ACCOUNTING firm PKF has bolstered its tax consulting practice by recruiting Craig Melville from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
ACCOUNTING firm PKF has bolstered its tax consulting practice by recruiting Craig Melville from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Mr Melville’s move adds to a series of senior staff losses at PwC.
In each case, the staff leaving PwC have been able to move to a more senior role at a smaller firm.
Mr Melville, a former director of corporate tax at PwC, has been appointed a partner at PKF.
Other recent departures from PwC’s tax division include Michael Webb, who established a specialist firm, Indirect Tax Consulting, and Greg Fitzgerald, who joined Deloitte as a tax partner.
PwC managing partner Andrew Edwards described the recent departures as “part of the natural process of things”.
“Sometimes these things are concertinaed,” he said.
“You can go through a couple of years when nobody leaves.”
Mr Edwards said it was business as usual at PwC’s tax division, which has four partners and about 40 staff.
PKF managing partner Neil Smith said Mr Melville’s appointment would substantially strengthen PKF’s capabilities.
“It is an important step towards moving our firm to be clearly recognised in the Western Australian market as a genuine alternative to the Big 4 accounting firms, enabling us to approach mid sized to larger corporates on tax consulting matters with the confidence of knowing we have the depth of talent and resource to service their needs,” Mr Smith said.
Tax consulting partner Mark Pollock said Mr Melville’s appointment followed three other recent senior appointments at PKF.
“We believe we now have a team of tax specialists that can provide a tremendous, all round tax consulting service to our clients,” he said.
“In addition to Craig, we recently appointed Geoff Webb as principal of indirect taxes, Dennis Graesslin as manager of research and development and government incentives, and Andrew Smith was promoted to principal last year.”
In other accounting moves, PKF’s former insolvency team has set up a new practice trading as Dickson Carello Chartered Accountants.
It comprises partners Richard Dickson and John Carello and managers Jane Vogan and Chris Daws.
