KPMG Europe LLP Board
The main governing body in KPMG Europe LLP is the Board. The Board is responsible for ensuring that KPMG Europe LLP is run in the interests of the Members as a whole and in a manner which is in keeping with the standing and reputation of KPMG Europe LLP. The Board is responsible for considering, reviewing and approving KPMG Europe LLP’s overall strategy and overseeing its implementation by the Executive Committee. It can exercise all powers for KPMG Europe LLP except for a small number of matters principally affecting the structure and composition of the group, which require a vote of the members. In discharging its duties, the Board is required at all times to consider the financial performance and solvency of KPMG Europe LLP.
KPMG Europe LLP Executive Committee
The Executive Committee is responsible for developing and recommending to the Board policy and strategy for the KPMG Europe LLP Group. The Executive Committee is also responsible for implementing the policy and strategy adopted by the Board and dealing with all operational matters affecting KPMG Europe LLP. It is also responsible for making available to the Board such information, reports and other documents to enable the Board to carry out its duties.
Full details of the members who sat on the Board and the Executive, their background, length of service and meeting attendance can be found in our 2011 Transparency Report.
Public Interest Committee – Independent non-executives
The Public Interest Committee is responsible for overseeing the public interest aspects of the decision making for KPMG Europe LLP and its related entities including the management of reputational risks. Acting in the public interest in this context involves having regard to the legitimate interests of clients, government, financial institutions, employers, employees, investors, the business and financial community and others who rely upon the objectivity and integrity of the accounting profession. The three independent non-executives who are members of this Committee are:
Sir Steve Robson
Sir Steve retired as Second Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury in January 2001. He is currently a non-executive directors of Partnerships UK plc, Xstrata plc and the Financial Reporting Council and was a non-executive director of JP Morgan, Cazenove plc and the Royal Bank of Scotland
Tom de Swaan
Tom was a member of the board (and Chief Financial officer) of ABN Amro Bank, and is presently a member of the board of Zurich Financial Services Ltd and GlaxoSmithKline Plc (where he chairs the Audit Committee). He was also chairman of the Basal Committee on banking Supervision from 1997 to 1998.
Dr Alfred Tacke
Dr. Tacke is a former Director General in the Ministry of Economics in the Federal Government of Germany, and is now a member of the Advisory Committee of the Deutschland Fund at the Ministry of Economics in Berlin. He has been a member of the boards of Deutsche Bahn, Postbank and Evonik Industries.
The full terms of reference for the Public Interest Committee (which includes in sections 4.9 and 4.10 the procedures for dealing with any fundamental disagreement that cannot otherwise be resolved) is available here.
Audit Committee
The Audit Committee’s responsibilities include reviewing the annual financial statements of the legal group, considering accounting issues arising in respect of the legal group’s affairs, receiving and considering reports from the internal and external auditors, making formal recommendations to the Board on the appointment or removal of the auditors as well as reviewing the effectiveness of the operational and financial controls within the group.
The full terms of reference for the Audit Committee is available here.
Listed Company Dialogue
If you are a shareholder, executive director or member of an audit committee at a listed company and wish discuss with us any matter covered in either the Audit Firm Governance Code or our latest Transparency Report, please contact Mike Ashley at mike.ashley@kpmg.co.uk.
