Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

EY Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Parts IV and V

Posted on by Jason Bramwell

In today’s edition of “Big 4-on-Big 4 Poaching From Around the World,” we’re focusing on the strategy consulting arms of PwC and EY in Australia, as Miles Tam recently left PwC’s Strategy& as a director to join the partnership at EY Port Jackson Partners.

In addition, EY Port Jackson Partners lured Chris Paxton away from PwC.

Miles Tam

What the hell is EY Port Jackson Partners? I had to look it up because I had no clue. Apparently EY bought Port Jackson Partners last June and added its team of principals and directors to its global strategy consulting practice EY-Parthenon, which if you recall was ranked the best Big 4 consulting practice to work for in 2021 by Vault.

EY Port Jackson Partners went on a hiring spree recently, adding four new partners, including Tam, who joined PwC in Australia in May 2009, and Paxton, who had worked for P. Dubs since 2014.

The website Consultancy.com.au reported on what Tam brings to the table:

Miles Tam has been working in consulting his entire career. After working for Accenture and Australian boutique Mainsheet (corporate advisory), he joined PwC in 2009. Over the past decade he has served the firm’s Strategy and Deals practices, and more recently joined Strategy& (which formed after PwC acquired Booz & Company).

Tam specialises in corporate and business unit strategy for ASX 250 companies and commercial due diligence for private equity firms, with a focus on clients in the consumer goods, logistics, mining, manufacturing, telecommunications, aviation and pharmaceuticals sectors.

Chris Paxton

Paxton currently heads retail and consumer advisory for Strategy& and is also a deals partner at PwC, according to the Australian Financial Review, which added that Paxton will join EY in the middle of this year.

Once he gets to EY Port Jackson Partners, “Paxton will focus on engagements in the retail and consumer sectors, and the firm’s commercial due diligence offering—his track record includes delivering over 200 buy and sell side engagements for local and international private equity clients,” according to Consultancy.com.au.

Strategy consultancy EY Port Jackson Partners hires new partners [Consultancy.com.au]
Former top Victorian health bureaucrat Kym Peake joins EY [Australian Financial Review]

Related article:

Vault Consulting 50: Deloitte’s Reign Over the Big 4 Has Ended (2021)

Related Posts

Layoff Watch ’10: More Details on Ernst & Young

Thumbnail image for ey8ball.jpgWe have some additional details to share with you to supplement last Friday’s post on E&Y’s New Year layoffs.
While we were surprised at the timing, a source has indicated to us that IT Risk and Assurance layoffs have occurred at the firm each January since 2008. This is due to a serious drop off in utilization in the new year after high utilization in the fall months with the exception of especially in the audit heavy ITRA practices.
In regards to the audit practice, we spoke to another source over the weekend that told us that layoffs would not occur until after busy season but assured us that they are being planned.
Finally, in response to one comment asking about severance details, we were informed that the severance for those let go is a week’s pay for each year of service with a minimum of 4 weeks pay. This seems to be fairly standard (with a few variations) amongst the Big 4.
We’ve received word on some positions cut but we’re still awaiting further details so if you have any information or can provide more insight discuss below or get in touch and we’ll update them here.
UPDATE: A source has indicated that three IT Advisory managers in FSO in New York were included in the cuts.

Hiring Watch ’19: EY Is Looking for Warm Bodies to Fill New Tax and Tech Jobs In Nashville

Back in November, EY and Tennessee state officials made a big to-do about the Big […]

Are Ernst & Young and PwC Neck and Neck in the Compensation Race?

From the mailbag:

I heard some scoop and wanted to share with my fellow indentured servants in the big 4 field. Word on the street is that P-dubs gave 10% raises to staff 2s becoming senior 1s (early promote) and 16% raises to staff 3s becoming senior 1s.

However, P-dubs doesn’t hand out the 5k bonus that Uncle Ernies offers to its staff 2s becoming senior 1s. I’d like to see how EY will top this, per an earlier promise from a partner that EY raises will be higher than P-dubs (maybe can some low performing partners?). In addition, the variance between average performers and high performers at P-dubs is only .6% (not significant at all).


If you forgot what this is referring to, back in April we reported a tip out of the Ernstiverse that a partner had claimed that the raises at E&Y would beat PwC’s. The reports out of PwC have been better than expected, although not for everyone.

So if this partner’s prognostication holds up, how will they pull it off down the stretch? Seems like a good question. Conversations are going on right now and the official news will reportedly be out in a couple weeks.

Since we’ve got half of the Big 4 involved here we’ll just mention that the belly aching at KPMG is in full force on the bonus front but maybe there’s hope for a strong move down the stretch?

As for Deloitte, apparently communication has occurred for promotions but it sounds like word on comp could be more than a month out. If you’ve got the scoop get in touch with the details and discuss this four horse race but as it stands right now, it looks as if PwC has E&Y by a nose.