Big 4 Accounting Firms' HR Keywords... 'New Growth Business Expertise'

Personnel Changes at Samil, Samjeong, and Anjin... Securing Digital and ESG Management Capabilities
Han Young-eun to Announce Next Week

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jihwan] Major domestic accounting firms have all begun their regular executive personnel appointments this month. They have appointed a large number of experts who have secured core competencies in new growth business areas such as digital and ESG (environment, social, and governance), which are rapidly gaining importance worldwide.

According to the accounting industry on the 25th, three accounting firms?Samil, Samjong, and Anjin?recently conducted regular executive promotions. Han Young Accounting Firm is scheduled to announce its regular executive appointments next week. The number of promotees by accounting firm is △ Samil Accounting Firm 26 △ Samjong Accounting Firm 27 △ Anjin Accounting Firm 25. The keyword these firms emphasized in this personnel appointment was ‘expertise.’ They judged that securing organizational capabilities to quickly respond to increasingly growing customer needs, more complex and segmented industry trends, and ESG management would be the foundation for survival and growth.

Samjong KPMG applied specialized expertise in this promotion. Deputy CEO Kim Idong is a leading M&A expert in the industry. He shares market listings and investment opportunity information and provides trends and success strategies for large public deals. Deputy CEO Lee Dongsuk is a strategy consulting expert leading Samjong KPMG’s Strategy Consulting Group and ESG Business Group. Samjong KPMG’s dedicated ESG organization was established in 2008 as the first among the Big Four accounting firms in Korea, with about 50 ESG experts advising domestic ESG-leading companies such as SK Group, Samsung Electronics, and Naver. Deputy CEO Han Wonsik established Korea’s first ‘Inheritance and Gift Business Succession Specialized Team’ in 2019, providing one-stop services across all areas of business succession, including tax consulting, corporate sales and acquisitions, and post-succession management strategies.

Samil Accounting Firm promoted a large number of experts in platform industries, fintech (finance + technology), ESG, management-participatory private equity funds (PEF), and global mergers and acquisitions (M&A), which are considered new growth businesses. They also strengthened risk response service capabilities by appointing insurance actuaries, order-based industry auditors, and digital tax experts. In particular, as PEFs have established themselves as key players in the domestic M&A market, experts capable of providing one-stop services such as selecting acquisition companies, proposing and responding to tax strategies, and exit plans were appointed. They also possess expertise to solve complex international tax issues such as transfer pricing tax that may arise when acquiring cross-border companies.

Anjin Accounting Firm, which conducted executive appointments first on the 17th, placed experts related to digital, ESG, and crisis response at the forefront. Last year, to foster experts with knowledge and networks in specific services and industries, they also established the executive director (ED) position as an executive-level specialist. Included in this promotion, Yeon Kyunghum, ED of the Audit Headquarters, is an expert with over 15 years of rich advisory experience in ESG and sustainable management strategy development in the energy, power, chemical, and petroleum industries. Ko Jaecheol, ED of Deloitte Anjin’s Risk Advisory Headquarters, is a crisis response expert with strengths in corporate disaster/crisis management and information system disaster recovery. Partner Yoo Sunhee of the Risk Advisory Headquarters is known to specialize in digital and cybersecurity.

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