PwC promote two Partners while looking to boost UK-based expertise
PwC has appointed two new directors in its Hull practice as part of the firm’s continued commitment to increasing the capability and level of specialisms within the region. Victoria Coe has been promoted to director within the External Assurance practice and Jonathan Lloyd has been promoted to director within Compliance Services Accounting.
Globally, Big Four member PwC remains the world’s largest consulting firm, having seen international growth of 5% in 2016. In Britain, PwC UK has been expanding its Partner network continuously, over the past 12 months. Along with externally recruiting 21 new equity partners, the firm has promoted 31 new equity partners at a national level, as it seeks to chase improved growth figures and make the most of increasing client demands resulting from Brexit and slowing economic growth. As the PwC network subsequently looks to heighten the specialist expertise available in its Northern England presence, the firm has promoted two new Partners in its Hull office.
Victoria Coe joined the Hull office as a Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services graduate from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 2006. Following a secondment at an international retailer for 9 months, she relocated to the Leeds office, where she continued to build up her specialist knowledge in the retail and consumer industry, as well as gaining valuable transactions experience, latterly becoming a Director at the practice. Now, as Coe returns to the Hull team, PwC will hope her presence will further strengthen their advisory capacity in the city, as retailing clients in the region prepare for a tough spell. UK consumers are likely to further scale back spending on non-essentials over the coming period, as stagnating wages and a Pound in free-fall decrease their purchasing power.
Jonathan Lloyd has been with the firm for 27 years, meanwhile. Having joined in 1990, Lloyd’s career has focused chiefly on specialising in accounting services. Over the course of his lengthy tenure with PwC, Lloyd has fulfilled roles as a Senior Manager at Corporate Compliance Services in Accounting, and latterly as Director in Compliance Services, also within Accounting Services, working with clients to assist them be compliant in the UK and Globally. In his new role as Partner, Lloyd will lead the National Accounting Services Team, which is spread across locations in Hull and the nation’s financial hub of London.
Ian Plunkett, Hull office Senior Partner, commented on the duo of ascensions, “It’s extremely pleasing to see two members of the Hull team continue to progress and take advantage of the opportunities to develop within the firm. We remain focussed on maintaining a diverse and inclusive practice that represents a broad range of skills, backgrounds and experience, and reflects our clients’ changing needs. These appointments will ensure that we have the capabilities and strengths across Hull and the Humber to continue to support our clients, our business and the wider economy.”
Of the total new Partnerships at the firm, 27% of the new partners are female, while 40% of PwC’s 134 new director promotions are women, as the firm continues to invest in its pipeline of senior female leaders. The firm also ranked 7th in the UK’s first-ever Social Mobility Employer Index of employers, published in June.
Earlier in 2017, the Big Four consultancy’s Irish arm also inducted 12 new partners to the firm. The new partners hailed from all areas of business and include appointments in Dublin, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and three in Cork, reflecting a period of sustained growth in dividable profits for the firm in the locale.