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EY has appointed Anna Anthony, head of financial services, as its new managing partner for the UK following a competitive three-way selection to lead the Big Four accounting firm’s operations in Britain and Ireland.
Starting in January, Anthony will be the first woman to manage a Big Four firm on a day-to-day basis in the UK.
With 16 years as a partner and leadership of EY’s UK financial services division since 2021, she manages £1bn in annual revenue and approximately a quarter of the firm’s 20,000 staff in the UK.
Anthony was selected through an unconventional process led by EY’s global leaders, which included “soundings” from nearly 200 of about 930 local equity partners.
In addition to her UK responsibilities, she will oversee the firm’s operations in Ireland.
Anthony outperformed two other finalists: Stuart Gregory, managing partner for finance and transformation, and Kath Barrow, assurance managing partner.
The current UK managing partner, Hywel Ball, will continue in his role as chair until a new chair is appointed early in the new year, according to EY.
In June, Ball expressed to his colleagues that it was time to “hand on the baton”.
Ball, who received £3.6mn over the last 12 months, has served as UK chair and managing partner since 2020, a split now being implemented in accordance with the updated audit firm governance code from the British accounting regulator.
Initially, Ball was only set to be appointed as managing partner in 2020, but due to internal negotiations, he ultimately took on both roles, as revealed to the Financial Times by sources familiar with the situation.
While EY has not yet published its most recent UK financial results, its Big Four competitors PwC and Deloitte have reported declines in profit per partner, attributed to a significant slowdown in revenue growth.
In response, EY has offered smaller salary increases and bonuses to thousands of its UK employees and cut a few partners from its tax division as it navigates the market slowdown.
Anthony’s promotion positions her as one of the most influential figures within EY’s global framework, which recorded revenues of $49.4bn for the year ending June 2023.
The UK division is EY’s second-largest after its operations in the US, granting Anthony significant influence over the firm’s strategic decisions under the new global chair, Janet Truncale, who assumed the role after the high-profile collapse of the firm’s audit and consulting division split last year.
During her announcement of a significant cost-cutting initiative, Anthony confided to partners that she felt “disappointed and embarrassed” regarding the failed split.
Ball praised Anthony as “an exceptional leader, with a breadth and depth of experience that makes her an excellent choice as our next regional managing partner.”
There was widespread hope within EY that the 2020 leadership race would see the first woman leading a Big Four firm in the UK. That honor went to Mary O’Connor of KPMG in 2021, but only on an interim basis.
In other news, private equity firm Advent International revealed on Monday that it has recruited former EY global chief Carmine Di Sibio, who was behind the unsuccessful audit and consulting division split.
Di Sibio has been appointed as an operating partner to assist in “identifying, sourcing, and executing new deals in the business and financial services sector,” according to Advent’s announcement.