A Helston-based financial professional is now managing the books for one of England’s most ambitious environmental projects. Emma Michell, a chartered accountant with ICAEW credentials, oversees finance operations at Denton Reserve, a 2,500-acre Yorkshire estate working to become carbon-negative while running luxury hospitality.
It’s an unusual position for someone who spent years serving small businesses from a Cornwall office. But Michell’s path to finance director at a regenerative agriculture project makes more sense when you trace it back through cafรฉ ownership, mobile coffee operations, and stints at Big Four accounting firms.
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From Ernst & Young to Cornwall Practice
Michell earned her degree in International Business and Financial Management from the University of Bath. After graduation, she joined Ernst & Young, where she worked on corporate finance and auditing before earning her ICAEW membership in October 2005.
The Big Four experience gave her technical grounding. Nine years later, she registered EP Mitchell Limited with Companies House on February 17, 2014. The Helston firm (company number 08897565) provides tax consultancy and accounting services to SMEs across Cornwall, employing two people.
EP Mitchell Limited services:
- Tax planning and compliance
- Financial reporting
- Payroll processing
- Audit work
- Business advisory
The firm’s latest accounts show ยฃ38,724 in cash and ยฃ58,840 in total assets. Core clients come from hospitality, leisure, and wellbeing sectors, industries Michell knows from experience, not just spreadsheets.
Running Hospitality Before Advising It
Two years before launching her accounting practice, Michell co-founded The Coffee Camper in 2012. The mobile operation served specialty coffee and chai at events throughout the UK. She kept the business running while establishing her consultancy.
In 2017, she opened The Meadow Cafรฉ in St Davids, Wales. The venue combined food service with yoga classes, creative workshops, and mindfulness programming. Managing staff, inventory, cash flow, and compliance gave her direct insight into the pressures facing hospitality owners who later became her clients.
The cafรฉ closed in 2020. Rather than opening another venue, Michell shifted to financial consulting and leadership coaching.
Managing Finance for Regenerative Hospitality
Denton Reserve, incorporated October 23, 2020, operates differently from standard hospitality businesses. The estate runs moorland restoration projects, plants thousands of sphagnum moss plugs, reintroduces rare livestock breeds, and aims for net-positive environmental impact while hosting guests.
As Head of Finance, Michell handles budgeting for Denton Hall (a Grade I listed Georgian manor), The Penny Bun inn, multiple accommodation properties, and land management programs. Financial planning covers traditional metrics like occupancy rates and food costs alongside carbon sequestration investments and biodiversity projects.
The estate works with Yorkshire Peat Partnership on peatland restoration. It’s raising White Park cattle and Tamworth pigs. Volunteers have installed drainage interventions and leaky dams. All of this requires financial oversight that accounts for both immediate hospitality revenue and long-term ecological outcomes.
Previous finance roles prepared her for this complexity:
- Portfolio Finance Manager for multiple limited companies
- Head of Finance at Architrail Velosolutions UK Ltd (pump track construction, pursuing B-Corp certification)
- Finance work across outdoor recreation and wellbeing businesses
Coaching Practice Alongside Accounting
Michell runs a separate coaching business focused on women in leadership positions. Through her Instagram presence (@emmamichellcoach), she works with professionals on career development, work-life balance, and business decisions.
The coaching draws on 20 years of financial experience combined with her own business ownership. Clients get perspective from someone who has worked both inside large corporations and as a solo business owner.
Credentials and Contact
Emma Louise Mitchell holds BFP FCA designations (Business and Finance Professional, Fellow Chartered Accountant). She maintains an active ICAEW practicing certificate, listing Helston as her base location in the institute’s directory.
Businesses seeking accounting services can reach her through EP Mitchell Limited in Helston. The firm continues serving clients throughout Cornwall and beyond, with particular expertise in hospitality sector finance.
Her current work at Denton Reserve demonstrates where accounting expertise is heading: towards businesses that measure success in carbon storage alongside profit margins. For a profession often associated with historical records, Michell is working on a project explicitly focused on the future. That’s the kind of finance work you can’t learn at Ernst & Young, but you can apply everything they taught you there.
