PwC America chair to quit, as its former Australian boss faces doubt over his answers to Senate probe

PwC USA’s Tim Ryan says he will leave to pursue other interests in June although the firm insists he’s unconnected to the Project North America tax scandal tearing at the Australian branch.

The turmoil at the top of PwC is continuing after the chair of the American arm of the audit and consulting giant, Tim Ryan, announced he would retire.

Mr Ryan, who has held the top job for eight years, has been seen by some as potentially linked to the tax scandal blighting the Australian arm due to the close co-operation of PwC USA’s tax partners and the sharing of confidential tax briefings within the firm.

This comes as questions linger over PwC and its current and past management after another bruising round of parliamentary hearings, after which senators said they were dissatisfied with evidence from former chief executive Luke Sayers over his knowledge of the tax leaks.

PwC sources said they were shocked by Mr Ryan’s announcement he would leave PwC USA in June next year after heading the business since 2016.

However, PwC has been briefing that Mr Ryan’s resignation has nothing to do with the tax leaks nor the firm’s response to the sharing of confidential information under the auspices of Project North America.

Project North America resulted in Australian tax partners working closely with their American and international colleagues in a bid to set up new tax structures for major tech clients ahead of laws being introduced in Australia in 2016.

Mr Ryan is understood to not be one of the six current and former PwC international staff linked to the tax leaks and the firm’s internal view is that he had no knowledge of Project North America.

In an email to staff Mr Ryan said he was leaving the firm at “a natural inflection point”.

“Simply stated, having seen so many of the challenges our clients and our society face, I have a strong desire to explore leadership opportunities outside the firm and help in a different way,” he said.

PwC global chair Bob Moritz.

Mr Ryan had been seen internally as the likely successor to PwC global chair Bob Moritz, who faces the expiry of his leadership term next year.

Mr Moritz has been key to PwC’s handling of the scandal looming over the Australian arm of the firm, wrapping up a whirlwind visit to Australia last month to meet with the audit and consulting giant’s local leadership and key clients.

This came as PwC prepared to unveil the findings of a review into the firm’s culture and governance prepared by corporate veteran Ziggy Switkowski.

PwC’s UK-based tax and legal services division boss, Carol Stubbings, who was a member of the firm’s clean-up crew that was rushed in to deal with the tax scandal in Australia, is now in the running to replace Mr Moritz.

Ms Stubbings flew into Australia earlier this year as the firm grappled with the revelations its former head of international tax, Peter Collins, had shared confidential government tax briefings with work colleagues.

Meanwhile, senators running the inquiry into the firm’s misuse of confidential tax information told The Australian they were not satisfied with responses given by Mr Sayers to questions about his alleged links to the tax scandal.

Australian Taxation Office deputy commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn.

Mr Sayers, who appeared before the Senate inquiry last Thursday, has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the tax leaks.

The veteran corporate player, who runs his own consulting house after leaving PwC in 2020 after eight years at the top, attempted to push back on any suggestion he had knowledge of the tax leaks.

The committee has previously heard from the Australian Taxation Office that the regulator tried to raise PwC’s misuse of confidential information with Mr Sayers.

ATO deputy commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn has said repeatedly he sought to raise a tranche of emails with Mr Sayers which showed PwC staff discussing confidential information, urging him in meetings to “look at the emails”.

However, Mr Sayers denied he looked at the emails or that he knew they detailed PwC’s misuse of confidential information.

Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill said she was “absolutely not convinced” regarding Mr Sayers’ evidence to the committee, and said he was “trying to thread the needle with giving as little information as possible”.

“Mr Sayers was clearly prepared to come and defend his personal reputation; what he wasn’t willing to do is take responsibility for everything that happened on his watch,” she said.

Mr Sayers faced attempts by PwC on Thursday last week to paint him as key to the tax leaks.

PwC Australia’s new CEO, Kevin Burrows, said there had been “failures of leadership” under Mr Sayers, and that the firm had “found itself in a terrible position because of a failure of leadership”.

Greens Senator Barbara Pocock questions PwC chief executive Kevin Burrowes. Picture: Martin Ollman

“Clearly many things went really badly wrong with our firm over many years, the responsibility for that has to sit with the CEO,” Mr Burrows told the committee.

Greens Senator Barbara Pocock said she was unconvinced by Mr Sayers’ evidence “that he bore no responsibility”.

“There is no way that a leader using the information that was used by Peter Collins would not have been aware of what he was selling as a solution of those multinational clients,” she said.

“I think there’s a great deal of evidence casting doubt on Mr Sayers’ protestations.”