Before he became boss of the auditing and consulting giant, the ambitious partner was fined for behavioural breaches and apologised to a group of female partners for unspecified past behaviour
Edmund TadrosProfessional services editor 14 February 2025
Luke Sayers was not happy. His fellow partners at PricewaterhouseCoopers were preparing to elect a new leader in 2008, and he’d just been advised to withdraw from the contest. It was a blow to Sayers, who had long aspired to the top position at the Australian branch of the big four auditing and consulting giant.
Sayers was 38 and felt he’d earned the right to put his name forward. He’d made partner at 28, built a successful consulting practice in Washington, run the firm’s big Telstra account, and led the tax division, turning it into one of PwC’s most profitable businesses. But despite his obvious success, there were doubts about his readiness to lead. “To be a leader, the fundamental quality you need is judgment, and Luke didn’t have judgment,” says one former PwC partner.
PwC’s then-chief executive, Tony Harrington, was one person who counselled Sayers that it would be best for him to withdraw from the race. “Luke was a talented guy but in a hurry,” is all Rob Ward, a PwC board member who retired in 2010, will say. Sayers had supporters – the firm’s then-global chairman, Melbourne-based Paul Brasher, “saw no reason for him not to run”. Ultimately, Sayers withdrew from the race. A source said this had nothing to do with Harrington, Sayers felt having a young family meant it wasn’t the right time. He would wait four more years to become chief executive.
AFR Weekend can reveal that before he eventually clinched the top job, in 2012, Sayers was personally fined by PwC for behavioural breaches, and pre-emptively apologised to a group of female partners for unspecified past behaviour. He was also personally fined during his tenure as CEO over a conflict-of-interest issue.
All of which is unusual for a senior partner. This account is based on interviews with numerous sources directly familiar with the events who all asked for anonymity because of legal obligations to keep internal PwC matters confidential.
By any measure, Sayers had a successful professional career. He became PwC’s youngest chief executive, and later used his links to Melbourne’s business and political elite to build a successful consulting firm, Sayers Group, and to become chairman of Carlton, one of Melbourne’s most popular football clubs. He survived the fallout of the PwC tax leaks scandaland the repeated parliamentary inquiries in 2023 and 2024.
But last month, a lewd photo scandal damaged his reputation, forcing the married father of four daughters to take leave from his firm and quit the Carlton presidency. He remains a major shareholder of Sayers Group, and has yet to decide on his next steps following his horror start to the year.
These previously unreported incidents from Sayers’ past take on new meaning in light of recent events. His rise to the top of PwC didn’t come without episodes which alarmed colleagues, particularly regarding his judgment around appropriate behaviour for an aspiring leader. In addition, Sayers has yet to provide a detailed explanation of how, exactly, the lewd photo ended up being posted on his now-deactivated X account.
Sayers, who is represented by prominent Melbourne lawyer Leon Zwier, denied the new claims via his public relations spokeswoman, Sharon McCrohan, who blamed Sayers’ enemies. “The anonymous whispering of gossip, mud slinging and rumours dating back two decades is as grubby as it is gutless. Luke Sayers will not be dignifying it with a response,” she says.
In 2008, Sayers did not react well to the request to withdraw from the CEO race. His position wasn’t helped by the fine over his behaviour, which is believed to be in the “five to six figures”. The fine related in part to excessive spending on entertaining clients and staff, including trips to events and dinners at pricey restaurants. It fed into the concern in some parts of the firm that Sayers was not ready to lead, that he needed to grow up and develop the judgment required to have the top job.
Mark Johnson, the then-head of audit, was elected as Harrington’s successor in 2008. About a year into his term, Johnson – encouraged by a governance board – appointed Sayers national managing partner. The move showed that the board was clearly on Team Sayers.
