EY CEO resigns after UK audit firm’s split plan fails

UK financial services firm EY announced on Tuesday (Jun 13) that its CEO will retire in 2024 – a year earlier than planned and on the heels of a failed plan to split its audit and consulting units.

Carmine Di Sibio, who has headed the group since 2019, was supposed to oversee the break-up until the end of his mandate in 2025 but the project was rejected by its US branch in April.

Dubbed “Project Everest”, the plan aimed to accelerate growth and avoid conflicts of interest but required the approval of EY’s 13,000 worldwide partners.

The firm said in a statement that Di Sibio announced to partners in a webcast that “he will retire as Global Chair and CEO of EY, having reached the mandatory retirement age of 60 this March”.

“I am proud of the bold vision we set out in Project Everest,” Di Sibio said.

“The courage that we displayed set the entire sector on a new course that will only become apparent in the years to come,” he said. AFP