Former Australia chief Gary Wingrove put forward as KPMG’s next global CEO
KPMG’s former Australian chief executive Gary Wingrove has been selected as the Big Four accounting and consulting firm’s next global boss, with the board proposal still to be ratified.
A commerce graduate of the University of Cape Town, Wingrove spent more than two decades with KPMG in Australia, including eight years as chief executive to mid-2021, the latter part of his tenure marked by the firm’s response to the global pandemic.
Having handed over to Andrew Yates, Wingrove then departed Sydney for London, and has since late 2022 served as KPMG’s global chief operating officer. Now, according to reports, he has been put forward by the board to succeed Bill Thomas as CEO later this year.
As per the reports, originally from the Financial Times, Wingrove beat out KPMG’s current UK boss Jon Holt for top billing, with the board selection still to be approved by the firm’s global council, which includes a wider representation of country members. Should it be ratified, Wingrove will soon take charge of a $40 billion global enterprise with more than 275,000 employees.
While dodging the later PwC scandal in Australia and leaving Yates to sweat it out the witness box, Wingrove has still had his fair share of issues to deal with (as well as Holt for that matter), and proven quite ruthless in the past despite his boyish looks. His navigation of the Covid-crisis in Australia included axing 200 staff on the spot and a 20 percent pay-cut for those spared.
Most notable on Wingrove’s more recent to-do-list has been figuring out a response to global consulting downturn (which in Australia has seen the firm’s revenues plummet). As one solution, he is considered the architect behind KPMG’s demand to merge dozens of country members down to as few as 32, which should make for a spicy global council meeting.
Despite that, as well as his efforts to rejig KPMG’s consulting division towards technology, the Financial Times’ inside sources said that Wingrove was viewed by the board as the more stable ‘continuity’ candidate compared to Holt’s ‘progressive’ pitch, while also bringing stronger operational capabilities; “The board opted for more of the same,” quoth one source.
Said source also mentioned that, under the COO direction of Wingrove, KPMG has been the fastest-growing among its closest rivals of late, which is true but also mildly amusing. The firm has been basically holding onto its ‘Big Four’ moniker by convention, trailing third-placed EY by more than $12 billion, while Deloitte is now getting close to doubling KPMG’s annual revenues.
Should Wingrove succeed though in succeeding Bill Thomas in September, he will become the latest member of Australia’s gradual takeover of the global accounting and consulting scene. Looking down the ladder, BDO is now chaired by former Australian chief Tony Schiffmann, while ex-Grant Thornton Australia boss Greg Keith is now the firm’s global CEO.
