PwC adds 27 new partners to Consulting business in Australia
PwC Australia has admitted 27 new partners to its Australian consulting business, in a move that also saw 58 others partner join the firm’s partnership, taking the total number of partner in the country to 679. Two thirds of the new partners were promoted internally, with one third coming from the industry.
Helen Fazzino, PwC’s Managing Partner for People, Partnership & Culture, said that she is delighted with the bolstering of the firm’s leadership. “The capability that exists amongst our 679 strong partnership is something we are very proud of and we look forward to the new dimension these 85 talented individuals will bring to our partnership and our clients,” she said.
The senior promotions and new hires come on the back of a bumper year for PwC Australia – the accounting and consulting firm saw its revenue jump 10.4% to $2.12 billion in its latest financial year, underpinned by a strong profit line.
All three of the firm’s business units – Assurance, Consulting and Financial Advisory – booked strong growth, while Strategy&, formerly Booz & Company and PwC’s strategy consulting wing, had its strongest year since being acquired by the firm back in 2014 in a move that sent a tidal wave through the global strategy consulting industry.
In line with the firm’s commitment to create a more diverse and inclusive partnership, 41% of the new Partners are women and 29% come from a diverse cultural background. That means that for the third year in a row the firm has met the gender target of ‘40:40:20’ for partner intakes, which it launched in June 2015. The aim is to have a minimum of 40% women and 40% men making up future admissions. “The remaining 20% can be either men or women.” On top of regulating the battle of sexes, the firm has also earmarked a 20% target for partner admits from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Last year PwC just met its gender diversity target, with 40% of the new partner intake female and 22% of the record 91-strong group coming from diverse cultural backgrounds. According to Fazzino, this puts the firm on the right trajectory to realise our ambition. “We still have a long way to go but 26% of our partnership is now female and 17% are from a diverse cultural background,” she commented.
Similar to the year previous, all of the firm’s businesses and geographies were represented in the intake, reflecting the “breadth and depth of skills and capabilities at PwC” and the “complexity of the challenges and opportunities” clients are grappling with. “Our clients are looking for end to end support from strategy, through to reimagining the customer experience, through to the design and implementation of the technology solution that supports the transformation.”
However, not surprising, the Technology service line within Consulting was among the practices with the largest increase in Partner admissions, growing by nine. Booming demand for digital transformation services is at the heart of the drive – the market for digital transformation consulting has over the past twelve months doubled to US$44 billion globally – with PwC one of the premier players in the space. According to an analysis by Consultancy.uk, PwC belongs to the world’s best advisors in the space for IT strategy and digital transformation. The consultancy arm also boasts across the board one of the broadest and deepest service portfolios in the industry.
“Digital advisory services, solution development and delivery teams, as well as Salesforce and cybersecurity are key focus areas for our Technology practice.”
Financial Advisory, PwC’s business unit for financial consulting services including M&A, corporate finance, risk management and forensics, saw 27 new partners join its leadership ranks, while Assurance and Tax added 16 and 12 new leaders respectively. Three partners were promoted in PwC’s back office unit. The firm’s largest office in Australia, Greater Western Sydney (~200 professionals), added six new partners to its team.
