Saw this article by Bloomberg Law/Tax that said EY is getting a new assurance leader on April 1, went to look it up on the Google machine but EY’s landing page is missing.
Clicking this…
…gets you this:
Hmm alright, let’s try that again with a different series of search terms. There it is!
EY announced today that EY Americas Assurance Financial Services Leader Joe Link has been appointed the new EY Americas Vice Chair – Assurance, effective April 1. He’s taking over for Dante D’Egidio who will be moving on up to US managing partner.
The resume and the obligatory complementary quote from a powerful colleague:
Joe Link
With nearly three decades of experience in the global financial services marketplace, Link is recognized as a strategic executive and innovative leader, previously holding direct oversight for the financial performance and growth of the EY Americas Assurance Financial Services practice. He has provided assurance and advisory services to Fortune 500 public companies and supported organizations through IPO-readiness efforts. He also brings extensive governance experience, having advised boards, audit committees and senior management on complex business issues.
“Joe’s unwavering commitment to audit quality, innovation and developing our people, combined with his strategic perspective and decisive leadership, positions him well to lead the EY Americas Assurance practice into the future,” says Dante D’Egidio, EY Americas and US Managing Partner and CEO-elect. “I am confident he will accelerate our transformation, strengthen our culture and continue to build trust through the work we deliver every day.”
As EY Americas Vice Chair – Assurance, Link will lead a practice of almost 30,000 professionals and play a pivotal role in shaping the EY Americas Assurance strategy. In this position, he will champion exceptional client service and deepen the connection between all EY industry and service line offerings, delivering high-quality insights that help clients navigate today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. He will continue to build on the transformation and growth of the practice by prioritizing audit quality, accelerating AI and technology capabilities, fostering a strong culture of teaming across advisory and audit practices and developing the next generation of EY leaders.
“I am honored to step into this role and lead the Assurance practice at a time when trust, transparency and technological transformation are reshaping expectations for our profession,” said the EY Americas Vice Chair – Assurance-elect. “I look forward to working with our talented teams to continue delivering audit quality, advancing innovation through the thoughtful adoption of AI and technology and supporting confidence in the capital markets and the clients we serve.”
Current official EY catchphrase “all in” appears exactly zero times in the press release. Guess they’re not going to spam that one everywhere like they did with building a better working world.
Okay then! Not exactly what you’d want to hear from a former SEC Chairman on Monday but what’s a former SEC honcho to do? Paint a rosy picture for everyone? Hell no! The man is gong to get real about this latest bank/accounting firm disaster. Barron’s ran down Harv to get his $0.02 on the whole Lehman/E&Y sitch and he he laid it out for Dick Fuld, E&Y, et al. as how to best handle this dicey situation.
Regarding the timing of a response to the report, you best explain yourselves ASAP and while you’re at it, none of that fancy-schmancy language. Everyone needs to be able to understand this:
If they want to avoid the logical consequences of the Report’s conclusions-and none of those consequences are at all good for either Fuld or E&Y-they will need to come forward quickly with a very plain, easily understandable explanation of the errors or their defenses. The longer it takes them to do that, the less likelihood they will have of mitigating the publicity the Report’s allegations have already received.
Consequences, you ask? How about indictments? How about no more SEC clients for E&Y? Next Andersen? Maybe! Shockingly, the SEC seems to be dragging its feet, per the usual standard operating procedure (emphasis original):
Many are wondering why there hasn’t been any action taken, and why the government hasn’t reported on the same events itself. Criminal prosecutions are possible, as are SEC civil actions. For Fuld, an SEC action could mean that he would forfeit his right to participate in the securities industry and possible disgorgement of monies he received over the years from Lehman. For E&Y, the SEC has the power to suspend their right to practice accounting, limit their ability to take on new clients, and impose remedial sanctions.
Yeah, that last part is kind of the crux. As you may recall, Andersen did not bite the dust because of the money it had to pay to Enron investors but because it’s reputation took such a bad hit that states began revoking their license even before the firm voluntarily surrendered its license to practice before the SEC. This occurred after Andersen clients started running away from the firm like a band of lepers. There’s no indication that’s what will happen to E&Y but there’s a 2,200 page report with E&Y’s name all over that says nothing flattering about the firm.
And say what you want about Harvey Pitt: bearded Bush yes-man, lawyer, whatever. As far as we can tell, he has nothing to gain by throwing out wild-ass speculation about what the possible outcomes could be.
We received several reports over the weekend and today about regional restructuring at Ernst & Young that will go into effect on January 1.
The majority of the North Central region will combine with the Mid-Atlantic region to form the new “East-Central” region, while the Toledo and Detroit offices will join the Midwest region. One source has told GC that this move is “an effort to reduce infrastructure and we should not be distracted from our client serving duties.”
We have also confirmed that the Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest regions will combine into a single “West” region. Again, sources indicating this move is an attempt to reduce overhead costs, saying “Lots a current senior leadership will be moved around,” as a result of this consolidation.
Both regions have seen significant layoffs just in the past month, and reports as recently as December 9th for the North Central. Some may go so far to say that the layoffs were a precursor to these plans but that’s speculative sport on our part.
We reached out to an E&Y Spokesperson who said that the firm prefers not to comment on internal matters.
E&Y’s restructuring follows a major restructuring at KPMG that we reported on earlier this year which saw several leadership changes and rumors of the firm consolidating down to two regions in the U.S.
One of our sources indicated that more news is expected this week so if you have any further details on these changes, get in touch with us, and discuss your thoughts in the comments.
2 thoughts on “EY Is Bumping Up a Financial Services Leader to the Big Assurance Chair”
This shows how elite the financial service group is. Most high end leaders come from this area.
2
Hi name is Joe Link, you click the link and it doesn’t work.
Made me laugh in accounting language
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This shows how elite the financial service group is. Most high end leaders come from this area.
Hi name is Joe Link, you click the link and it doesn’t work.
Made me laugh in accounting language