This Month
Tax Practitioners Board and former PwC CEO can’t get on the same page
Tom Seymour may be trying to tick every box now, but the tax professionals watchdog isn’t helping.
ASX wipes $38b; Australia’s ‘bizarre’ 29pc tariff; Scyne slashes staff
Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.
March
PwC spin-off Scyne loses one of its most senior executives
David Sacks said he had decided to leave the professional services industry entirely and “apply my energy to provide more leading and doing”.
PwC reaches multimillion-dollar settlement with former tax partner
The accounting and consultancy firm named Paul McNab as one of a dozen people implicated in a tax leaks scandal. He denied the allegation, and sued the firm.
‘Adopt not adapt’: How to deliver a $60m tech project on time
PwC tech consultants achieved the rare feat of delivering a $60 million tech project on time and on budget by resisting the urge to overly customise.
Former EY partner Jason McLean moves to PwC
The move is part of a push at PwC Australia to beef up its financial services advisory offering.
Post-tax-leak PwC looks beyond profit to measure partner performance
The firm’s first independent chairman, John Green, concedes it has a way to go before it fixes a “growth at all costs” culture where rainmakers are “untouchable”.
Saudi wealth fund blocks PwC from advisory work for one year
The firm’s auditing projects will not be affected, but the move will still halt the firm’s progress in one of the world’s most lucrative markets.
February
Sayers pops up in Melbourne’s CBD
The former PwC man is picking up the pieces from the fallout of the dick pic scandal.
KPMG pulls DEI reports from website after Trump pressure
The big four firm in the United States has become the latest government contractor to ditch DEI targets.
PwC spin-offs feast on taxpayer consultant addiction
Granting Scyne more than $12 million in taxpayer contracts this year alone doesn’t sound like the government is cutting consultant spending.
Scyne Advisory gets ethics and accountability sign off from Finance
After 15 months of monitoring, the Department of Finance concluded that Scyne had “implemented appropriate ethics, accountability and governance arrangements”.
GenAI helps engineers cut response time from weeks to minutes
Worley is using the technology to reduce the time it takes to draft responses to complex customer queries by parsing the firm’s extensive technical database.
The graduate employment boom is losing steam
Graduates can still find employer programs straight out of university, but it’s becoming tougher as the employment market retreats from boom time to just good times.
Dozens of PwC China partners step aside after audit ban
The disclosure suggests the big four firm has lost state-owned and finance sector clients.
Another PwC Australia deals partner to leave the firm
Senior partner Sanjiv Jeraj is retiring from the big four firm after almost two decades, and a new partner is helping clients use AI.
The baffling (and little-known) WFH statistic
Businesses are tightening hybrid work rules, but working-from-home levels have so far barely budged.
PwC’s advisory chief has an optimistic outlook for the firm’s finances
Rohit Antao says there is plenty of demand for advice on how to grow sales and cut costs, helping to drive a long-awaited rebound in the consulting sector.
Ashurst expands risk advisory team, adding two new partners
Cybersecurity expert Rachael Falk and KPMG partner Kathleen Conner are joining the division, which now has 23 partners globally.
January
Senior PwC partner to lead ASX-listed childcare business Nido
Adam Lai had been the firm’s managing partner in Sydney for the past year and a partner at the firm for more than a decade. He will be paid at least $1 million.