PwC has picked the head of its international advisory business, Mohamed Kande, to be its next chair, putting the Big Four accounting firm in the hands of a consulting partner for the first time.
Mr Kande’s selection by PwC’s global board was revealed to partners on Monday, according to people familiar with the internal message. It will need to be ratified by member firms in individual countries in the coming weeks, after which Mr Kande would take over from current chair Bob Moritz, whose tenure expires in June.
Mr Kande came to PwC 12 years ago via its acquisition of consulting firm PRTM; he holds the title of vice-chair of the US consulting business as well as global advisory leader.
The race for global chair was thrown open last month when PwC’s US senior partner, Tim Ryan, unexpectedly took his name out of contention, breaking the tradition of the head of the American firm being elevated to the job.
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Some partners outside the US had queried whether Mr Ryan’s hands-on and demanding management style was suited to a global role that involves marrying the sometimes competing interests of PwC member firms across the world.
In common with its Big Four rivals, PwC operates as a network of locally owned partnerships, with the global operation largely limited to imposing common standards and managing the brand.
One person familiar with the selection process said Mr Kande had demonstrated an “ability to bring collaborative solutions for our network”.
PwC employs about 364,000 people globally and generated revenues of $53.1 billion (€50 billion) in the 12 months to June. Like each of the other Big Four accounting firms – Deloitte, EY and KPMG – it audits the financial statements of close to a quarter of the world’s biggest companies and generates tens of billions of dollars from consultancy and tax advice.
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The new global chair will have to wrestle with the fallout from a scandal in Australia after it was revealed that a former partner misused confidential information about the government’s tax plans. The incident exposed the limits of the global leadership’s oversight over member firms.
There are also persistent questions over the structure of the Big Four firms, which marry audit and tax work with giant consulting businesses. The global leaders of rival EY pushed to split that firm in two, but the plan was nixed by opposition in its US audit business.
Mr Moritz had consistently ruled out PwC making a similar attempt, and people familiar with the selection process said all the candidates to replace him affirmed their commitment to keeping audit and consulting together.
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Mr Kande, a naturalised American who grew up in the Cote d’Ivoire and moved to France aged 16, has spoken about his diverse background and how what could be considered obstacles in fact add useful perspective to a business career.
“I am a black man. I am an immigrant. I speak English with a French accent. And my name is Mohamed,” he wrote in 2021. “Given these factors, success – or even a presence – in corporate America was far from preordained, to say the least.”
A PwC spokesperson said the global board “undertakes a thorough succession planning, assessment, and ratification process to appoint the network chair. That process is still under way, and we do not plan to comment on the outcome until it is concluded later this year.” – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023
