Three new partners reflect changing needs

Friday 14 June 2013
News release

Three new partners reflect the changing needs of New Zealand’s businesses

Doing business in New Zealand and with the rest of the world has never been more complex and fast changing.

To adapt to the evolving market, PwC New Zealand is bolstering its partnership team in response to its clients asking for more business support across a greater number of specialised areas.

The New Zealand firm will admit three new partners to the firm from 1 July 2013, to bring its total number of full equity partners to 112.

PwC New Zealand’s Chief Executive Officer Bruce Hassall says, “We’re continuing to gear up for growth, investing in areas of our business and adding capacity where we can see demand is strong.

“As our clients grapple with new challenges, competitors, costs, regulations and markets, it’s the more specialised business areas where we see the greatest potential to add value to our clients and develop our business.

“In the same way, we advise our clients to continually review and adapt their business and delivery models to meet market conditions, we at PwC are transforming our business in the same vein.”

Mr Hassall says one of the biggest challenges for businesses today is to maintain and retain key talent and develop the next generation of leaders.

“Today’s leaders must be able to do it all. I’m confident our newly appointed partners have the strong technical and leadership skills, and ability to work across industries, we need to ensure our business is agile and robust,” concludes Mr Hassall.

Kevin Brown and Andrew Holmes will join PwC’s Assurance team, while Callum Dixon will sit in the firm’s Advisory practice, working across the financial services sector, effective 1 July 2013.

Here’s a snapshot of PwC New Zealand’s three new partners:

• Kevin Brown –Wellington Financial Assurance practice
With PwC’s Wellington Financial Assurance practice gearing up for further growth, Kevin’s promotion will give the practice the additional capacity it needs to focus on developing its people and business.

Kevin has a broad range of skills and expertise, developed by working across a diverse portfolio of clients. A specialist in the retail and insurance sectors, he’s responsible for the majority of Wellington’s clients in this area.

He also has a strong interest in the oil and gas industry and is growing his involvement in this high potential sector for the Wellington practice.

Kevin joined PwC New Zealand on a secondment from the UK firm (Southampton office) in 2004, never returning home.

• Callum Dixon – Advisory, Financial Services
Callum Dixon is multifaceted, and works in both PwC’s Advisory and Assurance practice areas providing treasury, finance and assurance services to his clients.

His highly specialised skill set allows him to work in the high growth area of Financial Risk and the technical area of large banking audits.

Callum joined PwC New Zealand in 2002 as a graduate, following two summer internships with the firm. He has gained experience working in the Cayman Islands and London during this time.

• Andrew Holmes – Auckland Assurance, Risk Controls Solutions (RCS)
With his blend of financial, risk management and IT related skills, Andrew Holmes will focus on growing the RCS practice further to meet future market needs.

His skill-set fits across the internal audit, risk management and systems process assurance areas of the business.

His professional career began in 1999 when he joined PwC South Africa, where he also undertook secondments to the US and UK firms. Later in 2005, he joined Toyota South Africa Motors as the Head of Internal Audit, and was subsequently promoted to head of Risk and Controls.

In 2007, he rejoined PwC in the US, where he served some of our most important global clients and also undertook a number of leadership roles, before transferring to PwC New Zealand in 2010.

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