New senior partner and chief executive at Deloitte North West Europe and UK

Big Four firm Deloitte has announced that Richard Houston will be the firm’s next senior partner and chief executive of North West Europe (NWE) and the UK.

He is due to take over from the current chief executive David Sproul, who has been in the role since 2011 having been re-elected in 2015.

Houston is currently working as managing partner for Deloitte NWE and UK consulting business and now has over 20 years of experience in professional services.

The incoming chief executive began his career in financial services, starting off at HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland in their risk, regulatory, and finance functions.

He then joined the now non-existent Arthur Anderson in 1996, became partner in 1998, and moved over to Deloitte four years later in 2002 when Arthur Anderson collapsed due to being found guilty of criminal charges relating to the firm’s audits of energy corporation, Enron.

Throughout his time at Deloitte, Houston has significantly grown the firm’s consulting practice by focusing on new, digital technologies and helping clients implement them to change their business for the better.

Alongside leading Deloitte’s NWE consulting business, Houston sits on the UK executive and also boasts a membership of Deloitte’s global consulting executive. Over the course of his career, he has completed a huge range of large, complex and multi-year transformation projects with clients across a number of industries.

Reflecting on his new appointment, Houston said: “Deloitte brings an unrivalled depth and breadth of skills and industry knowledge to help clients solve their most complex challenges, with a commitment to the highest levels of quality and integrity. It will be an enormous privilege to lead the firm as its next senior partner and chief executive, building on Deloitte’s established pre-eminent market position.

“Our clients and Deloitte’s own profession face an era of substantial change and challenge, and we’re committed to anticipating, managing and leading the response to this. I believe such change presents huge opportunities for Deloitte to make a positive impact on our clients, people and society as a whole.”

Nick Owen, NWE chairman at Deloitte, added: “With the overwhelming support of our partners from all our businesses across North West Europe, we firmly believe that Richard is the right candidate to lead our firm over the next four years. Not only has Richard transformed our consulting practice during his time as managing partner, he is also a highly respected leader known for his collaborative approach across the firm’s businesses and borders.

“His passion to help our clients, people and society succeed in the digital age provides us with confidence that he is in a strong position to lead Deloitte in the years ahead.”