In 2012, Johnson opted out of a second four-year term. After three years “growing up” in the managing partner role, and with Harrington long gone, Sayers felt it was now his time. He embarked on the presidential-type campaign that was part of the decidedly unique way PwC partners pick their top leader. Sayers’ campaign included a meeting with a group of female partners, said to number “fewer than 25”, in one of the boardrooms in the Sydney office.
By this stage, Sayers was the only candidate for the top position. Attendees report that he made his pitch to be the next leader then effectively apologised for his past behaviour. Without being specific about what he was referring to, he told them he had changed his ways and was ready to lead.
The charm offensive worked, and he was elected CEO at 42. He took the reins of an organisation with revenue of more than $1.4 billion, about 450 partners and 6000 staff. He transformed the firm into a sales-driven, profit-hungry, target-focused outfit. Eight years later, Sayers would retire from the partnership having almost doubled revenue to $2.6 billion, with almost 700 partners and 6300 staff. He was paid more than $30 million during his two leadership terms, or an average of $3.8 million a year.
Sayers’ time at the top of what was then the pre-eminent consulting firm in the country was not without further drama, including another fine over his actions.
He was involved in a company that put together to bid for a billion-dollar pitch to privatise visa processing, called Australian Visa Processing. The project, which did not go ahead, became controversial because a small group of senior partners, including Sayers, made personal investments in the company without informing the broader partnership. Those left out complained, resulting in an intervention by the firm’s global management and tough new rules around how partners could make personal investments. Sayers told a parliamentary inquiryin 2023 that he was personally fined $180,000 by the firm over the incident.
Part of the anger of other partners was that the offer hadn’t been made to the entire partnership to invest. The other part was the perceived lack of judgment by Sayers and the others in making the investment in the first place.
The firm’s tax leaks scandal also occurred during his leadership. That involved a former tax partner sharing with other partners confidential details about the federal government’s changes designed to combat multinational tax avoidance. Those partners then used that information to win new clients. Partners also developed structures that sidestepped the very same tax laws that PwC was helping the federal government to design.
Two separate parliamentary committees, in 2023 and last year, repeatedly called out Sayers for his involvement in that scandal. Sayers insisted he had no knowledge of the misconduct when it started and acted as soon as he learnt of it. Despite his denials, the Senate concluded it did not have “any confidence in his period of leadership, his sense of responsibility, or his recognition of the scale and nature of the events that unfolded during his eight-year tenure as CEO”.
A year after leaving the firm in 2020, he launched his own consulting firm, Sayers Group, backed by prominent Melbourne figures including Rich Lister Lindsay Fox. It now has about 50 employees and 16 partners, with offices in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney. Those consultants have built up a loyal client base, made up of many private wealthy Melbourne families as well as public sector clients.
Sayers was heading into 2025 having survived the repeated attacks from parliamentarians. That all changed on January 8. On that day, a post appeared on Sayers’ X account which contained a picture of a penis and tagged a female executive at health insurer Bupa, which is a sponsor of the Carlton football team. Sayers quickly removed the post, said his X account had been hacked then deactivated the account.
The post was investigated by the AFL Integrity Unit which released a statement in late January that said access to Sayers’ X account had been “compromised” and that the image was posted “by a person not being Mr Sayers”. Sayers, who had been holidaying in Italy at the time, announced that he would step down from the Carlton presidency.
There is yet to be a proper explanation of how the account was hacked, or whether the hacker was known to Sayers. This has led to rumours flying around football and business circles about exactly what happened. If Sayers was the victim of a hack, why did he resign? Carlton said the move was “in the best interests of the club” and that he would “prioritise time with his family”. Sayers was pictured with wife Cate in Italy in the aftermath of the episode.
Sayers has since returned to the country and is said to be considering his professional future. Insiders at Sayers Group are torn. They remain fiercely loyal to Sayers but are split about what he should do next. Sayers’ name is not just on the door; he and his wife are significant, but not controlling, shareholders in the organisation.
The question now hanging in the air is whether it is time for Sayers Group partners to have another uncomfortable conversation with the man whose name is on the door.
