PwC’ers Wendy Saint Ruth and Shona Brady join Accenture

The recent senior leadership merry-go-round among Australia’s largest professional services firms continues, with Accenture pinching Wendy Saint Ruth and Shona Brady from PwC.

Accenture has picked up another pair of Big Four leaders in PwC partner Wendy Saint Ruth and PwC senior director Shona Brady, who join the firm as managing directors in Sydney and Melbourne. Both bring financial services sector expertise, with together more than 35 years of consulting experience. Meanwhile, Louisa Francis has returned to EY as a data & analytics partner. 

Wendy Saint Ruth

Formerly a partner in PwC’s consulting practice, Saint Ruth specialises in business transformation and tech integration for clients in the financial services sector, including the retail banking, general insurance, and wealth & asset management segments. Prior to her four years with PwC, Saint Ruth spent over two and a half years as a director in Ernst & Young’s financial services practice in Sydney.

Shona Brady

Brady has been with PwC for close to the past eighteen years, most recently as a senior director advising financial institutions on regulatory and risk. A graduate in commerce and information systems from Melbourne University, Brady after a decade with PwC in Melbourne later transferred to the firm’s office in New York, where she served as a director for two years until returning in 2016.

Ruth and Brady are just the latest in a string of Big Four senior leaders crossing to Accenture, including recent high-profile signing James Nunn-Price, as part of a targeted recruitment strategy instituted by former CEO Tara Brady, who has now departed due to issues around travel restrictions. His replacement, Peter Burns, was one such recruit, having spent three decades at Strategy& (formerly Booz) and PwC.