This article originally appeared on Business expert.
EY, Deloitte, PwC and KPMG make up the world’s largest accounting and consulting firms, referred to as The Big Four.
These are billion-dollar firms, employing a total of 1.5 million employees and impacting a whole bunch of industries.
In recent years, the Big Four have faced a number of challenges, including the post-pandemic decline in demand, changing regulatory requirements and the must customize your skills and services for the emerging future of AI.
Two of the firms have named latest leaders in 2024. The process varies by company but typically involves hustings, where candidates present their vision to voters, a vote by partners and global board ratification.
These are the 4 individuals who currently lead the world’s largest consulting firms.
PwC – Mohamed Kande
Mohamed Kande is global president of PwC. Kike Rincon/Europa Press via Getty Images via BI
In July 2024, Mohamed Kande was elected global president of PwC for a four-year term, becoming the first black leader of a Big Four firm.
Kande is also the first head of PwC to return from the advisory arm quite than the audit wing.
Kande was born and raised in the West African country of Côte d’Ivoire. When he was 16, he moved alone to France to review. Before joining the company in 2011, he worked for a PwC subsidiary called PRTM Management Consultants. In 2019, he became a global consulting leader.
Kande took over leadership of PwC’s 370,000 employees when this happened it looks like he’s tightening his purse strings amid a slowdown in the consulting industry. Partner payouts declined, and more PwC partners took early retirement at the end of the 12 months. In October, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company would undergo its first major layoffs since 2009 and that 1,800 employees can be laid off.
PwC is also working to rebuild trust in the Asia-Pacific region scandals in Australia and China.
“The need for new solutions has never been more urgent,” Kande said in the company’s 2024 annual review.
In 2021, he wrote a 1,000-word essay on LinkedIn on the topic the impact that race had on his profession in skilled services.
“I often had to work hard to be included because I was different. I felt a slight but sharp twinge about my accent and name, accompanied by quieter, larger, unspoken words about my skin color,” Kande wrote.
“I try to give opportunities that others have given me. I try to bring them into the room, knowing that their diversity, their unique perspective, is a strength and something to be valued.”
Deloitte – Joe Ucuzoglu
Joe Ucuzoglu is the global CEO of Deloitte. Jim Spellman/Getty Images via BI
Joe Ucuzoglu has been Global CEO of Deloitte since January 2023.
Ucuzolgu, who grew up in Los Angeles, was CEO of Deloitte US from 2019 to 2022 before taking the top job. In 1997, he accomplished an internship at the college. He was promoted to senior advisor at the SEC and then rejoined Deloitte in 2015.
Deloitte is the largest of the Big Four in each revenue and worker numbers, with 460,000 employees.
In March 2024, Deloitte announced a major restructuring aimed at reducing costs and positioning the company for future success. It is “modernizing and simplifying” its core offerings across 4 categories: audit and assurance, tax and legal strategy, risk and transactions, and technology and transformation.
Ucuzoglu informed the company’s partners about this in an email reorganization it would scale back the “complexity” of the company and “free up” more partners to work with clients as an alternative of managing staff.
Under Ucuzoglu, Deloitte has taken steps to steer investment in green hydrogenpublishing a report in 2023 estimating that the energy source could develop into a $1.4 trillion global market by 2050, and arguing that it “occupies a prime position as a solution for sectors where it is difficult to reduce energy consumption.”
The CEO continues to work with clients. He is also a frequent speaker at the World Economic Forum, a member of the Business Roundtable, and regularly gives interviews on topics relevant to the business community.
EY – Janet Truncale
EY Global President and CEO Janet Truncale EY via BI
Janet Truncale was elected global president and CEO of EY in July 2024, making her the first woman to steer a Big Four accounting firm. She joined EY as an intern in 1991.
Prior to her election, Truncale served as vice chairman and regional managing partner of the U.S. Financial Services Organization for nearly 4 years.
The New Jersey native currently heads a global EY team with over 400,000 employees.
In her first public statement as global CEO, she launched a latest strategy called “All in.”
“All in is not just a business strategy, it reflects an approach and a way of working,” Truncale said. Her focus on unity comes after EY was rocked by a failed plan to separate its consulting and audit departments into two units, called Project Everest.
Truncale was named one of the “25 Most Influential Women” of 2023 Financial Times.which described her as a “confidence builder” and “a down-to-earth advocate.”
Outside of EY, she serves as Chair of the Board of Women’s World Banking and is a board member of UNICEF USA and the US-China Business Council.
Truncale holds a BSE from the Wharton School of UPenn and an MBA from Columbia University.
KPMG – Bill Thomas
Bill Thomas is the global chairman and CEO of KPMG. World Economic Forum via BI
Bill Thomas became global chairman and CEO of KPMG in October 2017. Three years later, he was unanimously re-elected to a second term.
Thomas has over a decade of executive leadership experience and previously served as KPMG’s president of the Americas from 2014 to 2017.
The Canadian leads KPMG’s 275,000 employees. The company is the smallest of the Big Four.
For the past seven years, Thomas has focused on overseeing the development and execution of KPMG’s global strategy. Under Thomas, KPMG launched a $5 billion digital strategy investment plan.
“In the coming years, I will focus on continuing to enable and empower these talented teams to reach their full potential,” he said in a statement released in conjunction with his 2020 re-election.
KPMG’s global annual revenue has increased by 45% since the 12 months Thomas was appointed CEO. In its most up-to-date annual earnings, it reported annual revenue of $38.4 billion.
Thomas stays largely out of the media highlight and gives few interviews. Before entering the business world, he studied science, which he says is “extremely relevant today as technology impacts every part of our business and our clients’ business.”