Scottish accounting firm AAB launches consulting division

Aberdeen headquartered accountancy Anderson Anderson & Brown (AAB) has launched a dedicated consulting firm as it bids to boost revenue growth. Executives hope that AAB Consulting will hit revenues of £5 million in its first three years.

The world’s largest professional services firms have been benefitting from combined revenues across auditing and consulting work for decades. The Big Four of KPMG, EY, PwC and Deloitte were on the brink of completely withdrawing from the consulting scene following the Enron scandal which led to the de facto collapse of then Big Five firm Arthur Andersen. However, after Deloitte opted against a separation of their consulting and accounting wings, the surviving four, along with large firms such as BDO and Grant Thornton each opted back into the industry – something which substantially boosted their revenues.

Now, Aberdonian accounting firm AAB is looking to emulate the industry’s top dogs by launching a dedicated consulting offering. Anderson Anderson & Brown Consulting hopes to hit £5 million in revenues within the next three years. The firm’s existing consulting arm will transfer into the dedicated business in order to provide a platform for “rapid growth” following a hike in demand for its services.

Heading up the new AAB Consulting division is Chief Executive Bill Kane, a former Big Four Partner who joined AAB as a Director in 2017 in order to develop and grow a full-service consulting business across six key areas – strategy, operations, human capital, supply chain, IT/digital and data analytics. Prior to his arrival, Kane spent six years with Deloitte, becoming a Partner before exiting in 2014, and was also an Associate Partner with PwC, a firm he spent four years with after joining in 1999. Between the two roles, Kane also spent five years with IBM’s business services operations strategy practice, which he came to lead as Partner before leaving in 2008.

Joining Kane in the new entity’s leadership is Alasdair Green, who has been promoted to Consulting Director. Green arrived at AAB in 2015, having worked as a Director with independent oil and gas advisory Tenec, for a year, before which he spent eight years with Odgers Berndtson where he was a Principal in the firm’s oil and gas practice. The experience gleaned from these roles see him lead AAB Consulting’s energy team, with a particular focus on advising oil and gas upstream and service businesses.

Commenting on AAB Consulting’s launch, Bill Kane said, “As well as establishing an impressive in-house consulting team, which is continuing to expand with several key appointments pending, we also continue to work with our Associate Network of highly experienced consulting professionals. The consulting business will remain an integral part of the AAB group as we continue to work together across the firm to provide our clients with the very best value-added service.”

AAB Managing Partner Graeme Allan said of the new consulting business, “We are hugely excited about the growth prospects within AAB Consulting and this new business structure will provide us with the opportunity to grow rapidly in this space, working with strategic partners to deliver a growing number of consulting projects across the UK and internationally.”