William Cooper was a famous accountant in England. His father was Emmanuel Cooper, who was the important man in London and he was also the Deputy Chairman of London & County Bank.

William Cooper was born in 1826 and died in 1871. Although the life of him is not typically long, he contributed a lot to the development of accounting industry in the world.

What they are famous for

William Cooper is known for its good practice in his accountancy career. He started his career as the clerk of a firm called Quilter Co.

In 1854, he decided to leave this firm. Instead of working for other firms, he tried to operate his own in London’s 13 George Street. In 1858, he cooperated with his brother and they changed the name of the firm to W. & A. Cooper. In 1860, this accounting firm was changed to Cooper Brothers. Since then, the business progress of the firm increased and there were more and more clients approaching the firm. Therefore, Cooper Brothers became one of the reliable firms in the market and the business later acquired many other accounting firms and eventually results in the current firm of PwC.

How they affected the world today

The contribution made by William Cooper to the current world is significant. As mentioned above, the firm that he started eventually evolves to this worldwide firm called PwC. Therefore, the foundation built by William Cooper is the foundation that many of the people in the world rely on nowadays. Without the courage of setting up his own accounting firm in London back then, it would be hard for thousands of people to find the job in accounting field because PwC would hardly exist among the big accounting firms.

Another important influence of William Cooper is that he tried to introduce different types of people into a firm. Instead of finding people from the same country to work in the firm, he tried to integrate different into his business and cooperate with them. This was the good practice of accounting firm because the trade business from country to country may vary. Therefore, it would be good for the firm to have people coming from other country such that they can understand the foreign business practice and apply them in the firm when they are doing the accounting jobs. This would minimize the chance of making mistakes in the projects.

Cooper Brothers was also one of the firms which operated in a diversified business form. Instead of solely working in accounting or auditing, they also tried to provide some types of advisory service. This was the business lines that many of the accounting firms currently would adopt as well.

To conclude, William Cooper was one of the important accounts in the whole world. He might not know this when he established the firm and operated with his brothers. But the fact is that PwC has grown into one of the most important accounting firms in the market.