BDO Australia chief executive Tony Schiffmann steps into global chair role

Global accounting and consulting firm BDO has appointed Australian chief executive Tony Schiffmann as its new global chair as part of a ‘strategic reset’ and highest-level long-term succession planning.

To be succeeded by David Garvey from next month, Schiffmann has served as chief executive partner of BDO’s booming Australian business for the past five years, and will take up the global chair role to help guide incoming CEO Trond-Morten Lindberg.

Significantly, BDO said the top-level appointments are part of a ‘strategic reset’ aimed at accelerating global integration and consolidation amongst member firms, while publicly declaring the firm’s intention to stay free of any external private equity investments.

“Choosing independence is a conscious decision made from a position of strength,” stated current global CEO Pat Kramer. “This approach ensures that we remain in control of our destiny while continuing to build a future-proof organisation. Consolidation and aligning operations across borders will also strengthen our global reach, enhance quality, and deliver greater value to clients.”

Sustained growth

Against the backdrop of a private investment rush towards the accounting and consulting sector – most notably in the case of mid-tier global competitor Grant Thornton – it’s hard to argue with Kramer’s assertion. While yet to report for 2025, BDO’s worldwide revenues over the previous six financial years have jumped by more than a half to now exceed $15 billion.

Having already doubled its take over the prior decade, BDO’s sustained performance has seen the firm break away from its closest mid-tier rivals to cement its status as the clear, fifth-largest global organisation of its kind, behind only the Big Four. Grant Thornton, for example, which in 2019 sat behind BDO as the sixth-largest, only just reached the $8 billion mark last year.

Now, in what strikes as a major industry inflection point, the two competing firms are about to chart divergent courses – the ‘bean-counters’ vs the ‘private capitalists’ – with Schiffmann tapped to steer the ship alongside Oslo-based partner Lindberg, who currently serves as chief strategy & operations officer and will take over from Kramer this time next year following the Canadian’s fist four-year term.

“I am immensely proud to take on this role at an important juncture for BDO and our industry, and look forward to continuing to work with Pat and all of our leaders globally as we focus on the next phase of growth and securing a strong and sustainable future,” Lindberg said, with one of those leaders, Matthew Becker, also set to take over as CEO in the US, by far the firm’s largest market.

While Schiffmann didn’t officially comment on his new appointment, it’s notable that just his second LinkedIn post of the year referenced a forecast from US-based professional services sector talent advisory Patrick Morgan on the unprecedented wave of industry IPOs expected to come in the next two years as private equity reaches its limits, with potential cracks on the horizon.

“We don’t see a need for external capital, which is one of the key drivers that’s promoted as part of this process. We are still keen to do what we can to ensure the partners see themselves as owners in the business, so it’s really not on our radar, locally, or at a global level,” Schiffmann recently told the AFR, with RSM’s new Australia chief Robert Miano also dismissing the suggestion.

Australia

Adding to the international spice from a local perspective though, Schiffmann is the second, long-serving mid-tier Australian accounting and consulting chief to be appointed to a major global role this year; the other, naturally of course, being Grant Thornton’s Greg Keith, who will take over from Peter Bodin as Grant Thornton International CEO from the beginning of next year.

It’s possible, by that time, the firm’s Australian business may have sold to one of the two private equity players on each side of the Atlantic currently battling it out to scoop up the Grant Thornton’s major international members. Meanwhile, when BDO flags consolidation, it’s unclear if that’s in the sense of say Deloitte’s previous merger of its Asia Pacific business, or via intra-member acquisition.

Either way, Schiffmann and Keith are about to take what amounts to a three-decade-plus, intermingled business rivalry to the global stage, in a novel twist on rugby league’s State of Origin. Prior to reaching the top level in Australia, respectively in 2015 and 2020, Schiffmann was managing partner of BDO in Brisbane, and Keith managing partner of Grant Thornton in Sydney,

Prior to that again, in 2012, Grant Thornton picked off BDO’s practices in NSW and Victoria which had been expelled from the international network due to “unreasonable risks”, with Keith being a partner in Melbourne at the time. A lot has transpired in the past decade or so, but suffice to say, BDO, which this year celebrated its 50th anniversary downunder, has since regrouped.

During just the past five years of Schiffmann’s tenure, BDO has boosted its Australian earnings from around $330 million to above $600 million – including another double-digit jump last year while kicking into the wind – with the firm’s partnership count crossing the 300 mark at the start of the year and continuing to attract ex-Big Four talent to its shiny new offices across the country.

Schiffmann, according to the Courier Mail, will continue to work as global chair from BDO’s Brisbane offices (which are also about to move to a new location on Queen Street, alongside an upgrade in Adelaide), rather than relocate to the firm’s Brussels headquarters, which is perfectly understandable on many levels but possibly a first in the global accounting and consulting sphere.

As such, Schiffmann will remain a short lunch-time stroll to the Story Bridge while presiding over an organisation pushing towards 100,000 worldwide employees in more than 160 country locations, with revenues on track to reach the $20 billion mark within a few years, including a $1 billion dollar contribution from BDO’s Australian practice bolstered by its latest outlet in Canberra.