Nexia Asia Pacific chairman Ian Stone appointed to global role
Nexia International has appointed Asia Pacific chairman Ian Stone as the accounting and consulting network’s new global chair.
Global accounting and professional services firm Nexia International – the world’s ninth largest network of its kind, with revenues breaking the $4 billion barrier last year – has appointed company stalwart and current Asia Pacific and Australia chairman Ian Stone to take on the global role – the first representative from the region to ascend to the top position. Stone succeeds Markus Emmrich, a partner at German Nexia’ member Ebner Stolz, after three years in the role.
“I am very excited to be selected as the first non-European Chair and see this as a great opportunity to ignite and engage all firms throughout their membership,” Stone said in response. “In any network, all firms have an important part to play in its growth and success. The enduring relationships we have with our clients, our teams and each member throughout our global network is a core value of Nexia and a hall mark of Nexia’s success.”
Stone has been with Nexia in Sydney for nearly the past 42 years – completing his Bachelor of Business Studies in Accounting and Finance way back in 1983 – and has over his more than four decades with the firm steadily risen the ranks, being first made partner in 1986 at just the age of 26. From there he became Sydney managing partner in 2002, before joining the Nexia International board in 2011 and being appointed Asia Pacific chair two years later.
Taking up the position at the beginning of this month, Stone now oversees a network spanning 700-plus offices across 125 countries worldwide – including recent Central Asian addition Sabr Consulting in Tajikistan, along with new members added in Switzerland and Slovenia during this month alone. With its collective headcount swelling beyond 30,000, Nexia has in recent years recorded continuous double-digit growth, largely thanks to the Asia Pacific.
“The next three years will be an exciting time for Nexia as we embark on a review of our Network strategy to incorporate the rapid changes that the profession and our clients are facing every day,” Stone said, citing a familiar industry theme: “In particular we are seeing growth in our advisory services across all our firms and therefore we need to strengthen and broaden these service lines to ensure we stay relevant to our clients and meet their demands.”
The outgoing Emmrich, who has been with Nexia and its predecessors for over two decades and also served as chair of firm’s EMEA geography from 2007, also spoke of the network’s trajectory; “Nexia saw tremendous growth over the last three years. The growth will certainly continue based on outstanding service capabilities of member firms. Nexia will continue the process to further develop specalised offerings for all service lines and for a number of different industries.”
Krupal Kanakia, a partner with Mumbai member Chaturvedi and Shah, has meanwhile been appointed as Nexia’s new Asia Pacific chair, with the international network’s C-suite also seeing some recent movement; former EMEA regional executive director Paul Ginman moves up to take on the Chief Operating Officer & Global Head of Quality role (leveraging two decades of RSM/Baker Tilly experience), while ex BDO/Baker Tilly manager Daniel Shah comes on board as his replacement.