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KPMG has selected Gary Wingrove as its next global chief executive, with the former head of its Australia business beating UK boss Jon Holt in the race to lead the 276,000-person firm, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Big Four accounting firm’s global board met in late February to discuss the candidates and recommended Wingrove, who is currently global chief operating officer of the $40bn-revenue operation, after an anonymous vote.
The decision is due to be ratified by the global council, a wider group of leaders of all of KPMG’s member firms, this month, according to the people familiar with the matter.
Holt, who had been viewed as an early favourite for the job, campaigned on a promise of transformation for the global firm after almost five years running KPMG in the UK, where he is seen as having repaired its reputation from a series of audit failures. He oversaw a successful merger of KPMG’s UK and Swiss firms.
Wingrove also set out a vision for running KPMG in a fast-changing industry, according to a person familiar with his pitch. He has been an architect of KPMG’s strategy to force consolidation among its national member firms since joining the global management team in January 2022.
Before that, he ran KPMG’s Australia business for eight years, including through the Covid-19 pandemic.
Unlike traditional companies, KPMG is structured as a network of locally owned partnerships that share a brand, under the global umbrella body that Wingrove will now lead.
The FT reported in January that Holt and Wingrove were in a two-person race to lead the organisation.
Wingrove had “been behind some of the most transformational aspects” of KPMG’s strategy in recent years, including closer integration and “multibillion-dollar investments in technology and AI”, according to a person familiar with the business.
The changes had helped KPMG to be the fastest-growing of the Big Four globally for the past two years, the person said, ahead of larger rivals Deloitte, EY and PwC. As leader of KPMG Australia, he oversaw a near-doubling of revenue, profits and headcount, the person added.
Another person familiar with the race said Holt had pitched himself as the more progressive candidate while Wingrove had been seen by some board members as a continuity candidate with operational strengths. “In the end the majority of the board opted for more of the same. Time will tell whether that’s the right choice,” the person said.
Holt plans to see out the last three years of his term at the helm of the 16,000-person UK firm, according to a person familiar with his thinking, scotching the possibility of an immediate leadership contest at KPMG’s second-largest member firm.
Many senior partners in the UK had been confident Holt would win the global job and had begun jostling for position in anticipation of a vacancy, with a number of candidates being seriously considered until last week, according to one person at the firm.
KPMG International has said its current boss Bill Thomas’s term runs until September 30. “KPMG International has a process under way for electing a new Chair & CEO, which will conclude when the . . . Global Council meets in March,” it said.