BDO’s partnership continues to balloon with a further five additions

Accounting and consulting firm BDO continues to build its partnership in the early stages of the year, with another handful of Big Four recruits and internal promotions added over the past month.

With all four based in Sydney, former PwC partner Bianca Buckman joins BDO as an assurance partner, Paul Childers crosses from the partnership of KPMG as a deal advisory partner, Charlie Puddicombe becomes a risk advisory partner after serving as a director at EY, and PwC corporate tax director Ravi Amirthalingam will join BDO’s partnership later this month.

The ex-Big Four quartet follow a number of their former colleagues through the door at BDO in just recent weeks, while Hobart-based business services professional Jodie Whiteley has also been elevated to partner after close to two decades at the firm – joining the more than a dozen partnership promotions made at the start of the year.

Bianca Buckman joins BDO after spending the past two and a half decades at PwC, most recently as assurance real estate transformation leader, with four of her years at the firm based in London. She is also a director on the board of youth mental health organisation batyr, which is chaired by Deloitte’s Ellen Derrick.

A three-decade M&A veteran, Paul Childers joins BDO’s deal advisory team after the past seven years as a partner at KPMG, before which he spent over a decade as a partner at Deloitte and was also made partner at Grant Thornton during an eight-year stint. In addition, Childers gained earlier experience with RSM in the US, UK and China.

Charlie Puddicombe has spent the past six and a half years as an enterprise risk director at Ernst & Young with a focus on the financial services sector, including banking, insurance and wealth management. The earlier part of his career was spent in the UK, including time in internal audit roles with Lloyds and Legal & General.

From later this month, Ravi Amirthalingam will bring over two decades of experience to BDO working in PwC’s corporate tax team, including the past eight years as a director. Over that time, he has supported clients of various descriptions across a range of sectors, including infrastructure, mining and professional services.

Meanwhile, accounting and taxation professional Jodie Whiteley has been made a partner in BDO’s Tasmanian business services practice, where she has assisted a range of clients including family businesses across industries such as property, retail and hospitality on their financial advisory and compliance needs since 2007.