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Big four consultants

March

New Grant Thornton Australia chief executive Said Jahani is targeting mergers and lateral hires.

New Grant Thornton boss to strike at bigger rivals ‘while iron is hot’

Said Jahani wants to elevate the fast-growing firm’s market position, but is cautious on following his UK and US colleagues in taking private capital.

Former EY partner Peter White fought to keep his name secret for more than a year.

Former EY partner being sued by ATO challenges tax assessment

Peter White is accused of promoting three illegal tax schemes to seven clients and taking $700,000 in secret commissions.

EY’s Asia-Pacific region will be dissolved under the proposal.

EY proposes massive restructure, merging divisions to find growth

The accounting and consulting major is proposing to end its overarching geographic groupings and merge regions in a move that will likely result in job losses.

New Deloitte CEO Joanne Gorton.

New Deloitte CEO does a night of long knives on consulting partners

The usually revered consulting division has been quietly decimated by sackings.

John Green, PwC Independent non-executive Governance Board chairman at their Sydney office. John talks about his observations after six months. Sydney. March 7, 2025. Photo: Louise Kennerley AFR

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”.

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February

EY is set to close down its local legal business.

EY to cut about 100 staff, warns of ‘targeted restructuring’

An Ernst & Young representative said market volatility was continuing to affect business and targeted restructuring may be required.

Part of the team behind the Allegro Funds-backed Scyne Advisory: (from left) Ben Neal (Scyne Advisory), Adrian Loader (Allegro co-founder) and Fay Bou (Allegro managing director).

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”.

Jenelle McMaster

Accenture’s DEI exit could draw disgruntled men from big four

Male consultants who feel gender targets have blocked their paths to partnership might see fresh opportunity at the tech consulting giant.

PwC Roundtable - Family, Business and You Sanjiv Jeraj - Partner PwC

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.

McKinsey has drawn political ire in the United States for its China ties.

McKinsey partners mull China pullout in Trump era

The consulting giant is worried that doing business in China may not be worth the risk.

Rohit Antao is the Advisory Leader for PWC Australia.

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.

Rachael Falk (left) and Kathleen Conner (centre) will join Ashurst’s risk advisory division as partners; Catherine Hunter has been appointed the next chief executive of Diversity Council Australia.

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.

Deloitte would pay the lion’s share of a proposed settlement in the class action suit.

Deloitte agrees to pay Noumi shareholders $31m for audit failure

In a proposal circulated to aggrieved investors, the firm said it would pay almost three-quarters of the settlement. Accounting problems in 2020 sent Noumi shares plunging.

January

Adam Lai will become the chief executive officer of Nido in February.

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.

KordaMentha raids KPMG to create new defence advisory business

The new consulting offering will be established as the big four firm’s once-mainstay defence practice continues to erode under a broader government crackdown.

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Accenture global CEO Julie Sweet (left) has struck a joint venture with Telstra boss Vicki Brady.

AI can stop phones dropping out, Telstra boss says

Vicki Brady says the telco group’s customers have ‘no appetite’ for phone outages. Her $700 million Accenture deal shows it is getting serious about AI.

BDO chief executive partner Tony Schiffmann says the firm continues to attract top talent.

BDO poaches big-four talent as partnership hits record high

The country’s fifth-largest accounting firm by revenue has surpassed the 300-partner milestone as it ropes in staff from larger rivals.

December 2024

Are you guilty of using this year’s most awful jargon?

Here’s the past 12 months in words and phrases that professionals love to use, and what they’re really saying. We hope to never see any of them again.

New Alvarez & Marsal managing directors (from left): Paul Gallagher, Shahzeb Panhwar and Jayde Thompson.

‘Eat what you kill’: How this consultancy is taking on the big four

Alvarez & Marsal’s remuneration model means managing directors can potentially earn multiples of the average big four partner pay.

What Defence spent on consultants could run submarine fleet for a year

What would Defence’s $811 million in spending on the big five consulting firms in 2022-23 buy? Turns out the answer is quite a lot.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/big-four-consultants-1mq8