Alison Sellar, CEO of activpayroll, the global payroll and tax compliance specialist headquartered in Aberdeen has been honoured with an OBE for her services to business in Scotland and abroad.

On 29th December 2017, Alison was one of three people from the North-east of Scotland to be honoured with an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in The Queen’s New Year’s Honours List. An OBE is a Queen’s honour given to an individual for a major local role in any activity such as business, charity or the public sector.

Alison launched activpayroll in Aberdeen in 2001, specialising in payroll for the oil and gas industry, since then she has grown the firm, opening offices across the globe, including Singapore, Frankfurt and Florida and providing payroll services to some of the world’s leading brands.

In addition to growing a successful global company, Alison has given up a lot of her time to help various charities. Across the years Alison has raised tens of thousands of pounds for charity by taking part in challenges such as the Monster Ski Challenge, Ride the North and cycling from Vietnam to Cambodia.

Alison will officially receive her OBE from The Queen at an Investiture organised by the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood in the next seven months.

Alison Sellar comments: “I’m overwhelmed and humbled; I never thought I’d be here. Everything I’ve achieved is down to my team around me, you don’t achieve anything alone and I’m privileged to have been supported through every step of my journey thanks to my activpayroll team, customers, partners and of course, my family and friends.

This is a massive achievement and I will be collecting the OBE on behalf of everyone at activpayroll in recognition of the team’s professionalism, dedication and support.”

activpayroll, the global payroll and tax compliance specialist headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland has grown its Edinburgh presence after opening a new office and announcing it has trebled its workforce in the capital.

activpayroll’s Edinburgh operation started in 2009 with a small office, but due to growing customer demand, this has resulted in the firm already moving premises twice.
The new office is located in London House on East London Street within the East End of the New Town area of central Edinburgh. This is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site in an attractive location with a variety of commercial, business and residential uses. Along with the ever-increasing customer base, activpayroll’s employee headcount has trebled and the company is continuing to recruit for additional posts.

The new office offers bigger and improved facilities to allow activpayroll to continually expand, host workshops with customers and offer training space for the in-house CIPP payroll academy. The academy was the first ever in-house payroll training programme in Scotland, launched by activpayroll in 2015 in collaboration with the CIPP (The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals) to train employees from all backgrounds, giving them the knowledge and qualifications to pursue a fulfilling career in payroll services.

Graham McKechnie, Global Tax Director of activpayroll, said: “We are thrilled to have moved to our new premises in London House. This is a great location and offers a comfortable environment for our team members.

The city’s excellent transport links make it easier for our international customers to come visit us and the office will be pivotal to continue to support our customers in the North of England and the Central Belt. Edinburgh has such a diverse market, constantly offering exciting opportunities and the universities situated in and around the city enable us to attract and hire fresh talent.

We are now looking forward to settling in our new premises and building our reputation here even further.”

Pictured (L-R); Sian Odgers, Business Services Director of activpayroll and Graham McKechnie, Global Tax Director of activpayroll.

activpayroll, the global payroll and tax compliance specialist headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland was delighted to see its Singapore office win its first award.

On Thursday 9th November, activpayroll’s Singapore team were announced the winner of the ‘Partner of the Year 2017 – Top outsourcing Partner’ at the Justlogin Partner Awards 2017.

Justlogin, Singapore’s premier provider of HR solutions on the Cloud, awarded activpayroll Pte Limited the prestigious accolade in recognition of the Singapore office’s hard work, excellent working relationship and support in driving improvements to their systems.

activpayroll’s Singapore operation started in 2013 with a small office, but due to growing customer demand, this has resulted in the firm moving twice to bigger premises. The current office is at United Square, a 30-storey office tower, host to a number of embassies and blue chip companies. Along with the ever-increasing customer base, activpayroll’s employee headcount has increased and the company is continuing to recruit for additional Singapore posts.

Steven Naarden, Regional Director – APAC of activpayroll, picked up the award and commented: “It is a great honour to accept the Justlogin award for Top Outsourcing Partner 2017 on behalf of the activpayroll team.

Our partnership with Justlogin has been crucial to our success in Singapore and Hong Kong in the last 4 years. We have seen Justlogin make the effort to understand activpayroll and this has really helped us grow and prosper.
From all of us at activpayroll, I can say that we have found that being part of the Justlogin family has proven to be not only beneficial, but also enrichening and enjoyable.”