Current and past EY Melbourne managing partners take up new roles
Current and former EY Melbourne managing partners Rodney Piltz and Annette Kimmitt have been appointed to new roles in the same week, with both having a considerable mountain to climb.
Former Ernst & Young Melbourne managing partner Annette Kimmitt has been selected to lead the Victorian Government’s newly-established gambling regulator, the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission, which was set up in response to the oversight failings around Melbourne’s Crown Casino.
Meanwhile, the current EY Melbourne managing partner Rodney Piltz has joined the board of the North Melbourne Football Club.
Annette Kimmitt
Prior to taking on the role of CEO at MinterEllison in 2018 (and then departing half way through her first five-year term due to internal ructions over the law firm’s representation of Christian Porter), the new CEO of the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) spent close to 14 years at EY, latterly as global Growth Markets leader and Asia-Pacific Accounts managing partner.
Earlier, Kimmitt spent four years leading the firm’s Melbourne office between 2009 and 2013.
After what was described as an extensive recruitment process, former Deloitte partner and current VGCCC chair Fran Thorn pointed to Kimmitt’s significant experience and leadership skills for her appointment as CEO. “Her background in the business world and her experience in audit and risk management in particular will be a huge asset to our regulation of the gambling and liquor industries and ensuring harm minimisation.”
Kimmitt’s appointment comes at a time when casino oversight is once again in the spotlight, with the NSW gaming regulator’s inquiry into misconduct at Sydney’s Star now underway – and with the Big Four also set to feature. The inquiry is likely to centre on internal responses to a critical KPMG report from 2018, with former Deloitte manager and Star senior treasury manager Paulinka Dudek already admitting to having forwarded falsified documents.
Rodney Piltz
Meanwhile, EY’s current Melbourne managing partner Rodney Piltz has officially joined the board of the North Melbourne Football Club, alongside new president Sonja Hood, who becomes the fourth woman to head an AFL club in recent years following Peggy O’Neal (Richmond), Kylie Watson-Wheeler (Western), and the president of reigning premiers Melbourne, Kate Roffey. It’s unlikely Hood will emulate Roffey’s first-year success.
Piltz has been with EY for near-on three decades, and more than 20 years as a partner. In addition to heading up the professional services firm’s Melbourne office, he also serves as EY Oceania Digital Assurance Leader, and previously led the firm’s Assurance practice in Victoria – a position also once held by Kimmitt. He also recently retired as a member of independent government industry agency, the Australian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board.
Piltz joins a raft of Big Four executives now occupying AFL club board positions, including as presidents, a development The Age described as a complete corporate takeover of football. Recently, all of the traditional powerhouses in Essendon, Collingwood and Carlton were headed by one-time consultants, including ex-PwC boss Luke Sayers at the helm of the latter. The Demons also recently drafted in former KPMG and EY partner Sally Freeman.
