Vanessa Wolfe-Coote’s Post

I tend to get extremely still in moments of upheaval. There's only so much control a person wields in a given situation. I'm disappointed to say my time at PwC Deutschland is coming to an unexpected early end. Management assures me it's them, not me, which is a great comfort. Turns out, enthusiasm, curiosity, and genuine intentions are not enough to get by on in the face of a cooling market. I enjoyed my brief time here so much. I was incredibly impressed by the care and intention of the onboarding process I experienced, the emphasis on professional development and personal growth opportunities, as well as the welcoming team environment created by both leadership and my colleagues. Thank you Petra Justenhoven, Daniela Geretshuber, Rusbeh Hashemian, Michael Graf, Martin Förster, Jens Christian Zwenger, Christian Klein, Andreas Angelo Miyakis, and Christian Considine for that. I couldn't have asked for more. My biggest surprise once inside a massive corporation like PwC, especially having come from the #nonprofit world, was the real potential it has to build trust in society and solve important problems (Vertrauen in die Gesellschaft aufbauen und wichtige Probleme lösen). Maybe I'm a sucker for a good mission statement, but I bought into it, and for good reason. I thought they were just doing peoples' taxes and helping sell car parts, but PwC is also making major strides in advancing the values of #ESG for large swaths of the business world. They're creating sustained outcomes for companies that drive value and fuel growth, all while strengthening our environment and societies. Who knew? I was incredibly impressed by the promise of effective change, and intrigued by the opportunity to pitch in. It's still my hope to take my growing Salesforce skills and the insights I learned while at PwC and participate in this movement, as I believe these issues can't be addressed without the use of #bigdataanalytics and a platform like #NetZeroCloud that can make sense of it. In lieu of a supportive comment, please consider asking ChatGPT to write something sincere in my profile's Recommendations section. I'll need it to awaken the hiring bots. There's a quiet eddie at the bottom of this rapid. I'll take a moment and reset in it and then push back out into the current. There's still plenty of work to be done. (And for the doubters amongst my new colleagues, yes, that's me in the photo. I didn't always shop at TK MAXX for my work attire).

Yesterday was my last day at EY. After six years I have decided to leave to pursue my dream of becoming an entrepreneur. I will be forever grateful to the Firm, as these six years have been one of the most formative experiences of my life; when I joined as EY’s first ever Technologist on the Executive Board, and also the first Direct Admit Partner to land there, I was overwhelmed. There was nothing to transition from, not even an agreed ambition of what we wanted to do in technology besides the need to change our business model. Also, I was unfamiliar with EY businesses such as Audit and Tax.  However, in that time of uncertainty, I found that EY is a truly special place with an incredible culture of collaboration. The task became easy as we were all working for the same goal and understanding. I was welcomed as though I had always been there, supported by industry luminaries such as Kate Barton and Felice Persico who had the patience to work with and support me. Working as a team and leveraging each other's strengths, six years later we have one of the largest B2B platforms in the World with more than 2,000,000 client users enabling 90% of our $50B business to run natively in the Cloud. EY Fabric is now recognized as one of the best Business Technology Platforms in the Industry. EYQ is the largest implementation of AI at scale with 300,000 daily users and we have built an incredibly strong team. There are many people that I’d like to thank: Mark Weinberger for believing in technology as a pillar of his Vision 2020 strategy; Andy Baldwin for supporting the need to invest in AI and Cloud and Pablo Cebro for being the engine and brain behind what we developed. I met many incredible people at EY, with Carmine Di Sibio holding a special place. My EY career would not have been possible without Carmine. He got me into the Firm and unconditionally supported my journey not only through believing in what we could accomplish but by helping me grow into a leader. Trying to drive a technology transformation in a 400,000 person company across 150 countries felt lonely at times but Carmine never failed to stand by me. The hard decisions are hard: having the courage to pursue a vision falls in that category. I believe that Carmine’s Vision for the future of the professional services world is inevitable. At EY we had the great opportunity to make it happen before anyone else; unfortunately, the Firm just wasn’t ready for it during his tenure. However, the journey, although extremely frustrating at times, made the Firm stronger and I believe that the new Executive Team led by Janet Truncale will be able to make it happen! As for my next Dream 😂- I believe that while we are on the verge of an incredible AI driven revolution, barriers still persist that prevent the full realization of value for Enterprise scale adoption. I will be focusing on that. More to come in the next few weeks…but today is the time to say THANK YOU EY!

