Monthly Archive: December 2012

By Michael Foster, Big4.com Blogger

Ernst & Young will pay $117 million to compensate shareholders who claim that they were defrauded by overstated claims by Chinese-Canadian firm Sino Forest.

Shareholders had filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that Ernst & … Continue reading…

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

Grant Thornton has announced the appointment of a new member firm in the Dominican Republic, called Barreto & Associates LLC. Appointed on 1 November 2012, the firm will trade as Grant Thornton Dominicana and replaces the former member firm which left the global organisation in August. Continue reading →

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

Crowe Horwath LLP, one of largest public accounting and consulting firms in the U.S., is celebrating 70 years in business. Founded in South Bend, Ind. in 1942 by Fred Crowe Sr. and Cletus Chizek, the firm, which began as Crowe and Chizek with a staff of two, now has 28 offices coast-to-coast and employs more than 2,600 people. Continue reading →

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

Deloitte was awarded an OpenText System Integrator of the Year award for the fifth consecutive year at the OpenText Enterprise World 2012 conference in Orlando, Fla. recently. The award recognizes the value Deloitte services bring to OpenText clients and Deloitte’s role in driving increased revenues for the alliance. Continue reading →

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

KPMG International (KPMG) today announced record-high combined revenues of US$23.03 billion for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2012, representing a 4.4% increase over the previous year in local currency terms. Continue reading →

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

Deloitte Singapore today announced that Garena Online Private Limited (“Garena”) ranked 15th of all of Asia Pacific’s fastest-growing technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) companies in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific programme for 2012. Now in its eleventh year, the Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific programme ranks the region’s 500 fastest-growing technology firms. Continue reading →

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

Carleton University’s Centre for Women in Politics and Public Leadership released a comprehensive benchmarking study today that outlines the uneven progress of female leaders in Canada and the challenges to achieving parity in the private, public and non-profit sectors. Continue reading →

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

An increase in online shopping is driving structural changes in the retail sector, according to a recent report issued by PwC. During 2011, the number of online users in South Africa expanded by 25% to reach 8.5 million, or about 17% of the market. There is potential for this to top 10 million by the end of 2012 if this growth rate is sustained, according to PwC’s ‘Retail and Consumer Products Outlook 2012’. Continue reading →

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

As 2012 draws to a close and the industry’s recovery progresses, commercial real estate offers varied investment opportunities across each major sector and a diverse number of cities, even though macroeconomic uncertainties still exist, such as the fiscal cliff, according to the fourth quarter 2012 findings of the PwC Real Estate Investor Survey. Continue reading →

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

PwC’s Digital Change team and custom software development company, ThoughtWorks Australia, have joined forces in a collaborative alliance that will facilitate the delivery of agile end-to-end digital solutions. Continue reading →

Guest blog by Heather Townsend, co-author of ‘How to make partner and still have a life‘ and author of ‘FT Guide To Business Networking‘, and guest blogger for Big4.com:

It depends. I know that not really … Continue reading…

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

The EU Gender Directive will remove price differences between men and women on insurance products from 21st December 2012. PwC predicts male pensioners could see their annuity payouts cut by up to £10,000 over the lifetime of their policy as a result. Continue reading →

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

McGladrey LLP, the largest U.S. provider of assurance, tax and consulting services focused on the middle market, recently named Roger Hendren as the firm’s new Chairman of the Board, replacing Jerry Bourassa whose term expired Nov. 30, 2012. Additional new board members include Ed Bartak, Phyllis Deiso and Hussain Hasan who were each elected to a four-year term by McGladrey partners. Continue reading →

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

Usher’s New Look, a non-profit organization founded by Usher Raymond IV, today announced their partnership with Accenture to help New Look reach its goal of training and certifying 50,000 youth as global leaders. The effort reflects Accenture’s Skills to Succeed corporate citizenship initiative. Continue reading →

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

According to new research published today by Accenture (NYSE:ACN), 86 per cent of senior executives indicate that access to appropriately skilled workers is essential for economic recovery in the UK. However, more than half say it is difficult to recruit candidates with appropriate skills and nearly a third state that retention of high performers is currently a problem. Continue reading →