BDO appoints Willem Olivier and Kerry Atkinson to C-suite

Accounting and consulting firm BDO has further refreshed its C-suite following other recent changes, with Willem Olivier appointed as Chief Risk Officer and Kerry Atkinson as Chief HR Officer.

A partner based out of Brisbane, Olivier has been with BDO for a decade and a half, with earlier time spent at PKF in South Africa, while office colleague Atkinson joined the firm in 2019 as head of people & culture, bringing two decades of HR experience.

The latest C-suite appointments, with Atkinson replacing Peter O’Sullivan and Olivier already an existing member of BDO’s operational leadership team, follow two others made toward the end of last year; Tiffany Wong as Chief Information Officer and Nicole Aman as Chief Client Officer.

“These appointments strengthen two essential components of a forward-thinking professional services firm; trust and talent,” said chief executive David Garvey, himself just 100 days into the job. “Strong governance and a strong people experience go hand in hand, and as our firm grows, we will continue to lift the standards in how we manage risk and support and develop our people.”

Willem Olivier

Stepping up from his previous role as ethics and monitoring leader, Olivier as CRO will now be responsible for leading BDO’s quality and risk management to ensure effective governance, compliance, and ‘decision‑useful risk reporting’. Having earlier spent over seven years at PKF in Cape Town, he originally joined BDO in Sydney in 2010 before being made a partner in 2024.

Kerry Atkinson

Graduating with an accounting degree from the University of Queensland, Atkinson then undertook postgraduate studies in human resource management and has now spent almost three decades in the field, both in internal roles and as an external consultant. Joining BDO in 2019 after a brief contract with BHP, Atkinson earlier spent time at Energy Super, Radford, Thiess, and the Flight Centre.

BDO C-suite

BDO noted that its C-suite is now heavily-tilted towards female leaders, with women holding every position bar Olivier and Garvey’s. Alongside Atkinson, Wong, and Aman, the other members include Cara Wennerbom as Chief Operations Officer, Abby Henderson as Chief Financial Officer, and another relatively recent appointment in Jane Couchman as chief strategy & transformation officer.