Dive Brief:

• Finance veteran Jamie Miller departed from Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young in June, six months after being appointed global CFO for its new public consulting arm, the Financial Times reported Sunday.
• The move follows the collapse of the firm’s plans to spin off its consulting arm, which was halted this past April. Miller, who joined the firm to help with the planned split, left to “pursue other opportunities” with the original plan now off the table, she told FT in a statement.
• EY’s “Project Everest” plan, which would have broken the firm into two distinct entities comprised of its consulting and auditing businesses, respectively, was canceled in April after pushback from U.S. audit leaders, who claimed the company’s newly-formed consulting arm was getting most of EY’s tax business in the deal, CFO Dive previously reported.  

Dive Insight:

EY announced at the start of this year that Miller would be joining the accounting firm as global CFO in order to lead its planned “NewCo” entity — which would be comprised of its consulting businesses — in advance of its planned split, CFO Dive previously reported.

Miller joined EY in February from agribusiness Cargill where she served as its finance chief for two years. Her experience in the financial space also includes a decade-long stint in the CFO seat at General Electric as well as time spent with Anthem and EY rival PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Her goal as global CFO of EY was to lead the initial public offering and separation of the firm’s strategy, consulting and tax businesses, according to her LinkedIn profile. Miller’s profile confirms she departed the firm in June, just several weeks after the firm announced the separation had been halted in April.

The split was touted as a way to advance growth for both sides of EY’s business by its advocates, with the decision coming at a time when regulators had increased scrutiny on conflicts of interest in the auditing profession. The firm spent over $100 million on its plans to divorce its auditing and consulting businesses as well as announcing other large-scale shifts to its executive structure, The Wall Street Journal reported in April.

The company’s global chairman and CEO, Carmine Di Sibio — who championed the split — was granted a two-year extension from his planned retirement and was tapped to lead its NewCo entity at the time, CFO Dive previously reported. Following the failure of the split, Di Sibio announced his plans to retire from the firm in June 2024, ringing alarm bells for many regarding the future of the firm’s executive leadership. 

Regulators have continued to keep a close watch on the auditing sector, with Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Chief Erica Williams lambasting auditors for failing to adequately verify the accuracy of financial statements in a speech last week, CFO Dive previously reported.

The PCAOB will likely report flaws in 40% of the 2022 audits they review, with audit quality among both international and domestic firms trending “in the wrong direction for the second year in a row,” Williams said. The statement comes after the federal overseer doubled the number of enforcement actions it took last year from its 2021 actions, with the PCAOB also imposing record penalties.

EY did not immediately respond to requests for comment.