Day one as our new CEO - along with our 44 new Partners and 1,522 EY promotes!

Today marks a special day, not just for me, but for 44 new partners of EY Australia and EY New Zealand. I am proud to begin my first day as the EY Oceania CEO with these colleagues and I hope they continue to enjoy rewarding careers at a place that I truly believe is a great place to work.

However, firstly, I’d like to thank our people who have transitioned back to remote work in such a professional manner as a result of recent COVID-19 outbreaks. These developments are a timely reminder of the challenges that we continue to face as a community and the seamless transition back to remote work over the past week is greatly appreciated by our clients and colleagues.

I’d also like to pay tribute to our outgoing EY Oceania CEO, and my friend, Tony Johnson. Tony has been a mentor to many of us over the years and he leaves behind an organisation that is more agile, bold and confident. Tony helped steer the firm through many challenges and leaves a strong foundation for future opportunity. I have no doubt that Tony will continue to make a positive contribution to Australia’s business community and wider society in his next pursuits as an alumni and ambassador of our organisation.

As I have prepared to take on the role of CEO over the past few months, I have reflected deeply about our organisation and the journey ahead. I have a feeling of excitement, optimism and opportunity about our future. We remain in a privileged position to assist our clients navigate the disruption imposed by the ongoing pandemic and that is reflected in the organisation’s opportunities for growth and expansion.

Over the past few weeks, I have thought about the 9,403 dedicated individuals that make up our organisation who turn up each day and bring everything they have in service of each other and our clients. I have thought about the culture that makes our organisation a special and unique place. It’s my hope we can all continue to work together to build and improve on these attributes that make our organisation a great place to build a career. As a ‘boomerang’ – someone who many years ago left EY and then returned – I know that the thing that drew me back was our great culture and the buzz I get working with our great people across EY.

Since the announcement of my appointment, I have also been listening and learning from colleagues around the organisation and I plan to continue this task over the coming months. I look forward to these ongoing conversations that will no doubt ensure our organisation remains purposeful, bold and connected. ??

Further, I’d like to extend a warm welcome to our 44 new partners today. Our people are our greatest asset. I am confident that each one of our new partners will make a positive contribution to our firm, our clients and our culture.

In addition to our 44 new partners, I would also like to congratulate our 1,522 people across EY who today were promoted – a big milestone for all of you!

One of the great attributes about EY is our commitment to teaming and encouraging people to work across service lines to deliver the very best for our clients. I know each of our new partners will continue to build on this important culture. Reflecting our growing capabilities as an organisation, our new partners hail from right across the organisation, in areas such as digital, data analytics, cyber, technology, tax, climate change & sustainability, audit, transactions and workforce. ?

Finally, I am particularly proud of our ongoing efforts to build a more diverse EY organisation. This year 43% of our partner promotes and 50% of our non-partner promotes are women. I am proud of our ongoing efforts to bring greater diversity to the partnership and across the firm, and I look forward to building on the progress made in recent years on this important task.

The full list of new Partners is below.??

The views expressed in this article are the views of the author, not Ernst & Young. This article provides general information, does not constitute advice and should not be relied on as such. Professional advice should be sought prior to any action being taken in reliance on any of the information. Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.