KPMG recruits three senior heavy-hitters to Australian leadership

Professional services firm KPMG has added three senior leaders of diverse backgrounds to its leadership team: former Labor minister David Bradbury, Jennifer Westacott and Michael Ebeid.

Bradbury becomes a partner in the firm’s consulting business, Westacott will act as a special advisor to its client delivery teams, and Ebeid has been appointed as an advisor to KPMG’s national board. All three bring serious credentials.

“I am delighted to welcome such high-calibre professionals to our firm,” said CEO Andrew Yates. “They have distinct and deep experience in understanding the critical issues facing organisations from a global and domestic perspective.”

David Bradbury

Joining KPMG’s consulting team in August from his current role as deputy director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration out of Paris, where he has spent the past ten years, Bradbury brings over two decades of professional and government experience, including time as assistant treasurer and federal minister for competition policy & consumer affairs under the second Gillard and Rudd governments.

“As a key member of our business transformation team, David will provide clients with fresh insights as they seek to navigate a rapidly evolving landscape, and also help them seize the opportunities of digitalisation and decarbonisation,” Yates said. “His experience complements the recently announced strategic changes to our own consulting business, reflecting our own response to these challenges.”

Bradbury said in response; “I am pleased to be returning home and am energised by the opportunity to take on this new role with KPMG. The firm has offered me the chance to move into a broader role beyond tax, where I will work with highly-motivated and talented teams to use my skills and experience to help businesses lift their productivity and succeed in an increasingly complex and challenging global environment.”

Jennifer Westacott

Commencing this month, Westacott rejoins the firm as a client teams special advisor fresh off her long stint as the CEO of the Business Council of Australia. Among her myriad other past and present roles, Westacott is the current chancellor of the Western Sydney University and a director at Westfarmers. She was previously national lead partner of KPMG’s sustainability, climate & Water practice for six years until 2011.

She was also previously a member of the KPMG’s board of directors and partner-in-charge of its New South Wales government business, prior to which she spent well over a decade in the NSW and Victorian public sectors, including as director general of the infrastructure, planning & natural resources department of the former and education & training secretary of the latter.

“I passionately believe that strengthening and deepening Australia’s economy is the key to delivering a more cohesive and secure nation,” said Westacott, who was awarded an AO in 2018. “I am very pleased to be returning to KPMG, an organisation which puts people first and has the expertise and commitment to contribute to the big-ticket policy solutions to some of Australia and the world’s most pressing challenges.”

Michael Ebeid

Fellow Australian (AM) honouree Ebeid will from this month provide KPMG’s national board with independent expert advice focused on technology, digital transformation and culture, at a time when the country’s largest accounting and consulting firms move to further embrace outside perspectives following PwC’s government tax scandal, with KPMG already ahead of the game.

He brings almost four decades of experience to the role, particularly within the TMT field. Currently the chairman of Screen Australia and a director of the Sydney Opera House, Ebeid was previously the CEO of the SBS and more recently group executive of Telstra’s enterprise business, which includes its Telstra Purple consulting wing is now headed by Oliver Camplin-Warner. both of whom spent early time at IBM.

Speaking on his latest assignment, Ebeid, who also spent a decade as commercial operations director at Optus and led corporate strategy & marketing at the ABC, said; “I’ve had a long association with KPMG. I am excited to have the opportunity to contribute to the firm’s ongoing success and work with the board. Much of our economy relies on KPMG in some way, and its purpose and vision really resonate.”