FT got a hell of a scoop this week, reporting that three senior partners at PwC US — one of whom was up to replace current top dog Tim Ryan when he exits this summer — have been stripped of their management roles after they committed “significant violations” of PwC’s leadership election rules.
Neil Dhar, who had been considered a frontrunner to replace Tim Ryan as US senior partner, was removed as a candidate in December and dropped from his role as co-leader of the US consulting business, said people familiar with the matter.
Two allies — John Garvey, PwC’s global financial services leader, and Julien Courbe, global chief client officer — had their management roles taken away at the same time, according to internal communications described to the Financial Times. Garvey announced his retirement last week.
¡Escandalo!
Their violations aren’t described in graphic detail by FT (thus robbing us of what could be some deliciously messy gossip) but the article does say:
PwC’s US election rules set limits on using partner meetings and electronic communications to campaign so that the race would not distract from the normal operations of the business.
Knock yourself out imagining what they did outside of the allowed campaigning. I’m leaning FONV Vault 11 type slander followed by threats of sacrifice.
@lore_tours Vault 11 had a pretty horrible experiment conducted on its inhabitants… #falloutlore #fallout #falloutnewvegas #videogames #fypシ #fyp #foryou #blowthisup #foryoupage #fallouttok #falloutvaults ♬ original sound – Lore Tours
When Bloomberg Tax reported the potential successors to Tim Ryan in January Neil Dhar didn’t make the list which makes sense if he got himself disqualified in December:
Kathryn Kaminsky, who co-leads the firm’s trust solutions practice; Jenny Koehler, PwC’s strategic growth and business development leader; and Paul Griggs, US markets leader, are currently the finalists for the role, according to multiple sources familiar with the nominating committee’s deliberations.
Last time we linked the above article PwC sent us both an urgent email and a Twitter DM to request a correction of the finalists’ titles so let’s preemptively do so:
Kathryn Kaminsky, US Trust Solutions Co-Leader, Jenny Koehler, Strategic growth and business development leader, Paul Griggs, US Markets and sponsor of My+ people strategy.
Paul Griggs ultimately came out on top.
“When concerns about our election were raised in November, consistent with our speak-up culture, those concerns were investigated objectively, our governance bodies responded and took prompt and appropriate action,” PwC US governance committee chair Ellen Walsh was quoted as saying. “The governance process worked as designed.”
Dhar appeared in a Forbes piece last year entitled “PwC Vice Chairman Offers Career Advice From His 30 Years Of Experience” in which he was asked what’s the secret sauce to staying in the same spot for three decades. He said:
Oh yeah, I remember that guy. Well, sucks for him I guess.
PwC strips partners of leadership roles over election rule breaches [Financial Times]
