EY-Parthenon expands pensions strategy practice
EY-Parthenon has announced four high-profile appointments to its Pensions Strategy practice. Marc Hommel, Leah Evans, Julianna Oladipo and Rich Cowell take on senior roles as the firm responds to increased market demand and invests in continued growth.
EY-Parthenon is Big Four firm EY’s global strategy consulting arm. Established as The Parthenon Group in 1991 by former Bain & Company directors William Achtmeyer and John C. Rutherford, the firm was purchased by the professional services giant in 2014, and merged with EY to form the EY-Parthenon entity that exists today.
The company’s 100 plus-strong UK pensions strategy practice has seen a major boost in demand in recent years. Offering services to pension scheme sponsors and trustees, capital providers, government, regulators and policymakers, the practice has enjoyed a reported 18% revenue growth in advisory services over the past financial year – and EY-Parthenon has launched ambitious plans to double the size of the practice over the next three years to build on this momentum. In the latest chapter of this growth campaign, EY-Parthenon has announced four high-profile appointments to its pensions strategy practice.
Karina Brookes, EY-Parthenon Covenant Advisory Leader, commented, “With the worst of the pandemic’s economic disruption hopefully now behind us, firms are now firmly in forward planning mode. We expect the next six months to witness significant restructuring and transaction activity, and as sustainability increasingly becomes a boardroom priority, firms are ramping up activity on this agenda, focused currently on the challenges climate change and the energy transition are presenting.”
Marc Hommel has been with EY-Parthenon since 2019, and has now been promoted to lead the firm’s pensions actuarial practice. He brings more than three decades of experience in the pensions industry including serving as UK and global pensions advisory leader at PwC and a founder of The Pensions Superfund.
Leah Evans is a more recent arrival with the firm, having joined in the summer of 2021. She arrives from Mercer, where she was a Partner advising UK and multinational clients on pensions strategy and risk management. Now, she will lead EY-Parthenon’s UK pensions end-state advisory and pensions risk transfer transactions offering – alongside her ongoing duties as the Chair of the Pensions Board of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.
Julianna Oladipo has been Group Pensions Director to EY’s own UK and Irish pension arrangements including leading on strategy and governance. She now moves to become leader of EY-Parthenon’s UK pensions fund operational and governance effectiveness practice.
Rich Cowell joins EY-Parthenon’s covenant advisory team to build out its core capabilities and support the integrated covenant and actuarial transactions teams, focusing on transactions involving DB pension schemes from a buy-side, sell-side and trustee perspective. After spells with RSM and Grant Thornton, he had a major strategy and transformation role at Royal Mail Group, and most recently spent a year as a Programme Manager with the British Red Cross.
Marc Hommel, EY-Parthenon Actuarial Advisory Leader, said of the news, “I am thrilled to have been asked to lead on implementing EY-Parthenon’s ambitious growth plans for its Pension Strategy practice. The investment to build out the team’s capabilities at all levels reflects both growing market demand and EY-Parthenon’s overall commitment to being a leading and strategic broad-based consulting advisory firm.”
