Deloitte UK appoints 57 new partners
Across the UK firm, 16 new partners have been appointed in the audit & risk advisory business, 15 in consulting, 13 in tax, 12 in the financial advisory sector, and one in internal client services
Deloitte North West Europe has promoted 149 new partners, including 57 new UK partners.
The North West Europe firm, which came into effect 1 June of this year, was created by combining several of Deloitte’s European firms, including its UK, Swiss, Belgian, Dutch and Scandinavian branches.
Across the UK firm, 16 new partners have been appointed in the audit & risk advisory business, 15 in consulting, 13 in tax, 12 in the financial advisory sector and 1 in internal client services. Roughly a quarter of these promotions were outside of London, strengthening the firm nationally.
The firm has expressed a commitment to diversity, and out of the 57 new UK partners, 23% are women compared with overall 19% female partners in Deloitte. Gender balance is becoming of increasing importance to accounting firms, following PwC’s recent report finding a 13.7% gender pay gap.
Emma Codd, managing partner for talent of Deloitte UK and Deloitte North West Europe, commented: “We have seen positive growth in female representation amongst Deloitte UK’s new partners. In 2012 we published a target that by 2020 25% of our partners would be female. We have made great progress on gender diversity and we continue to prioritise the recruitment and retention of senior women. Female representation at partner level has increased from 14% in 2014 to 19% in 2017. Although the proportion this year is lower than hoped, we have a strong pipeline of women at director and senior manager level who are well placed to progress in the coming years.
“Gender is not the only lens through which we focus our diversity actions,” Codd continued. The percentage of BAME partners appointed this year is 11%, compared with 5% of all Deloitte partners. Commenting on this, she said: “We strongly believe that diversity is something that can only be achieved if we have an inclusive culture, without it very little will change. We have focused relentlessly on culture and we will continue to do so.”
Currently, the North West Europe firm has 2029 partners, and Deloitte has set a target to recruit 100 more by 2020. They also plan to invest €200m over the next three years to enhance services and development opportunities for employees.
David Sproul, senior partner and chief executive of Deloitte North West Europe, said: “Our primary motivation for combining across these markets is to positively influence the growth of our clients and further increase the growth potential of Deloitte regionally and globally. The promotion of 149 new partners is a clear example of how we are investing to do that, further strengthening our capabilities across each business area in all nine markets.”
This news comes as PwC recently announced the appointment of 52 partners in the UK.