KPMG’s newly installed chairman Michael Ebeid will have to find multiple new board members willing to help reform the embattled consultancy after one independent director quietly quit and another signalled her intention to resign within months.
KPMG director Patty Akopiantz quietly left the firm’s regional board last month, following former NSW premier Mike Baird’s exit in September, and fellow independent director Jane Hemstritch is expected to resign once replacements have been found.
The departures will give KPMG a chance to refresh its leadership in the wake of its whistleblower scandal, but also show the challenge it faces in attracting credentialled professionals as the saga gets worse over time.
KPMG has been in crisis since Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill revealed allegations from a whistleblower that the firm had misused confidential client information in an attempt to win work. Many of the whistleblower’s most serious claims have since been confirmed despite KPMG initially repeatedly downplaying them.
Akopiantz’s departure was not publicly announced, but documents released by parliament on Tuesday show she advised the investigating committee that she had left the embattled consultancy’s board in June.
“I would like to advise that at the end of June I resigned as a board member of KPMG’s South Asia Pacific Board and have no ongoing role with KPMG,” Akopiantz wrote. Her departure follows the exit of NSW premier Mike Baird in September last year.
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