PwC Australia welcomes largest ever number of new partners
Following a strong bounce back in a pandemic-stricken year, PwC has welcomed its largest ever intake of new partners in Australia.
The addition of 92 partners on top of the 53 partners admitted on January 1 2021 brings the total number of new partners this financial year (which runs to July) to 145. “This demonstrates our confidence in PwC’s growth prospects into the future and shows more than ever an ability to deliver on an exciting career path for its people,” PwC’s CEO Tom Seymour said.
37 of the new PwC partners admitted are part of the Consulting division, which includes Strategy&, the firm’s strategy consulting outfit. Financial Advisory (including Tax, Private Clients, Deals and Infrastructure) admitted 36 partners, while Assurance saw its partnership bolstered by 18 new members. The remaining admission was in internal services.
Sixty of the 92 new partners are internal promotions, two are international transfers, while the remaining 30 have joined the firm from counterparts and industry. Among notable rival transfers, PwC recruited 11 partners from Deloitte, and two apiece KPMG and McKinsey & Company.
“Our new partners signify strong demand in our core businesses and in our growth markets, with experts in infrastructure, cyber security, the future of work and healthcare representing one in five of the new partners we’ve admitted since this time last year,” Seymour said.
Continuing its progress in diversity and inclusion, 48% of the partnership admissions are female and 34% are from a diverse cultural background. “We’re proud of the hard work we’ve put in as a firm to make our partnership more diverse and inclusive.”
With revenues of around $2.6 billion, PwC is Australia’s largest Big Four firm, although Deloitte has been playing catch-up in recent years. Despite a lower partner headcount (PwC’ has 777 partners while Deloitte has around 900 partners), PwC pulls in around $100 million more revenue.
A full list of the new PwC partners (appointed between December 10, 2020, to July 1 2021):
Consulting
Internal promotions:
Adam Magee
Birger Maekelburger
Christa Ray
Christiana Gurgick
Emily Readhead
John Higgins
Kevin Sandler
Linda Nitschke
Masroor Khandwalla
Nick Warren
Peter Stock
Rony Azzi
Sara Afaghi
Sharon Ponniah
External hires:
Simon Teschendorf
Adrian Finlayson
Anita Le
Anthony Buntic
Ben Fielding
Bradley Burt
Carlos Aggio
Chris Walker
Craig Smith
Denise Lucero
Jacqui Visch
James Deighton
Jennifer Thomas
Jeremy Pitchford
Laura Chisholm
Liza Allen
Meegan Fitzharris
Nicholas Chiam
Peter Ryan
Pip Wyrdeman
Richa Arora
Stuart Choi
Vanessa Brennan
Financial Advisory
Internal promotions:
Adam Graham
Adam Vassilieff
Amber Stevens
Andrew Howell
Anita Luke
Arash Azimi
Ashani Samuel Thambiah
Ben Neumann
Bianca Robinson
Cassandra Fung
Charles Pickett
Christina Sahyoun
Daniel Duncalf
Daniel Knox
Danny Touma
David McDougall
Elizabeth Fritts
Jessica Fantin
Kushal Chadha
Michael Parris
Nick Li
Paul Cornick
Rachel Smith
Rebecca Smith
Rosemary Ide
Ryan Jones
Scott Wilson
Siobhan Hall
Tsae Chih Liew
External hires:
Andrew McKindlay
Andrew Mrnjavac
Danijela Malesevic
Garth Williams
Janice Lee
Michelle Hartman
Sally Woodward
Assurance
Internal promotions:
Adele Smith
Annabelle Taggart
Bernadette D'Alessandro
Carolyn Cosgrove
Fiona Copp
Ginny Griffin
Josh Raabe
Justine Rapaport
Lauren Wright
Philippa Cogswell
Prav Ram
Sadie Lees
Salman Alikhan
Shehan Fonseka
Simon Robinson
Tony Richardson
Vincenzo Dede
External hires:
Cameron Jaggers
Enabling Functions
Internal promotion:
Gabriel Harris