Former Grant Thornton Partner joins SRM Europe

David Royle has joined independent advisory firm SRM Europe as the firm’s new Managing Director of Financial Services Consulting. He was previously the joint leader of Grant Thornton’s financial services consulting wing in the UK.

Founded in 1992, Strategic Resource Management (SRM) was initially a US consulting firm, with the Houston based company having helped more than 1,000 financial institutions add $3.6 billion of value to their bottom line in the three decades since its launch. The firm specialises in areas such as payments, digital transformation, core processing, artificial intelligence, and operational efficiency. In recent years, the firm has been expanding across the Atlantic, and SRM Europe now offers the boutique’s decades of experience to help provide a competitive edge for clients in an environment of constant and accelerating change.

David Royle will add significant knowhow to SRM Europe’s growing presence in the region, having joined as Chief Operating Officer and MD Financial Services Consulting to support its growth. He takes specific responsibility for the Financial Services practice, bringing SRM’s differentiated brand of 'evidence based transformation' to clients by utilising proprietary benchmarks and data science to provide new insight into clients businesses and help drive change.

He brings more than 25 years of experience to the firm, and boasts significant Big Four pedigree from earlier in his career. Royle spent time as a Financial Services Auditor with PwC and a Consultant with EY before decade-long stays with Capgemini as Principal and Grant Thornton. At the latter, he was most recently a Partner in the firm’s financial services business consulting practice, and lead digital transformation services for its financial services clients.

A post from Royle via his personal LinkedIn profile suggests he is very happy with the move. After establishing themselves with larger consultancies, many professionals like to put their experience to work with the freedom of a smaller firm – and Royle noted that in his case, “Having recently made a transition from large management consultancies into what could be called a 'super boutique' I have found the work to be far more enjoyable, rewarding and flexible. The culture more positive… and the opportunity to drive all aspects of the business challenging but satisfying. All this coupled with a 'can do attitude' and far superior expertise and client service.”

The arrival of Royle follows the recent arrival of a raft of other hires from larger consultancies. Jehan Sherjan, Pete Bainbridge, Seun Sotuminu, and John Cooper, all previously of Grant Thornton, joined SRM to lend their skills to its insight and data analytics services (IDA) practice.

Neil Whittaker, CEO of SRM’s European arm, stated, “The addition of this group of professionals establishes a robust market insights and data analytics practice. The team brings deep expertise to our firm and that allows us to deliver extended value to our clients at a time when it is much needed.”