Deutsche Bank Chairman Corporate Broking joins KPMG

KPMG has hired James Agnew as Senior Member of its Capital Advisory Group, a function he will assume early 2015. Agnew will join KPMG from the Deutsche Bank with extensive experience in corporate broking, with the intent to expand KPMG’s footprint in investment banking.

James Agnew will join professional services firm KPMG in early 2015 from the Deutsche Bank, a company he joined in 2002. At Deutsche Bank, Agnew was the Chairman of UK Corporate Broking, a function in which he advised on transactions such as the acquisition of Cadbury by Kraft in 2011, worth $19 billion, the sale of Old Mutual’s Nordic division to Sweden's Skandia, with a value of £2.1 billion, and the Standard Life’s sale of its Canadian business of £2.2 billion. Prior to joining the Deutsche Bank, Agnew acted as the Head of Corporate Broking at Merrill Lynch from 1995 to 2002.

In addition to his role as the Chairman of UK Corporate Broking at the Deutsche Bank, Agnew is a member of the panel on Takeovers and Mergers, the UKLA Advisory Committee, the London Stock Exchange Primary Markets Group, and the Remuneration and Nomination Committees. He also is the Chairman of the Audit Committee, and was appointed non-executive director of Dublin-based oil and gas firm Petroceltic in 2012. Agnew is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and a graduate of Oxford College.

Agnew will return to KPMG as Senior Member of its Capital Advisory Group. KPMG’s move to lure in Agnew follows other hires by large professional service firms of senior talent from large investment banks. Two recent examples: in May, KPMG also hired Richard Gostling, the former Head of Business Services at Goldman Sachs, while rival PwC lately hired former Rothschild banker Peter Whelan.