Accenture appoints Kelly Bissell to Global Management Committee

Accenture has appointed Kelly Bissell, Accenture’s Global Security business lead, to the company’s Global Management Committee. The move comes at a critical time when workplace environments are expanding to virtual settings and the security of businesses is more important than ever.

Over the last six years, Accenture has been rapidly pivoting its business model to rotation to new lines of work – digital, cloud and security – in order to identify and scale new opportunities in the most strategic, high-growth areas of the consulting market. Emphasising these changes, the firm announced at the start of the year that it would be altering the structure of its Global Management Committee.

Accenture clarified that it would be making leadership changes and expanding its Global Management Committee to include a broader representation of leaders from its services and geographic markets. The latest of these changes has seen London-based Kelly Bissell appointed to the company’s Global Management Committee.

Bissell is Global Lead of Accenture Security, and his appointment to the firm's global leadership committee comes as cybersecurity has become an increased priority for clients. This is particularly the case during the challenging time of Covid-19, as most workforces operate from virtual environments.

Accenture Security is aimed at helping businesses around the world to defend against known sophisticated threats, and the unknown, with services including strategy and risk management, cyber defense, digital identity, application security and managed security. In his role as Accenture Security Global Lead, Bissell oversees a global cybersecurity workforce of 7,000 professionals and has helped some of the largest organisations in the world manage cyber risk.

“Accenture is leading the market to help clients transform their business to grow – with security built-in. I’m incredibly proud to be helping our clients become resilient no matter the crisis and I couldn’t be more excited to bring my cybersecurity experience to Accenture’s Global Management Committee,” said Bissell.

"Being on the GMC is an incredible privilege to serve our people and clients. My remit expands as I will get to work more broadly with our clients to help them transform for growth. I hope clients will see Accenture’s leadership with Security on their own GMC to manage risk and be resilient – no matter the crisis."

Prior to joining Accenture, Bissell spent 14 years with Big Four firm Deloitte, where he was Global Lead of its cyber risk services practice. Arriving at Accenture in 2016, he has since played a key role in driving the growth of Accenture Security to an approximately $2.5 billion business.

Over that time, he has overseen 11 security-related acquisitions, including the recent deals for Symantec Cyber Security Services and Context Information Security.

Speaking on the purchase – which added more than 250 employees to Accenture Security’s offering in the UK, Germany, the US and Australia – Bissell said, “This deal gives us a new branch of talented family members to help clients grow their business with confidence and resilience.”

Accenture's Global Management Committee consists of the firm's 40 top leaders, led by CEO Julie Sweet. The market lead for United Kingdom and Ireland, Olly Benzecry, is also a member, as is Annette Rippert, who leads Accenture's Consulting division.