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Deloitte partners are expecting a leadership battle in the Big Four firm’s UK business as part of an overhaul that will join up its European and Middle East businesses.
UK senior partner Richard Houston has been pushing for a sweeping overhaul of Deloitte’s network of national member firms that would fold more of them into an expanded regional unit, according to current and former partners.
Houston, who is also chief executive of Deloitte’s North and South Europe region — a looser grouping of about 30 national firms that excludes some large countries such as France and Germany — was expected to serve until the summer of 2027, when his second four-year term expires.
As part of the planned shake-up he is being lined up to vault to a senior role at the helm of a new Europe and Middle East structure, a move that would fire the starting gun on a race to take up his vacant seat, the partners said.
The planned overhaul to Deloitte’s structure requires partner approval in each country, with members of the UK firm having been polled last week, according to the partners.
The two frontrunners to succeed Houston should he be elevated to a new role are Charindra Pathiwille, who heads the firm’s deals business and is known simply as “CP”, and Darren Graves, who leads the tax and legal division.
Houston overhauled the firm’s UK leadership in 2022, replacing half of the 16-person executive team. The changes were driven partly by a desire to replace older members of the management team with partners who would be young enough to run for election to replace him.
If the restructuring is approved, partners will vote on Houston’s successor.
Deloitte’s partnership council will decide which candidates should be put on the ballot, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
It is not yet certain whether partners will be given more than one candidate to vote for, as there has already been a process to take “soundings” on preferred successors to Houston from across the partnership in recent months.
The vote on restructuring is widely expected to pass, with one person familiar with the process saying that although partners at each member firm needed to agree to join the new structure, it would be “political death” for the leader of a national firm in Europe to persuade their members to vote against joining the new regional bloc.
Deloitte, in line with most large accounting firms, operates as a network of national partnerships separately owned and managed by the senior partners in each country, which are grouped into looser regional units and overseen by a global umbrella body.
But the network model used by the Big Four, which also includes EY, KPMG and PwC, has become increasingly strained amid a need for substantial technology investments. Other large networks including KPMG and BDO have begun overhauling their own structures.
It is not yet clear whether the new Europe and Middle East structure would lead to greater profit-sharing between Deloitte’s national firms.
Houston currently presides over a group of 30 European and Middle Eastern firms, with 75,000 staff and 3,000 partners, called Deloitte North and South Europe. The reorganisation is expected to include a larger number of firms in the region, according to three people with knowledge of the plans.
Houston’s push for closer integration was prompted by multinational companies demanding professional services firms operate seamlessly across borders, according to one executive. The more streamlined structure will also aid the firm’s move to roll out AI tools cohesively.
Since being elected in 2019, Houston has overseen the addition of Deloitte Middle East to the North and South Europe grouping and led closer integration of its member firms.