Former PwC Australia acting CEO Kristin Stubbins to leave firm
The woman who led PwC Australia through the darkest days of its tax leaks scandal will leave in January after three decades at the big four consulting firm.
Kristin Stubbins was elevated to acting chief executive of PwC Australia in mid-May, replacing then-CEO Tom Seymour who stepped down after telling partners he had been one of dozens of partners who received emails related to confidential Treasury information obtained by a former partner at the firm.
Former PwC acting chief executive Kristin Stubbins testified at the ongoing NSW parliamentary inquiry into consultants in June. Edwina Pickles
Ms Stubbins held the acting CEO position for three months, and in that time she had to repeatedly apologise for the scandal, move on a number of partners, commission reports into what went wrong and organise the fire sale of the firm’s public sector consulting arm.
In June, it was announced that she would be replaced by UK partner Kevin Burrowes, who was parachuted into the CEO role after PwC global took effective control of the local firm in response to the scandal.
Ms Stubbins will leave at the end of January. She is the firm’s most senior auditor, a former managing partner of its all-important assurance division and the signing partner of the flagship Macquarie Bank audit.
‘Worked tirelessly’
In a statement on LinkedIn, Ms Stubbins said she would spend more time with her husband and daughter before moving on to the next phase of her career.
She said the past six months had been challenging, but she felt she had made “the decisions that needed to be made including holding people accountable for their actions, protecting people who needed protection” and implementing changes that would help the firm reform.
Ms Stubbins also reflected on her decades at the firm, saying she would “recommend a career in assurance to anyone who likes working in teams, seeing and learning about diverse businesses and is (or would like to be) financially literate”.
In an internal firm email, Mr Burrowes said Ms Stubbins had “worked tirelessly” during the past six months leading the firm “through one of [its] most challenging times”.
Read more about the PwC tax leaks scandal
- How confidential tax information was shared at PwC At least six former PwC partners were involved in leaking confidential information from Treasury, the Tax Office and Board of Tax, legal reports concluded.
- ‘Shadow’ culture of profit first blamed for PwC tax leaks scandal A scathing report into the big four consultancy laid bare the brutal, uncompromising culture at the top that led to the firm’s tax leaks scandal.
- ‘Growth at all costs’: what PwC report found The mindset was said to have been “growth at all costs” with a spotlight on “revenue, revenue, revenue”.
- ‘We are deeply sorry for that behaviour and the culture’ The full text of the open letter from PwC Australia CEO Kevin Burrowes.
- Rear Window | Ziggy Switkowski’s guide to making it at PwC The veteran reviewer’s examination of PwC can be read as a treasure map to consultancy riches.
- PwC global clears international partners of tax leaks wrongdoing An investigation by law firm Linklaters has cleared overseas PwC partners of using confidential information related to the tax leaks scandal “for commercial gain”.
- Chanticleer | Haughty PwC made the same mistakes it preached about Ziggy Switkowski’s review of PwC reads like a description of everything that went on inside the big banks before the royal commission. With one crucial difference.
- The Fin Podcast | Can PwC’s Australian business survive the tax leaks scandal? Neil Chenoweth, Edmund Tadros and Joe Aston on why it can never be business as usual for the big four consulting firms.
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