Andersen recruits Scott Goddard and Stephen Helberg

Experienced professionals Stephen Helberg and Scott Goddard have joined the Australian branch of Andersen, the pair tasked with establishing the tax and advisory firm’s local business consulting practice.

The Australian branch of global tax and business advisory Andersen has recruited GRCReady co-founders Stephen Helberg and Scott Goddard as managing directors to establish a new national business consulting line.

For Goddard, the move marks a return to Andersen after more than twenty years, while Helberg brings over three decades of professional experience. Andersen’s local members include Cornwalls, BoardRoom, and A&A Tax Legal Consulting.

Having completed a business accounting degree with Monash, Goddard first kicked off his career with a two-year risk consulting & assurance stint at Arthur Andersen, until its untimely collapse in 2002. The firm later reemerged with a link to its original moniker in 2013, as Andersen Global, and has since grown at a rapid clip, adding members in more than 170 countries worldwide.

The firm’s Australian entry didn’t however come until 2020, via its hook-up with A&A Tax Legal Consulting.

Meanwhile, Goddard over that intervening period went on to spend more than a decade at Deloitte, including as a partner in its financial crime and data analytics division out of Melbourne, with further leadership stints at Australia Post and Crowe Horwath, the latter for two years as a forensics and cyber-risk consulting partner. In 2020 he established governance, risk and compliance advisory GRCReady alongside Helberg, serving as CEO.

Helberg’s professional leadership experience extends back even further, to a head of internal audit position with South African state freight company Transnet in 1992. Since arriving in Australia, Helberg has among roles spent time as a risk consulting partner at Ernst & Young, served as the global head of corporate assurance at Rio Tinto, and helped KordaMentha to establish a new offering specialised in governance and board services for blue-chip clients.

Andersen Australia CEO Cameron Allen, who was previously a partner at Deloitte prior to establishing A&A in 2010, waxed poetic on the duo’s recruitment to the firm; “Can you tell a story without saying anything?’ he asked. “We’ve decided you can. Our story is one that will unfold itself, chapter by chapter, as told by every client we deliver for. At Andersen in Australia, we’ve been maintaining a quiet but unwavering focus on being a strong alternative for clients.”

Allen continued; “The addition of Scott and Stephen to our team makes our story even more compelling. They are changing narratives in the market about tax risk, governance and analytics. Their approach goes beyond the traditional advisory model. Instead, they deliver pragmatic, situation-relevant solutions backed by experience, rigour and strategy. They’re honest, straight-talking and can create exceptional clarity from complex scenarios.”