KPMG appoints new leaders amid reshuffle of business lines
The Australian branch of KPMG is set for a mid-year organisational restructure with its various service lines to be arranged around five core divisions – reflected in a raft of fresh senior appointments.
Professional services firm KPMG has made a number of leadership changes at the top, headlined by the promotion of Paul Howes as the incoming boss of a newly-organised consulting division.
The move is part of a wider organisational restructure, which will see audit and assurance head Eileen Hoggett take up the chief operating officer role, to be replaced by Julian McPherson, while Naomi Mitchell, Ben Travers, and Stan Stavros have also been given new assignments.
According to an internal staff memo, KPMG will from the middle of the year organise itself around five core business lines, with risk advisory to sit under Consulting rather than Audit and Assurance, deal advisory to join with the infrastructure division, and Tax & Legal to stand alone.
The fifth line is KPMG’s mid-market private Enterprise business, currently headed by Howes, but with partner Naomi Mitchell to take on responsibility mid-year.
CEO Andrew Yates said KPMG’s strategic focus was on protecting and enhancing the heritage and quality of the firm: “Bringing the whole firm together around the most relevant market and client opportunities is a key element of our strategy, and our revised operating model will help facilitate this. The changes to our operating model are timely given current market issues as we maintain a sharp focus on the core element of our brand – trust.”
Paul Howes, the former national secretary of the Australia Workers Union (AWU), has headed up KPMG’s enterprise practice since 2019, having previously overseen its wealth and assets business after joining the firm in 2014. Already named in recent years as one of the country’s most powerful consultants, Howes will now lead a supercharged consulting division, which last year brought in $666 million and will now include KPMG’s fast-growing risk advisory line.
According to a report in the AFR, current management consulting national managing partner Christa Gordon will step down after two years in the role, while Enterprise Business Tax & Advisory lead partner Naomi Mitchell will take over from Howes following a recent period of regional expansion in part targeted at capturing the middle market. Mitchell has been with KPMG since 2017, joining after more than two decades with accountancy acquisition YCG.
A member of KPMG’s executive committee since 2021, audit, assurance & risk consulting national managing partner Eileen Hoggett will now become chief operating officer, as well as head of corporate affairs (Andrew Wiles has served as COO and CFO since toward the end of last year). Hoggett will be replaced by fellow three-decade company veteran and current external audit lead Julian McPherson as head of the pared back Audit & Assurance division.
The remaining two rejigged divisions will be overseen by Stan Stavros (deal advisory and infrastructure) and Ben Travers (Tax & Legal) according to the AFR, with current national Deals, Tax & Legal leader David Heathcote to vacate his post. Travers has been with KPMG coming up on 25 years, and currently leads People Services, while Stavros was appointed head of Infrastructure, Assets & Places upon the launch of the combined practice in 2021.