Lucy Cohen

Our Co-Founder Lucy is a passionate innovator and disruptor.

She loves small and micro businesses and strives to be ahead of the curve in an industry that has historically been resistant to change.

Lucy’s role in Mazuma is to lead the company forward through innovation, marketing and business development.

Mazuma was created drawing on Lucy’s childhood experiences of seeing the stress and anxiety that tax can cause for people. Growing up in a family of self-employed creatives she noticed that they were fantastic at what they did, but not so great with the tax and accounts side of their businesses. Spotting a gap in the market for low cost, subscription-based accountancy services, Mazuma was born.

With over 16 years at Mazuma, and 20 years in total in the accountancy industry, Lucy is widely recognised as an industry expert and regularly called upon to contribute to trade publications and industry discussions. She is a regular columnist for Accounting Web, the leading online publication for accountants. Her debut book, The Millennial Renaissance was released in 2017 and met with acclaim.

Lucy is proud to have been shortlisted for Director of the year (Innovation) by the Wales Institute of Directors in 2019 and has been shortlisted as one of the top Women in Accountancy and Finance 2020.

In 2021 she has been shortlisted by the Accounting Excellence Awards as a finalist for the title of Practice Pioneer.

In 2020 Lucy was appointed as a Specialist Advisor to the Economic Strategy Board for the Swansea Bay City Deal; a £1.3bn project to invest in the area.

Lucy is on the Advisory Board for AccountingWeb Live 2022.

In her spare time, she is involved in the sport of Powerlifting. Lucy has competed in powerlifting internationally for both Wales and Great Britain. In 2015 she was a silver medalist at the Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships and in 2016 was British Champion.  Nowadays she sits on the board of the Welsh Powerlifting Association along with coaching the Welsh Powerlifting team.

Lucy has been a volunteer for the Princes Trust since 2011 where she mentors and coaches start-up businesses.

In a recent activism campaign, Lucy successfully petitioned for better pain relief to be offered for female medical procedures, appearing on BBC Breakfast with Naga Munchetty and being featured in Vogue, Glamour, and The Daily Mail.

In October 2021 Lucy was honoured with the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Accounting Excellence Awards – the winner is chosen by the AccountingWEB team and its advisers to recognise an individual’s exceptional service and contribution to the accounting profession and working for the good of the wider profession.

Her second book, Forget the First Million won the Best Short Business Book of the Year 2022 at the Business Book Awards.

In September 2022 Lucy was presented with the Past Presidents Award by the AAT – an award that recognises the outstanding contribution by one member of the accounting body. She was also elected to the AAT Council.