africa for a month with my family and was able to stay on top of everything from abroad, which was really nice.

What was it like being the first person on the ground in Jersey?

Three years ago, on day one at our office at Kingsman Office Suites, I was employee number one and by myself... It was very scary. 

But three years later, we have five people on the ground. We've got our own office. We've got the growing team in Mauritius.

Going from one guy on the ground in Jersey in a small office to having our own office and a big team around me, that's been a great transformation over the last three years.

Going from one guy on the ground in Jersey in a small office to having our own office and a big team around me, that's been a great transformation over the last three years.

What are your future plans for Offshore's Jersey office?

Being the typical accountants that we are, Craig and I have what we call a "2032 plan". So we've got a target revenue figure, of course, but in there, there's a lot of detail about the kind of clients we best serve and what the team structure could look like in the coming years.

So, really, that's the current goal: continue to grow and connect with more of those clients that we find ourselves really working well with.

What's your favourite thing about Offshore Group?

At Offshore Group, we really believe in redefining what a modern accountancy looks like. 

A great example is when we got our headshots done last month. The team was asking about what they should wear for the headshots. Interestingly, we had gone to a few other firms' websites, and everyone was wearing grey suits and white shirts. And all we could think was, "We'd rather you wear anything else."

I went skiing once wearing a Charmander onesie... we'd rather you wear a Charmander onesie than a grey suit. It's just not who we are, and so we don't want to pretend to be that just to fit in with the market. We'd rather you be slightly fun and different.

We are a young and fun firm, and while we are serious accountants who always deliver for our clients, we're not your typical grey-suit accountants. We try to have a bit more fun and do things in a modern and smart way.

We try to have a bit more fun and do things in a modern and smart way.

What could we find you doing when you aren't working?

I have a young baby, so I spend a lot of my time at the moment with him. I also love running, and actually did a race this past Sunday.

I also enjoy travelling. We've got a few travel plans for the year. We're going to Cape Verde next month, chasing some warm weather and beaches. And then in June, I'm off to Wales for a golf tour, and in July, I'm off to Scotland for a little bit of the Highlands. It'll be nice to chase the scenery and still be able to stay on top of things from afar.