Griffith-Jones poised for KPMG top job
ACCOUNTANT KPMG is to appoint as its new boss the Old Etonian son of a High Court judge who has also been a decorated, part-time officer in the Royal Green Jackets.
The starting gun for the election of a new senior partner at KPMG has been fired, after current incumbent Mike Rake, himself a polo-playing, ex-public schoolboy, told his partners last week that he would be retiring.
The shoo-in to replace 57-year-old Rake is John Griffith-Jones, 51, the firm's chief executive who has spearheaded a cost-cutting redundancy programme at KPMG, which last year delivered a 6% rise in profits to £247m.
Griffith-Jones, described by colleagues as 'your typical, strait-laced, conventional accountant', was appointed chief executive by Rake three years ago, after a decade running the firm's lucrative corporate finance practice.
A promotion will cement Griffith-Jones as one of the best-paid accountants in the City. Rake was last year paid £2.45m - £1.85m for running the UK firm and another £600,000 for being chairman of KPMG's international outfit.
Rake's term as UK senior partner is due to end next year, though insiders believe he will go earlier, perhaps at the end of the year.
Rake has been in the vanguard of making the notoriously private accounting partnerships more transparent, but will also be remembered as the executive who led the firm up the blind alleys of abortive mergers with Ernst & Young and later Andersen.
A spokesman for KPMG denied Rake would be quitting early. 'Mike Rake has been senior partner of KPMG in the UK since 1998 - and is due to leave that role in September 2006 after serving eight years. At that time, he will also retire as chairman of KPMG International, a position he has held for four years - the longest period of any previous incumbent.
'KPMG in the UK has now started the process of deciding how it will choose its next senior partner. In accordance with the firm's rules, the process will be transparent and consistent with good corporate governance. No decisions have been taken on who will be the next senior partner of KPMG.'
