Bob Bell managing director of PKF in Sydney and Newcastle
Long-time PKF Sydney and Newcastle managing director Steve Meyn has handed the reins to fellow network veteran Bob Bell.
Professional services industry veteran Bob Bell has been named as the new managing director for PKF Sydney and Newcastle, having been with the accounting and consulting network and its predecessors since 1997. With over four decades of experience under his belt, Bell succeeds Steve Meyn, who will continue on in his role as chair of PKF Australia after more than twelve years as managing director.
A business and accounting graduate of UTS in 1985, Bell has been in partner roles with small and mid-sized firms for 35 years, and has since 2006 headed up PKF’s Sydney Business Advisory and Forensic teams.
In this role, Bell has been focused on supporting clients with efficiency gains through automation and cloud-based working – something he now aims to replicate across the Sydney and Newcastle business.
“It is indeed an honour to assume the mantle of Managing Director,” Bell said. “Over the past few months, I have worked closely with Steve to ensure a smooth transition, a process that has given me an even greater appreciation of what he has achieved in his tenure. While I am keen to create my own identity as Managing Director, my focus will be on listening; to my partners, our team, and our clients – the people that make us what we are.”
Bell continued; “It’s a daunting task to follow on from Steve, who has overseen a decade of transformation in name, structure, size, technology and, most importantly, thought. We have invested in the people and technology that enables us to operate comfortably in the mid-tier landscape, without losing the personal approach and relationships that have always been fundamental to the way we operate.”
Meyn, who has also been with the firm for upwards of thirty years, has been in the managing director role for a touch over twelve of those, originally appointed prior to Lawler Partners joining PKF in 2014 (PKF’s merged East Coast members had defected to BDO two years earlier).
Today, PKF Sydney and Newcastle has a headcount approaching 400 professionals and two dozen partners, as the network’s largest practice in Australia.
“The last 12 years has been one of opportunity, challenges, good times and some tough times but above all the most rewarding of my career,” said Meyn, adding; “Succession in any organisation is a key part of the journey of being in business. Bob is a great person of strong values. He is highly respected and widely experienced in all aspects of what PKF offers, which stands him in good stead to lead us into our next phase of business.”
According to the most recent Top 100 accounting firm’s list compiled by the Australian Financial Review, PKF last year was bumped from the nation’s top ten by Bentleys, having regained the spot from William Buck the year prior. Still, in terms of revenues, very little separates the three firms, with PKF’s ~$126 million in combined take less than $1 million adrift of Bentleys. Comparatively, the ninth-placed RSM pulls in close to double that.
