Former Grant Thornton partner Matthew Donnelly and former Perth Airport executive Fiona Lander have brought to seven the number of external recruits to join Deloitte’s Perth partnership in the past five months, offsetting moves by other partners such as Jenn Morris, who has retired from the firm.
The flurry of recruits means Deloitte continues to have more partners than any other accounting firm in Western Australia, though it is not the largest when ranked by numbers of professional accounting staff.
EY remains the largest accounting firm in Perth with 60 partners and 655 professional staff, according to updated data in the BNiQ Search Engine (see table).
Deloitte, which has both equity and non-equity partners, is number two with 64 partners and 547 professional staff.
It is followed by ‘big 4’ firms PwC and KPMG, and RSM.
Deloitte managing partner Michael McNulty said the tough market conditions of recent years had created an opportunity to grow.
“The reality is, if you are going to outgrow your competition and execute on strategy, it’s times like this you can find some really good people,” he said.
“We’re taking advantage of that opportunity.”
Mr Donnelly has joined Deloitte’s restructuring practice after 20 years at Grant Thornton, most recently as Perth managing partner.
Ms Lander has joined after six years at Perth Airport, where she was executive general manager, external affairs and information technology.
Mr McNulty said recruiting Ms Lander was a key part of Deloitte’s investment in its public sector practice in Western Australia.
Deloitte’s public sector leadership is also changing hands, with consulting partner and former Hockeyroo Jenn Morris retiring from the firm after being appointed a non-executive dirctor at Fortescue Metals Group late last year.
She has handed over the public sector lead to Deloitte Access Economics partner Matt Judkins.
The recruitment of Ms Lander follows Deloitte’s acquisition of boutique corporate finance practice Torridon Partners last November.
That deal included Torridon co-founders Neville Gardiner and Jeremy Carlberg becoming partners in Deloitte’s financial advisory practice.
Around the same time last year, Deloitte appointed Bernadette Cullinane and Nigel Court as partners after recruiting them from consulting firm Accenture.
Mr McNulty said Ms Cullinane would play a thought leadership role focused on the oil and gas sector, while Mr Court would lead large-scale business transformation projects.
Another external recruit in recent month was former PwC tax partner Will Campbell.