🌍🚀 Will you shape the future, or will the future shape you? 🚀🌍 We’re all acutely aware of the complex challenges facing the world’s organizations on every front and from every angle. 🌐 Human. 💰 Financial. 🌱 Environmental. 💻 Technological. 🌍 Geopolitical volatility. 🔗 Interconnected issues. Everything is changing. Everywhere. All the time. So, how do the world’s organizations shape themselves to adapt, pivot, deliver and grow? 🔮 As the saying goes: The best way to predict the future is to create it. And that takes confidence. At EY there are 400,000 people globally across a full spectrum of skills and services, augmented by the EY.ai platform, working together to help clients shape the future. We believe in this so much that we have put the phrase “Shape the future with confidence” front and center alongside our logo. 🌟 It reflects our unwavering commitment to create new value and build confidence in the capital markets through whatever challenges we collectively face. Which in turn, will help us fulfill our purpose of Building a better working world for clients, EY people, society and the planet. 🌍💪 We will deliver this through our new strategy “All in,” launched by our new EY Global Chair and CEO, Janet Truncale and built through a diverse, inclusive process that taps into the vast expertise we have across our highly connected global network. Together, we will help organizations shape the future with confidence. We’ll continue to ask the better questions we’re known for, to get to the new and better answers that the future demands. A future we look forward to shaping with you. 🌟✨ #EY #ShapetheFuture #Confidence #Innovation #Leadership #FutureReady #AllIn #BetterWorkingWorld Marna Ricker Kevin Flynn Martin Fiore Adrienne Figur Ali Vahdat Tony Robinson Jill Schwieterman Chris Gunder Derek Burgess Kevin Custis Christopher Aiken Daren Campbell Scott Mullan Eric Doland, CPA Libby (Boyle) Behr Aimee Morrissette (Caswell) Matt Davidson Lori Haniford Bryon Abramowitz

Have a read through this interesting report from EY.

Good Bye the Big Blue TLDR: After 20 incredible years, living in 3 countries, projects and clients across 35+, unreal experiences, and invaluable relationships, I am getting off the KPMG Bus. As I wrap up an incredible 20-year journey with this amazing firm, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to four incredible groups of people who have made this adventure unforgettable: The 'Unknown Consultants': First and foremost to all the team members and individual contributors who worked tirelessly on assignments, often in far-flung places and under challenging conditions—thank you! You are the ones who made the magic happen. Peers: What an incredible pool of talent! To the partners and colleagues I had the privilege of working shoulder to shoulder with, thank you for making this firm a standout corporate environment. Clients: To all the clients who trusted me and put their internal reputations on the line to give me and my team opportunities—no amount of gratitude is enough. I’ve made wonderful, lifelong friends along the way, and I’m forever grateful. Mentors/Leaders: You know who you are. Thank you for having my back, offering support when it was needed the most, and clearing obstacles without hesitation. I’ll miss the access, but I’ll carry your invaluable wisdom with me. I thought i would share my top four learnings from these 20 years: Professional services is a bottom-up business: It's all about the individual impact, project by project, client by client, account by account. Client-facing time is everything; the rest is overhead. Work never gets easier; you get better: Value your expertise, understand your unique abilities, put a price on your skills, and steer clear of those who don’t. 8 out of 10 tech/code issues are people issues: It’s amazing how a happy vibrant work environment can automatically solve complex technical problems. Work with good people: Life is short. Work ‘only’ with those who help you punch above your weight, have your back, and make you laugh. Wishing KPMG all the very best. I’ll miss the Big Blue as I look forward to slaying the next dragon!  

It is late on a Friday at our One Manhattan West office. It is eerily empty, and also a bit melancholy for me. This is not just another Friday. It is my last day as a Partner with EY. I started here a little over nine years ago. I was already 32 years into a career that began when I was in college selling IT outsourcing and custom application development to SMBs to pay the bills. EY was the fifth major milestone in my professional journey, and there will be at least two more assuming my mind and body are willing. Technically I am not leaving. I will continue on in role a bit longer as a non-Partner to lean in with our team to help pivot our Partner Ecosystem into the new EY “All In” strategy we just publicly announced. So why the sense of loss? It turns out there is something special about being one of 14K partners spanning a network of over 160 countries. I would not have thought so coming in from a large corporate tech company, but the feeling of being part of something we all collectively own with shared risk and shared reward is quite extraordinary. And when those Partners, and 400K people that make up the enteprise, are consistently excellent and culturally aligned - it is magic. It has been an honor and a privilege to have been a small part of a massive force for economic and social good that dates back one-and-half centuries. I cannot begin to thank everyone I have worked with over the years, but I do want to thank some of the people who brought me here a decade ago: Hank, Michael, Raj, Hyong, John, and the late great Clayton Baker. I also want to thank the global executive team that put their trust in me to take us on our Partners Ecosystem growth journey: Jay, Andy, Steve, Marna, Errol, and Carmine. And I want to thank my great colleagues on our Global Markets Leadership Team: Hanne, Sam, Walter, Ryan, Paul, Erika, Craig, Kenneth, Oliver, and Darren. Finally, thank you to our incredible global #EYEcosystems team: Kelly, Kathy, Jim, Justine, Mark, John, Paul, Bruce, Johnny, Frank, Rich, Scott, Stephanie, Jens, Anindo, Brian, and so many more. It has been my great honor to work with all of you to create such great impact. Though I will be back at it on Monday, it won’t quite be the same. I will genuinely miss belonging to the greatest partnership in the world.

What a year EY has had! Top employer and industry awards, a key reconciliation milestone, a record number of new promotes, and greater investments in local communities and the planet, make EY better today, bolder tomorrow. Watch the 2023 recap. #EYCanada #BetterWorkingWorld

What a year EY has had! Top employer and industry awards, a key reconciliation milestone, a record number of new promotes, and greater investments in local communities and the planet, make EY better today, bolder tomorrow. Watch the 2023 recap. #EYCanada #BetterWorkingWorld

What a year EY has had! Top employer and industry awards, a key reconciliation milestone, a record number of new promotes, and greater investments in local communities and the planet, make EY better today, bolder tomorrow. Watch the 2023 recap. #EYCanada #BetterWorkingWorld

From a report by EY.