Business

EY picks Janet Truncale as first woman to lead a Big Four firm

Promotion of Americas financial services head follows failed plan to split off consulting arm

The Big 4 firm named Janet Truncale as the first woman to lead the firm. Photograph: Steve Taylor/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Thu Nov 16 2023 - 07:28

EY has appointed Janet Truncale, the head of its financial services business in the Americas, to be its next global chief executive, putting a woman in charge of a Big Four accounting firm for the first time.

Truncale will replace Carmine Di Sibio, who is retiring in June in the wake of the collapse of a plan to spin off EY’s consulting arm into a new public company. The appointment was announced in an email to partners on Wednesday.

“Truncale is an exceptional leader, with a strong foundation in serving clients across all EY’s businesses,” Di Sibio said in the email, adding that her “strong emphasis on culture and her deep experience” would inspire the group’s 395,000 staff and partners.

The Big Four have appointed female bosses to run some of their biggest member firms, including EY’s past two US leaders, but had never previously chosen a woman to lead their global operations.

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The appointment followed a months-long selection process in which an 11-person list was whittled down to six candidates, who were voted on by the firm’s 18-person global executive at a meeting in London this week.

The choice was then ratified by a council of other senior partners.

The new chief executive will have the task of smoothing divisions created by the spin-off plan, which was abandoned in April after more than a year of work that cost $600 million (€553 million). It was defeated by opposition from senior figures in EY’s US audit practice, after exacerbating long-simmering tensions between the US business and the global leadership.

Truncale, 53, has more than 30 years of experience at EY, having joined as an intern and risen through its audit business. The operation she has led since 2020 oversees both audit and consulting work for financial services clients.

Di Sibio was also a leader of the US financial services business before ascending to the top job.

Truncale beat early favourites including the British partner Andy Baldwin, a key Di Sibio lieutenant who helped craft the spin-off plan, and Jad Shimaly, who runs EY’s business in Canada. Both men came from the consulting side of the firm.

The selection process was hit by controversy when Baldwin warned executives they risked breaching UK age discrimination laws as they sounded out senior partners on his candidacy. At 57, Baldwin would have required an extension to the firm’s mandatory retirement age of 60 in order to complete a four-year term as chief executive. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023

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