KPMG appoints Michael Ebeid as new independent chair for Australia
Under fire Big Four professional services firm KPMG has appointed existing regional board member Michael Ebeid as its new independent chair, failing to placate the firm’s prosecutors.
Ebeid, previously the CEO of SBS and group exec for Telstra’s enterprise division, joined KPMG as a board advisor in 2024 following the speedy departure of Mike Baird, since revealed to have been due the handling of the whistle-blower complaints now engulfing the firm.
Ebeid, however, was quickly outed as having pushed back against the allegations when they were first aired, describing them as “completely false” and their public revelation under privilege in the Senate as “very inappropriate”. KPMG has since admitted to widespread failures.
“I recognise the gravity of the allegations and the shortcomings in the firm’s approach at the time. From what I now know, I would not have written that email and am sorry for sending it,” Ebeid said in response to the release of the documents he’d sent to deputy chair Carmen Mortell, with the AFR reporting that members of KPMG’s partnership have also been angered by his appointment.
Greens senator Barbara Pocock, a member of the Senate committee investigating the matter, was also having none of it: “This risks entrenching the very culture and leadership that needs to change,” she said. “It’s is not the fresh start for KPMG that it attempts to be. Mr. Ebeid is a part of the culture and leadership team where things have gone seriously wrong at the firm.”
The fall-out as to those ‘things’ have so far included the departure of former CEO Andrew Yates, the resignation of Ebeid’s predecessor Martin Sheppard, and the loss of the firm’s former COO Eileen Hoggett – audit boss at the time of the confidentiality breaches – along with most recent audit leader Julian McPherson and at least nine partners who have already chosen to bail.
As such, there was basically no one left at the firm with sufficient seniority to congratulate Ebeid or comment on his appointment, with KPMG Australia’s new chair left to carry his own press release: “I have agreed to take on this role because I believe in and respect KPMG. Despite the challenges the firm is facing, my resolve to support its important work is even stronger,” he said.
“I believe KPMG can recover, rebuild, and emerge a better firm. My mandate is to strengthen independent oversight, make integrity central to everything we do, and drive the cultural and governance reforms needed to regrow confidence. My first priority is to restore the effectiveness of the board, reshaping it with equal independent and partner representation.”
KPMG, in its present form, may not have the chance to fulfill Ebeid’s ambitions however, with the Australian treasury floating the potential of breaking up the Big Four accounting and consulting firms or capping their partnership numbers as among the options to address the inherent conflicts of interest and constant scandals which have beleaguered the sector in recent years.
