We like to call attention the competitive poaching that goes on behalf of accounting firms because they do such a good job of bombarding the world with that knowledge. It probably got started when we noticed that PwC was using KPMG as its farm team, but more so lately, we've noticed that Ernst & Young aggressively shouting about all the BSDs that are joining the Black and Yellow.
Earlier this week, the firm announced a baker's dozen of new PPEDs joining the firm in the Americas. Here's quick rundown:
Partners
- Stephen Landry (Tax) — Landry is a boomerang, starting at E&Y in 1985, left for Marathon Oil in 2007, returns to E&Y in 2013.
- Mark Schutzman (Tax) — Schutzman is picked up from PwC, where he founded the firm's Tax Function Effectiveness practice and also led the Metro's Tax Outsourcing practice.
- Douglas Sirotta (Tax) — Sirotta is another boomerang, starting with E&Y in Seattle, went to BDO in the Bay Area where he was a national leader of tax.
Principal
- Perry Papantonis (Human Capital) — IBM and Hewitt Associates alum. He also founded his own human capital consulting firm, Exequity.
Executive Directors
- Rozeta Atlas (Tax Performance Advisory) — Joins from Deutsche Bank. Did time at American Express, IAC/Inter-ActiveCorp, and KPMG.
- Jack Burns (FSO, Tax Advisory) — Joins from Citigroup. Ex-Andersen. That pretty much says it all.
- Michael Cutri (Indirect Tax) — Left Cushman & Wakefield for E&Y.
- Marc Halsema (Private Client Services) — Started with E&Y in Russia but went with "boutique merchant bank" that focused on Middle East and North Africa until 2010 when rejoined E&Y in Moscow and has now relocated to New York
- Alice Harbutte (Tax Controversy and Risk Management Services) — Sounds fancy, no? Most recently, Ms. Harbutte was a "Tax Law Specialist in the Transfer Pricing Practice of the IRS Large Business and International (LB&I) Division" and spent 15 years in the Office of Chief Counsel at the IRS.
- Stephen Reilly (Tax Performance Advisory) — Mr. Reilly is one of those bounders: Joining from McGladrey, he's also spent time at Corptax, Deloitte, Dun & Bradstreet, JPMorgan, and Home Life Insurance.
- Jeff VanderWolk (Washington Council) — He's one of those Murderers' Row guys. He came from the Senate Finance Committe.
The other two people are in Canada and Mexico, so I guess that's nice.
All of these people seem to have fine backgrounds, but there's nothing — with the exception of VanderWolk and maybe Sirotta and Schutzman — here that feels all that special (I'm sure you'll tell me that I'm wrong). But I suppose it does send a message to ambitious ladder climbers that there's plenty of room at the table at E&Y and that seems pretty smart. I mean, these people aren't trolling Going Concern Jobs for their next move (at least not yet), so how else would they know that E&Y is looking for someone with their kind of skills?
On the other hand, if you're competing with E&Y for talent, you might be thinking one of two things: 1) Jesus. We've been hiring chumps; OR 2) Those people are chumps. You should see the people we're getting.
E&Y seems to be on campaign of differentiating itself. Their outgoing CEO is extremely popular and has taken progressive social stances. It's incoming CEO seems to get it, and we hear they are announcing a rebranding soon (email us if you know something about that). Meanwhile Deloitte plays Beta to PwC's Alpha and KPMG does whatever it does.
Maybe I'm wrong, but the latest announcement of competitive poaching is just the latest sign that there's something in the water at E&Y.
What do you all think? Do I sound like I'm sniffing glue or is the Turley/Weinberger fairy dust working? Discuss.
[via E&Y]
