“Across the summer break, Rob Silverwood has made the decision to step down from the [management leadership team], effective immediately, and retire from the partnership by the end of the financial year,” he wrote.
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PwC partner Rob Silverwood to exit
Senior PwC Australia partner Rob Silverwood has stepped down from the firm’s management team, less than a month after he was linked to a breakaway mergers and acquisitions consulting firm being funded by private equity. He will retire from the partnership by the end of June.
PwC’s Rob Silverwood intends to retire from the partnership by the end of this financial year. Elke Meitzel
Mr Silverwood, who will also step down as co-lead of the firm’s advisory business, is a veteran deal maker who has worked at the firm for 26 years, including 13 as a partner. He was instrumental in helping to sell PwC’s public sector consulting arm to private equity investor Allegro Funds for $1 during the depths of the firm’s tax leaks scandal in mid-2023.
In late December, The Australian Financial Review revealed that Mr Silverwood was linked to a deal being funded by private equity BGH Capital to set up a mergers and acquisitions advisory business with more than a dozen of PwC’s top deal makers. These exits, if the deal happens, would be a major blow to the consulting firm’s turnaround efforts.
Simon Harle, BGH Capital’s managing partner, is overseeing the deal to set up the new M&A advisory firm for the Melbourne-headquartered BGH Capital. Mr Silverwood has been tipped to be the leader of the new operation.
PwC Australia chief executive Kevin Burrowes informed the firm’s advisory team of Mr Silverwood’s planned exit in an email sent on Tuesday.
‘Looking for a fresh challenge’
“Across the summer break, Rob Silverwood has made the decision to step down from the [management leadership team], effective immediately, and retire from the partnership by the end of the financial year,” he wrote.
“This is not a decision Rob has made lightly, but after a 26-year career with PwC – 13 of those as a partner – he’s looking for a fresh challenge.”
Mr Burrowes said the move would mean that senior partner Rohit Antao would become the sole leader of the firm’s advisory function.
If the BGH-funded M&A breakaway firm deal is finalised, it would take out a major potential revenue source for PwC as it attempts to move on from a damaging tax leak scandal in which the firm’s staff used confidential government information to secure new clients.
When discussions about a potential breakaway firm were made public, Mr Burrowes sent a separate email to partners noting that the deals team was “not for sale and nor are any parts of our core businesses”.
Mr Silverwood was recently behind negotiations to sell the insolvency arm of PwC’s deals practice, known as Business Restructuring Services, to public relations and advisory company Teneo. That deal has not been finalised.
PwC has fallen from its longtime position as the country’s largest accounting firm by revenue to the third largest and has cut its headcount by a third since the tax scandal.
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