FRC taps Big Four leaders for sustainability reporting agenda

Five members of Australia’s Big Four landscape have been newly appointed by the Financial Reporting Council to its accounting and assurance standards boards.

As it seeks to introduce new sustainability disclosure standards for locally-operating companies, the Financial Reporting Council – the government body responsible for overseeing Australia’s financial reporting framework – has tapped the Big Four to enhance its subject expertise via a handful of appointments to its Australian Accounting Standards (AASB) and Auditing and Assurance Standards (AUASB) boards.

The former will see Liza Maimone (PwC), Adrian King (KPMG) and Mathew Nelson (EY) join for three-year terms from the beginning of next year. Nelson’s colleague Terence Jeyaretnam (EY) will meanwhile join the AUASB, together with Chi Mun Woo (Deloitte).

Liza Maimone
A nearly three-decade veteran in sustainability and climate change, Maimone was appointed as PwC’s chief operating officer in early 2020, following a period heading up the firm’s consulting arm. In addition to her COO role, Maimone is also the firm’s executive sponsor of its Energy Transition business and serves as PwC’s Net Zero leader. Prior to joining PwC in 2008, she led EY Oceania’s climate change practice as a partner.

“It’s a great responsibility to be appointed as a member of the AASB,” Maimone stated. “I have a deep understanding of the practical challenges faced by both small and large organisations as they mature in their sustainability journey, including their disclosure reporting. I’m keen to bring the skills I’ve acquired both as a practitioner as well as an executive responsible for the implementation of sustainability strategy and reporting for our firm.”

Adrian King
Currently KPMG Australia’s Climate Change & Sustainability Services lead partner within its risk consulting division, King also brings some serious ESG credentials to the AASB, having previously served for six years up until 2020 in a number of the firm’s global lead roles around ESG, climate change and sustainability, including as to assurance and reporting. He has spent more than thirty years at KPMG between the UK and Australia.

Mathew Nelson
Nelson, likewise, is another Australia-based consultant who has led a Big Four’s sustainability initiatives at a global level. Joining EY almost two decades ago in London, Nelson has since served for more than six and a half years as global leader for the firm’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services team, before more recently focusing on his role as Chief Sustainability Officer as part EY’s Oceania executive out of Melbourne.

Terence Jeyaretnam
Meanwhile, EY’s current Melbourne-based APAC lead partner for Climate Change & Sustainability Services, Terence Jeyaretnam, will join the FRC’s auditing and assurance board for a three-year term from January, having already been on the AASB’s advisory panel. A member of numerous boards, bodies and committees, Jeyaretnam has been with EY since 2014, when his business Net Balance was acquired by the firm.

Chi Mun Woo
Deloitte sustainability and climate partner Chi Mun Woo will also join the AUASB alongside Jeyaretnam, as well as another recent board appointee in Deloitte colleague and senior Audit and Assurance partner Jason Thorne. Chi Mun Woo has been with the firm since 2018, currently as a member of its local risk advisory team, before which he spent some two decades with KPMG between the UK, US, South Africa and Sydney.