Deloitte shake-up of international structure set to trigger UK leadership race

Deloitte has launched a sweeping overhaul of its international structure, joining up its European and Middle East businesses across 80 countries in a move that will trigger a leadership race in the Big Four firm’s UK operations.

The shake-up of Deloitte’s network of national member firms will lead to the creation of a new structure across the region, which will encompass 132,000 staff and be led by long-standing UK senior partner Richard Houston.

Houston, who is also chief executive of Deloitte’s North and South Europe region – a looser grouping of about 30 national firms that excludes some large countries such as France and Germany – had been expected to serve until the summer of 2027, when his second four-year term expires.

As part of the planned shake-up – approved by partners in each country – he will vault to a senior role at the helm of a new Europe and Middle East structure, Deloitte said on Monday, confirming an earlier report by the FT. His move fires the starting gun on a race to take up his vacant seat.

The two frontrunners to succeed Houston once he is elevated to a new role are Charindra Pathiwille, who heads the firm’s deals business and is known simply as “CP”, and Darren Graves, who leads the tax and legal division.

Houston overhauled the firm’s UK leadership in 2022, replacing half of the 16-person executive team. The changes were driven partly by a desire to replace older members of the management team with partners who would be young enough to run for election to replace him.

Deloitte’s partnership council will decide which candidates should be put on the ballot to succeed Houston, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

It is not yet certain whether partners will be given more than one candidate to vote for, as there has already been a process in recent months to take “soundings” from across the partnership on preferred successors.

Integrating domestic firms in the Big Four is fiendishly difficult and has in the past led to jostling for position among layers of senior partners as they seek to preserve their influence and share of profits.

Deloitte’s new Emea entity will fold together existing regional umbrella groups and encompass several large national firms, including the UK, France, Germany and Spain.

It is not yet clear whether the new Emea structure, designed in part to more closely match the regional units used by many large clients, will lead to greater profit-sharing between Deloitte’s national firms, which will continue to exist.

One person familiar with the process said that although partners at each member firm needed to agree to the new structure, it would have meant “political death” for the leader of a national firm in Europe to persuade their members to vote against joining the new regional bloc.

Deloitte, in line with most large accounting firms, operates as a network of national partnerships separately owned and managed by the senior partners in each country, which are grouped into looser regional units and overseen by a global umbrella body.

But the network model used by the Big Four, which also includes EY, KPMG and PwC, has become increasingly strained amid a need for substantial technology investments. Other large networks including KPMG and BDO have begun overhauling their own structures.

Houston currently presides over Deloitte North and South Europe, a group of 30 European and Middle Eastern firms, with 75,000 staff and 3,000 partners.

In his expanded role, he will have oversight of operations in 80 countries, generating annual revenues of €20 billion – about one-third of Deloitte’s global total.

Houston’s push for closer integration was prompted by multinational companies demanding that professional services firms operate seamlessly across borders, according to one executive.

The more streamlined structure will also aid Deloitte’s move to roll out AI tools cohesively. The new Emea structure would take effect in June and spend more than €1.5 billion on new technology including generative AI, the firm said.

Since being elected in 2019, Houston has overseen the addition of Deloitte Middle East to the North and South Europe grouping and led closer integration of its member firms.

Volker Krug, chief executive of Deloitte Germany, will serve as Houston’s deputy at the new Emea firm, while Sami Rahal, current chief executive of Deloitte central Europe, will serve as chair.

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