PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Deputy CEO and leader of the firm’s Africa Assurance service line, Suresh Kana, has been named as the successor to Chief Executive Officer Colin Beggs, when Beggs retires on 1 July 2009.
Kana serves on the firm’s Executive Committee, as well as on the PwC Global Board. He is a member of the King III Committee and Chairman of the Auditing and Accounting Task Force of the King Committee; Chairman of the audit committee of the National Business Initiative; professor at the University of Johannesburg, supervising the Master’s programme in international accounting; honorary professor at the Centre of Accounting at the University of the Free State. He serves on the Boards of Appeal for the Financial Services Board Act, Stock Exchanges Control Act and the Financial Markets Control Act; was a member of the GAAP Monitoring Panel and was the South African representative on the International Audit and Assurance Standards Board.
Says Beggs, “Suresh has shown himself to be a great leader, and I am confident that he will continue to maintain PwC’s leadership in the markets in which we operate. We will work closely together to ensure that the transition is a smooth one.”
“Accounting and advisory services has become a complex business,” says Beggs, “but our emphasis on client service, quality and developing our 6 600 people throughout Africa will play to Suresh’s strengths. Together with Thabani Jali, our Chairman, he will also add impetus to our local transformation efforts and be a great role model to our people, 46% of whom are black.”
Concludes Kana, “I am both proud and humbled by this appointment, and by the PwC partners’ confidence in me. I look forward to taking on the challenge of leading the largest professional services firm in Southern Africa.”
(Click on image to enlarge)
Pictured: Suresh Kana and Colin Beggs
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