Grant Thornton promotes long-time business adviser to principal
The firm’s private business tax and advisory division refreshes its Brisbane leadership team.
Grant Thornton has elevated a director to principal in the latest of a series of changes to its Brisbane-based private business tax and advisory division.
The firm said the promotion of long-time adviser Michael Hogg put two principals and four partners in charge of the division of around 50 staff.
“There's been a fair bit of a refresh of our leadership team in our division in the last 12 months,” Mr Hogg said.
Grant Thornton promoted Heather Gouveia and Ben Napier to partner in June.
Meanwhile, veteran partners Tony Markwell, Mark O’Hare and Dennis Eagles have also stepped down.
Mr Hogg said the changes presented the division an “opportunity to focus on important things with our people and also continue to service clients to the high standards we hold.”
As Grant Thornton’s latest principal, he said he was excited about the additional marketplace “presence” afforded by his position and named “collaboration, respect and empowerment” as values he would be looking to promote.
“I am a real advocate for the way Grant Thornton goes about looking after its people and in turn looking after clients,” he said.
Mr Hogg said his clients were predominantly family and mid-size businesses that ranged across various industries.
He specialised in tax planning, business model design, succession, exit and retirement planning and said his focus would be on advisory work instead of compliance, with the division’s services having grown after COVID-19 restrictions eased.
“Coming out of the pandemic, we are seeing that growth, and there's been a lot of focus in our division on the advisory side of our services,” he said.
“It’s a little bit cliche, but one of the things COVID-19 led to was clients being given the opportunity to step back and have a look at their business a little bit more. They got out of the day-to-day running and began thinking strategically, looking at their future plans.”
Mr Hogg had over two decades of private business advisory experience and had been at the mid-tier firm for the past seven years. Before joining in 2017, he had worked at KPMG for 25 years.
“I have been in quite a senior leadership role for the last few years being a director, but going to principal gives me that opportunity to have more of an ability to make a difference to how we service our clients. I'm looking forward to being the person responsible for my engagements,” he said.
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