PwC bolsters deals practice with two partner hires
Big Four firm PwC has expanded its deals practice with the appointment of two partners in its transaction services team. Raj Agrawal arrives to help develop the firm’s life sciences private equity offering, while Wendy Britten will look to grow the firm’s presence in the healthcare market.
After a record-breaking year for M&A in 2021, optimism for another supercharged year in 2022 remains, despite growing market headwinds. In particular, the life sciences and healthcare space remains a booming market – and demand for consulting firms advising on private equity deals in the sector is subsequently hire.
Raj Agrawal’s arrival at PwC is geared toward helping with this. Arriving from pharmaceutical firm Novartis, where he has played critical roles in shaping the corporate strategy and leading a number of global transformation efforts, he brings a wealth of experience from large pharma, strategy consulting and technology start-ups.
“I am pleased to be joining PwC at a time when there is lots of activity in the market,” said Agrawal. “I look forward to working with clients and helping to solve their most pressing and important issues.”
Looking ahead, Agrawal will lead the development of a team focused on value creation in the life sciences sector. This will see him work with large pharmaceutical companies and private equity clients.
Wendy Britten meanwhile re-joins PwC from cyber security consultancy S-RM. There, she held the role of Chief Financial Officer, and has built up some extensive experience of funding and financing, mergers and acquisitions and streamlining finance functions – gained from working in consultancy, FTSE 100 and private equity backed companies.
Britten stated, “I am excited to join the deals team at PwC and look forward to working with my new colleagues and clients, bringing my experience to help private equity and corporate clients maximise their deal opportunities and value.”
In the coming months, Britten will work closely with consumer and healthcare clients. She will also look to grow PwC's presence in the market bringing her experience of working on large carve-out transactions to add to the team's expertise.
Lucy Stapleton, UK Head of Deals, said of the two partners, “I am delighted to welcome Raj to our team and welcome Wendy back to our PwC team again! We see significant growth potential in the consumer healthcare and pharma/life sciences markets and investing in top talent is absolutely critical to our growth ambitions.”
The news comes as PwC’s deals offering is seeing an increased level of activity from private equity investors in the market. In addition to the arrivals of Britten and Agrawal, this has also seen PwC promote a further 17 new equity partners across its deals practice. The practice has four business units: Business Restructuring Services, Corporate Finance, Forensics Services and Transactions Services.