KPMG Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Parts XII and XIII

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Jason Bramwell

In today’s edition of “Big 4-on-Big 4 Poaching From Around the World,” we have two more examples of PwCers hoping the grass is more greener at KPMG.

First, we go to Scotland where Rob Aitken left PwC to become KPMG’s newest transaction services director in Aberdeen. The website Insider.co.uk got some information about KPMG of the Scottish variety’s latest hire:

Rob Aitken will be based at the firm’s new city centre offices in Aberdeen, providing support to a range of clients, including energy firms, as they navigate their way through the region’s transition towards a low-carbon economy.

With almost 20 years’ experience, he joins KPMG from PwC in Aberdeen.

Aitken commented: “Oil and gas and energy services will remain critical to the Scottish economy for decades to come, but on a path that embraces the goal of net zero and carbon neutrality; the entrepreneurial spirit of the North East will be critical to this success.

“Scotland is fortunate to have a wide mix of business across several sectors and it is exciting to work across these as we return to a growth economy.”

Aitken definitely has the bona fides for his new role, given his experience in dealing with clients in the oil and gas sector.

He was most recently a senior manager in PwC’s Transaction Services U.K. Oil and Gas team and said he was a “buy and sell side diligence provider/deals advisor specialising in the Oil and Gas sector – including Exploration and Production and Oilfield Services,” according to his LinkedIn profile.

Aitken also spent time as a manager and senior manager of assurance at PwC.

Next we go to the United Arab Emirates where Big 4 veteran Firas Haddad recently left the partnership at PwC to become partner of internal audit, risk, and compliance services at KPMG Lower Gulf.

According to the website Consultancy-me.com, Haddad will be based in KPMG’s One Central offices in Dubai, where he will be responsible for clients in the government, public sector, tourism and hospitality, aviation, and economic development sectors, as well as large family business dispersed across the region.

He’s now set foot in 75% of the Big 4 firms and cut his accounting teeth at Arthur Andersen:

After starting his career with Arthur Andersen, he then went on to work for EY (which acquired Arthur Andersen in the Middle East in 2001), and most recently PwC for thirteen years, of which the past eight years as a partner.

At the Big Four firm, he led its Business Controls and Enterprise Risk offering with a specific focus on digitisation. His expertise also covers advising clients in setting up and transforming enterprise risk management, professionalisation of the internal audit function, business control, regulatory compliance, financial governance, and outsourcing/co-sourcing of financial and accounting processes.

KPMG appoints transaction services director in Aberdeen [Insider.co.uk]
Firas Haddad joins KPMG’s Lower Gulf partner team [Consultancy-me.com]

KPMG

KPMG’s Risk Management Ad Jumps, Climbs and Flies but Misses the Point

GoingConcern
July 16, 2010

Just as Washington is finally passing a bill that will reduce unnecessary risk-taking by financial institutions, here comes this commercial from KPMG in the UK doing the opposite. KPMG parties like it was 2005 and sub-prime was a bad cut of steaks. The commercial celebrates risk-taking in a manner that only a BP executive could rationalize deepwater offshore drilling.

Almost everything is wrong with this commercial:

Its heroes, a man and a woman, presumably KPMG employees, are living in a risky world. Risk is all around them, from the moment they get up. But don’t worry. These two nitwits know how to engage in risk management. Mostly in jingle and parkour, in fact.

Wikipedia tells us that Parkour “is where participants jump, vault, and climb over obstacles in a fluid manner. Skills such as jumping and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves are employed. The object of parkour is to get from one place to another using only the human body and the objects in the environment. The obstacles can be anything in one’s environment but parkour is often seen practiced in urban areas because of the many suitable public structures available such as buildings and rails.”

The two heroes run, jump, flip over and take maniacal risks along the way to the office. Along the way the tag line, “Turn Risk Into Advantage”, is reinforced by embedded messages, in case we did not get the main theme”: “Know Risk, Know Reward”, “Do You Have The Risk Appetite For Success?” “Always Be Ready For The Unexpected.”

I actually like the “Turn Risk Into Advantage.” It is clever, memorable, and summarizes nicely what corporations are seeking in risk management advice. Yet it is completely overshadowed by the flip execution and the manner that suggests that KPMG employees, and by extension KPMG, take risks haphazardly.

Besides being out of context and lacking a narrative, the commercial ends on a cheesy note: upon arriving into the KPMG office and performing obligatory back flips, the couple race up the stairs, looks over the rail, look at each other, smile, and decide not to jump and take the elevator instead. This is a sensible move, perhaps the first one in this commercial.

Risk management is an essential practice, and perhaps as this advertising suggests, more in need than ever. Yet, it is not clear to me why the issue cannot be addressed heads on and intelligently. The irrelevant “packaging” simply detracts from the appeal of the practice.

Avi Dan is President & CEO of Avidan Strategies, a New York based consultancy specialized in advising professional service companies on marketing and business development. Mr. Dan was previously a board member with two leading advertising agencies and managed another.