Faith Page, Schalk Kock and Tim Sandow partners at BDO

BDO has appointed three new partners in its Melbourne and Adelaide offices.

Faith Page has been hired externally from the South Gippsland Shire Council, where she was Director of Corporate and Community Services. Having previously served both Deloitte and EY as a partner, as well as working over a decade for IBM, Page brings three decades of professional services experience to BDO. 

She specialises in risk management, (digital) security and internal controls, with a focus on the financial services industry. At BDO, Page is a partner in the firm’s Information and Technology Risk & Assurance practice, based in Melbourne. 

Commenting on the addition to its 200-strong partner team, BDO’s Office Managing Partner for Melbourne David Garvey said, “Risk advisory is in high demand right now from existing and new clients, and we expect this to increase as the pandemic unfolds. This expertise will also be crucial as organisations come out of the other side and look to embrace the opportunities the post-covid-19 environment presents.” 

Schalk Kock joins BDO’s Melbourne office as a partner in its Technology Consulting unit. He transfers from Protiviti, where he spent five years in its IT Consulting practice, and before that he worked for consulting firms Third Horizon (acquired by Publicis Sapient in March), Bogosi Consulting (a boutique consultancy he founded) and Accenture, across two spells in South Africa and more recently Australia. 

He has 25 years’ experience advising clients on technology strategy and IT operations, digital transformation, data security and privacy management under his belt, with a focus on financial services clients including banks, superannuation funds and fintechs.

“Our world is becoming more reliant than ever on technology,” said Garvey. “Through our Technology Consulting services we assist our clients with amongst others business and IT strategic transformation, digital transformation, data and data governance as well as cybersecurity solutions.” 

Meanwhile, in Adelaide, BDO welcomed Tim Sandow as a new partner. He joins from PwC, where he was a special advisor on tax matters, building on his 25+ years of experience in the field. He learned the tricks of the trade at PwC during his ten year tenure at the firm, and then spent fifteen years at KPMG, most of which as a partner in the Tax division. 

Sandow advises a variety of private and large public companies as well as multinationals on income tax related topics, spanning tax governance, corporate tax, international tax, employment tax issues, liaising with the ATO, tax consolidations and M&A related tax. In 2018, his deep track in the field saw him awarded the Meritorious Service Award for outstanding service to the tax profession in South Australia.

He has been appointed the lead of BDO’s Tax team in South Australia, and will play a senior role in the firm’s offerings to clients in the natural resources, energy and defence sectors, which are key focus sectors of the Adelaide office, said BDO’s Adelaide Office Managing Partner Rudy Pieck. 

Earlier this year, BDO broke through the barrier of 200 partners, consolidating its position as Australia’s sixth largest accounting-origin professional services firm.