The 46 partners at KPMG had no doubts about who should lead the firm for the next three years. When Mr Jerome Kennedy's second term as managing partner was coming to an end, they urged him to give it another shot and commit to leading the organisation until May 2004.

The 52-year-old Co Limerick man says he mulled over his options last autumn before deciding there was no reason to move on. "I said to myself, I like what I am doing, I like the people I work with and KPMG is a successful place to work. Why look at doing something else?"

As he settles into his seventh year as managing partner, Mr Kennedy is focused on building a strong management team to lead the organisation for the future and to ensure the business is capable of responding to a rapidly changing business environment.

These days KPMG prefers to describe itself as a business advisory firm rather than an accountancy practice, reflecting the growth in demand for services such as corporate finance and tax advisory work rather than auditing.

"A lot has changed in the past 30 years. Stokes Kennedy Crowley, which eventually became KPMG, had been a very successful firm operating in a business that was much easier to define. Things didn't change so rapidly."

KPMG's clients, which include ESB, Ryanair, Irish Life and Permanent and Aer Rianta, now require more complex services and are more demanding of the firm and its staff in terms of what they need.

Mr Kennedy sits on KPMG's European board and is a member of the firm's worldwide council which, he says, is very useful in generating ideas and sharing experiences to plan and organise the business to satisfy these demands.

The expectations of its staff have also greatly changed with newer members demanding a greater involvement in running the business and plenty of opportunities to find an alternative career path that will satisfy these ambitions if KPMG fails to.

"The six years have been challenging and exciting, and I'd like to think it has been very successful. I get a huge buzz and challenge from the people around me. Yes, they challenge me, yes they stretch me but I enjoy working with them."

During his tenure, KPMG's fee income has more than doubled and its consulting arm has been floated on Nasdaq, netting millions for Mr Kennedy and the firm's partners.

In 1995, SKC as it was then known, generated fee income of around £36 million (#45.7 million) from its clients. Last year that rose to more than £80 million, with Mr Kennedy forecasting it will come in at around £75 million this year. The reduction reflects the loss of income from its consultancy operations that now form part of an independent US public company.

The Irish firm was the only non-US part of the global KPMG group to join in the Nasdaq flotation earlier this year. It seized the opportunity to become part of a public company with its US colleagues and realised £30 million for its 46 partners in Ireland.

In terms of the next three years, Mr Kennedy is realistic that the rate of growth in the Irish economy will be slower while uncertainty over the health of the US economy in particular will depress revenues over the coming months. Nonetheless he is optimistic the setback will be short term.

"There is uncertainty at the moment. Companies are holding back on spending decisions and a lot will depend on whether confidence is restored in the autumn." This will affect the growth of KPMG but he insists there is still plenty of scope for expansion.

"Our growth levels will moderate from pretty extraordinary levels over the past six years. We will continue to grow strongly achieving early to mid-teens growth compared to over 20 per cent last year. So there are still a lot of opportunities for us."

Mr Kennedy was relatively unknown within Dublin financial circles when he took the top job in 1995 from his high-profile predecessor, Mr Ron Bolger.

Most of his career with the firm was spent in Cork. After 20 years, the move to Dublin was a wrench, particularly for his daughters. But he has fulfilled his ambitions.

"Cork is a great business city. Cork people are very entrepreneurial. It was a great place to learn and a wonderful spot in the summer time.

"The move to Dublin was tremendous for me. It was a great opportunity to do something that was both personally and professionally challenging and has been enormously satisfying. We still go back to Cork in the summer."

It was a huge transition to assume control of a business that now has 1,100 staff compared with around 50 in Cork.

"It was quite a change because I was moving from a position where I had a level of management responsibility but a high degree of involvement in providing services to clients to one where I manage client relationships and all other aspects of the business."

When his third term ends, Mr Kennedy will be 55 and will probably follow so many of his predecessors by taking up lucrative directorships at Irish companies. He insists he is not looking that far ahead with a career within KPMG internationally also an option. "I have been lucky in so far as any time I have begun to wonder what to do, an opportunity has arisen. I am not going to chase a new career at this stage. I am focused on securing a strong team at KPMG to build on our success," he says.