"You don't always believe what you read in the papers. It's not simple straight maths." So says Mr Sean Shine, president of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and one of the partners in Accenture Ireland, talking about the recent flotation of part of the international Accenture consulting group on the New York Stock Exchange.

Reports have valued the 13 partners in Accenture Ireland at between £4.5 million (5.7 million) and £5 million each as a consequence of the flotation.

"We as partners got shares in the existing company but there are all sorts of restrictions about selling the shares and various contractual arrangements about staying with the organisation. It's great. If everything works out it will be very good. None of us is changing lifestyles or anything," he adds.

Mr Shine says Accenture went to the stock exchange in order to have easier access to capital - "as a privately held partnership, it's hard to raise capital, whereas as a corporate entity, it's easier" - and in order to give employees a share in the organisation.

The flotation involved around 12 per cent of the company and was valued at $1.67 billion (1.86 billion). This must be seen in context, he says.

Accenture globally has a turnover of around $10 billion and employs some 70,000 people. Accenture was the management consulting division of Arthur Andersen until August last year, when an arbitration judgment recommended that they should split.

In the Republic, Accenture employs between 700 and 800 people, divided between the consulting business based in the IFSC and the European Service Centre in Grand Canal Plaza in Dublin.

Accenture's core business is providing IT consultancy services. It is the largest consulting organisation in the State, he says, working with Government clients, financial services, communications and high-tech companies, telecommunications and electronic companies, product companies, and resources companies, such as utilities. The service centre has employees from 15 countries and provides financial, processing, purchasing, payroll and administration back-up for all the group's practices in Europe.

"That is a shared service centre. IDA Ireland uses it as a showcase; they have brought 25 companies in to look at it over the last two years," he says.

Mr Shine is a world expert on revenue systems, having pioneered a set of integrated tax systems with "Revenue Ireland", as he likes to style it, 10 years ago, which he now provides for other tax agencies around the world. "It's never that you set out in life to be something like that," he says modestly.

"Over the years I began to get somewhat specialised and four years ago was asked to take on the role of heading that work up globally.

"I am responsible for all work with revenue agencies. We do $150 to $200 million a year with revenue agencies, about 15 to 20 per cent of our entire government business globally, in 50 different countries."

He says the system the Revenue Commissioners has is one of the most sophisticated available.

"We're aware of some research done on our behalf and Revenue Ireland has come out as one of the top three globally," he adds.

And while just 6,000 people use that system, he is designing systems for much larger agencies on several continents.

"Our clients are doing world-beating things and, so, my responsibility would be to ensure that we are delivering a proper client service to revenue agencies and to look forward to see where it's going in five years."

"Probably the most sophisticated system in the world," is how he describes the Garda S∅ochβna's Pulse computer system.

"Many other police agencies would give their eye teeth to have access to the information the Garda now have."

The next Government projects here are the computerisation of the General Register Office, with the records of all births, marriages and deaths, and the Department of Agriculture's area aid programmes that will allow farmers to apply online for grants and other payments.

"The world is changing in terms of the delivery of those sorts of services and Ireland is in the forefront of doing a lot of things like that," he explains.

Sean Shine didn't start out in life as a computer expert or indeed a financial wizard. Born in Granagh, Co Limerick, 37 years ago, he first studied civil engineering at UCC. "Engineering gives you a good start at being able to analyse things, think through things and gives you a good grounding in management."

Head-hunted from college in 1985 by Andersen Consulting, he worked in financial services, with high-tech clients and in the US on technical projects for a year, before beginning his work with Government clients. But all that was not enough.

"I always had it in my mind to do another qualification. With CIMA the focus is on management. You don't do auditing so the focus is completely different. I thought it would be something I could do. I did it on the side and graduated in 1990."

You have to drag out of him the fact that he came first in the Republic in his final exam and third in the world. He insists on adding: "Six months later somebody in Ireland came first in the world."

He looks back on his years as a boarder at St Munchin's College in Limerick "with fondness", and says those years taught him independence and gave him lots of friends. He also realises how hard it must have been for his parents, Sean and Paula, both national school teachers, to pay the fees.

He wasn't very sporty, although, like most youngsters in Limerick, he played a bit of rugby. Ironically, now he finds himself coaching under-eights soccer with Beechwood Soccer Club near his Rathgar, Dublin, home, where his second son, Cormac (8), plays.

The eldest, David, aged 12, starts in Gonzaga next month. He says he and his wife, Linda, did consider sending him to boarding school but then that might have been influenced by the fact that he met her while he was at school. "She lived over the wall from St Munchin's," he discloses.

Mr Shine's working day starts before 7 a.m. and rarely ends before 7 p.m. "I always try to get home before the kids go to bed. Because of working globally, there is always somebody working somewhere and there are calls."

He doesn't like to sit in the office directing things. "I would try to go to client sites. To do proper work, you have to be there and understand what's happening. Every day is different, with different clients and different issues."

There is endless travel. He doesn't work while travelling because of the confidential nature of the work. And he tries to ignore delays. "I quite like travelling because I read a lot. It's a great chance, because I'm not going to go home in the evening to read books."

Since qualifying as an accountant, he has been involved with the CIMA. "I feel the institute has given me a lot and I would like to put something back in," he says.

He was national vice-president for two years before taking the top job. How does he fit everything into his international schedule?

"It's an extra thing on the long list," he grins. "It's not that much. It's quite interesting, quite challenging and because I'm working with governments, it's quite a good way of keeping in touch with other industries."

He has big plans for the institute. MBA programmes are being finalised with UCD and DCU. A second initiative is a jobs scheme under which CIMA members - who tend to be senior managers in companies - will do a "milk round" of CIMA students as they are graduating. And he wants the organisation to do more fundraising for charity through its regular meetings and social events.

"I think people would be happy to give up time and say let's give something back." He's big on giving something back.