The champion of diversity in the workplace, cheerleader of KPMG's CSR
initiatives, a believer in building an inclusive future workforce, an
exceptional leader, a great role model and an avid golfer, John B.
Veihmeyer is a hot shot in business and financial issues, including
ethical leadership, diversity, financial reporting, audit quality, risk,
governance, and education. As the Global Chairman of KPMG
International, he is making smart choices today steering one of the
world's greatest consultancies into the right direction, continuing to
support the professionals around the world to utilise their full
potential and bring their best in; meeting the rapidly expanding needs
of clients. At a time when an average American stays no more than four
years in a firm, he never left since he joined KPMG Washington office in
1977. He kept moving through a series of positions of increasing
responsibility. With his four decades with KPMG, he puts together
exceptional range of skills, outstanding leadership records and
unparallel experience. John, who is very passionate about serving
clients in the best way possible, is happy that he is often challenged,
developing skills and enjoying his career. As he plans his retirement at
the end of September 2017, John has put in place a strong foundation
for the future Chair to build on.
Growing with KPMG...
After
working for a decade with KPMG, John was on-boarded as the partner. He
has since then held numerous leadership roles at KPMG US, including as
Lead SEC and professional practice partner Mid-Atlantic Area,
Partner-in-Charge of Audit in Washington and Baltimore, Washington Area
Office Managing Partner. In the last ten years, he was active in the
senior management as U.S. Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of
the Americas and the Deputy U.S. Chairman.
Under his leadership
at the global level, KPMG continued to strengthen its reputation and had
always stayed a step ahead of its competitors on a number of fronts
like launching apps to help users access its huge range of reports and
to give college students career advice and going green. In his previous
roles, John has made significant contribution to KPMG US member firm. In
terms of global revenues, his guidance took KPMG from $24.8 billion to
$25.4 billion.
Notes from the global leader...
Accepting
that disruption is a fact of life for CEOs, this optimistic leader sees
every disruption as an opportunity to transform the business model,
develop new products and services, and reshape the business so it is
more successful than ever before rather than a threat.
A strong
believer of diversity and inclusion, John consider them as important as
technical expertise and industry knowledge. According to him, an
inclusive culture is an environment within which everyone feels they can
accomplish anything they want to, in both their careers and their
personal lives. He dreams boldly of a time when no one leave KPMG
because they feel they can't bring their whole self to work, that there
are ceilings in place keeping them from achieving their ambition; or
because it's not an environment that's flexible enough to allow them to
achieve both their personal and professional goals. The flexible and
open policies of KPMG accommodate the changing needs of its talented
employees.
As the world becomes more global, he considers talent
as the lifeblood of any organisation. Acquiring skills and getting
acquainted with different cultures and people is the way forward to be
successful and advance rapidly in the global marketplace.
A philanthropist at heart...
John
and his wife, Beth are deeply committed to philanthropy. They are the
driving force of KPMG's Family for Literacy which fights against
childhood literacy. He is co-chair of CEOs against Cancer and is a board
member of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy. He is a
Board member of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP)
and Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts.
CSR initiatives from the leader...
The
message that the senior executives of KPMG including the Global
Chairman sends out is to be a firm that has a positive impact on the
communities they operate in and on the world at large. The personal goal
of John is no different.
A responsible and responsive leader,
John likes to keep the public on loop on how and why rather than what
businesses are doing. He feels this would make the businesses to
consider the long-term impacts of their choices.
The efforts to build women leaders...
John
is a Board member of Catalyst Women On Board, through which he mentors
and champions senior executive women in their approach to attaining
corporate board appointments for two years.
John, who has five
sisters and two daughters, is well aware of the career challenges the
women faces. He is an acclaimed leader who is known to do everything he
can to support a happy work environment at KPMG. He finds it a strategic
business approach to create a work environment where women can thrive
and is always in the forefront in implementing initiatives that support,
advance, retain and reward them. He intentionally encourages high
performing women to become exceptional female leaders. As the world
applauds his contributions towards thinning the women’s leadership gap
and building more women leaders, John feels inclusion of more women in
senior management is not just a woman's issue, but a smart and strategic
business approach.
Personal life...
When
not at work, he loves to do community involvement, golf, vacationing at
the beach, and Notre Dame Sports. He also enjoys interacting with
college students through speaking engagements and campus recruiting and
also speaking with KPMG’s younger professionals young. His advice for
the young graduates is not to be afraid to make mistakes and not to stop
learning.
He occasionally pens down his thoughts for various
magazines on topics which are close to his heart like childhood
illiteracy, diversity and inclusion in work space, the prevalent threats
in today's Internet-centric global economy, corporate agility etc.
On
asked about his hero in an interview, John fondly remembers his dad.
John spent his summer holidays working for the small business his father
owned. The most important lesson he learned from the words and actions
of his dad is to treat everyone you interact with, with respect
irrespective of his position. Another valuable life lesson from his dad
was to maintain the personal integrity. Personal integrity as a critical
success factor for an individual is also something which he emphasises
and passes along in all his speaking engagements with the young
professionals today. He also remembers his mentors who took him under
their wing and invested their time to point in the right direction which
helped him develop much quicker than he would have otherwise.
He is married with three children and lives in Maryland.
Education...
When
a mentor advised John B. Veihmeyer that accounting was the toughest
major in the business area, he instantly jumped in. He graduated with a
BBA in accounting from the University of Notre Dame in 1977.
Awards and recognitions...
| |
| Named as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting by Accounting Today from 2009 to 2012 Named as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Corporate Governance by Directorship. Honored as "Responsible CEO of the Year" by Corporate Responsibility Magazine in 2013 CEO Leadership Award from Diversity Best Practices in 2011 | |
Memberships and associations...
| |
| Member of the Business Roundtable, the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum Member of the Mendoza College Business Advisory Council of the University of Notre Dame Member of the British American Business International Advisory Board Member of the board of the US-India Business Council, the Board of Trustees for both the US Council for International Business (USIBC) and the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF), and the Executive Committee of the Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF). | |
| Quotes Don’t try to orchestrate every step of your career path. Just do every job as well as you possibly can. Be honest and respectful with everyone you interact with, and making them feel valued at that moment. If you aren’t passionate about this (diversity in workplace), then you can’t be in your leadership role. We won’t grow as fast, be as profitable, have the best latent and achieve all of our objectives without inclusion. People's perceptions of you are formed not just by the big things you do, but also the little things. It was always important to me that people walk away from our conversations knowing that I listened, cared and was honest. It's not the earth-shattering, big ethical decisions [that make the biggest difference]. It's the little things you do eight times a day that I think define your reputation as an individual and how trustworthy you are. | |
கருத்துரையிடுக Facebook Disqus