MB+M Firm History

Compiled by Ron Michael

The firm Maxwell Brown & Mountjoy, Chartered Accountants, began June 29, 1946 as an Accountancy - Taxation Business. Its founder was Maxwell Brown who following his discharge from war time service returned to Shepparton as an employee of the then Bank of NSW.

The original premises were located at 370 Wyndham Street, and in a period of a mere eight years, MB+M had grown from a staff of one in 1946 to a business enterprise which in 1954 had an accommodation problem. In July of that year it moved to 24 Fryers Street.

At the beginning of the new financial year 1 July, 1957, Peter Mountjoy joined Maxwell Brown hence giving the second dimension to the firm Maxwell Brown & Mountjoy. Accounting business created work and in 1971 Chris Baldwin had become a partner. In 1974 Rod Gemmill also became a partner, while in 1979 Rod Miller became the fifth partner in the firm.

Peter Bicknell accepted a partnership in July, 1982. Max Brown had retired in July, 1981 while Peter Mountjoy followed in July, 1983.

The partners of the day and Max Brown designed and built the premises at 21 Welsford Street which they occupied from February, 1984. In some respects a new era had commenced as two more partners, Trevor Greene and Michael Hall had joined the firm.

This move was to be of comparatively short duration as the partners had purchased two old houses on 17 and 19 Welsford Street. New and somewhat larger premises were soon on the drawing boards. The third of the Welsford Street locations became base for MB+M in November, 1990. By this time, Trevor Greene (October, 1987) had retired as a partner but continued as a team member and two new partners Christopher Coe and Gregory Luscombe had been admitted (July, 1989).

In 2006 our first female partners, Narelle Pesavento and Rebecca Woolstencroft, joined the partnership in July.

There are now 4 Partners, a General Manager, 25 other accountants, as well as consultants and a range of miscellaneous team members.

Sixty years of progress has seen much change in the world but MB+M has always stayed true to its maxim demanding "high standard in ethics and business morality". This is indeed exemplified in the Firm's mission statement, "To be the firm that everyone wants to work in, everyone wants to do business with and everyone wants to own".