EY appoints five leaders to Asia Pacific executive team

Global accounting and consulting giant EY has refreshed its Asia Pacific leadership team with five new members.

According to the Australian Patrick Winter, since the summer of 2018 EY’s boss for the Asia-Pacific region, the appointments to the firm’s top regional body [known as the Area Operating Executive (AOE)] “strengthen EY's strategic capabilities” in the region.

Meanwhile, the new leaders will help EY navigate a challenging environment, both at customers as well as internally. “It’s essential that we help spearhead transformation for the EY organisation and our clients. With the new additions to the Area Operating Executive, EY Asia-Pacific is ready to not only respond quickly to disruptions, but to overcome and thrive,” said Winter.

The five members that have been promoted to the board are: 

Yew-Poh Mak, EY Asia-Pacific Strategy and Transactions Leader
Yew-Poh previously served as EY Asia-Pacific Deputy Transaction and Advisory Services Leader, and as the Asia-Pacific Strategy Execution Leader. He now leads EY Strategy and Transactions, a practice that brings together capabilities from EY-Parthenon teams and the advisory and transactions businesses. 

Mike Wright, EY Asia-Pacific Assurance Leader
Mike previously was the Deputy Assurance Leader for EY Asia-Pacific, and the Assurance Leader for the Oceania region for five years. 

Harsha Basnayake, EY Asia-Pacific Deputy Area Managing Partner
Basnayake is a Partner with EY in Singapore. He previously led EY Transaction Services in Asia-Pacific Area and Asean Region and played a leading role in growing that business to over 5,000.

Nobuko Kobayashi, EY Asia-Pacific Strategy Execution Leader
Nobuko co-leads the EY-Parthenon’s Consumer and Retail practice in Japan. She has more than 10 years of strategy consulting experience advising C-suite clients at both Japanese and multinational corporations. 

Walter Tong, EY Asia-Pacific Accounts Leader
Tong has more than 30 years of experience in advising multinational companies, with a focus on the Chinese market. He is a Partner in China, and previously served as the Accounts Leader for EY Greater China.

EY Asia Pacific

In Asia Pacific, EY currently has 48,000 employees, up from 27,000 a decade ago. The region has been one of EY's fastest growing divisions in the underlying period, on the back of a buy-and-build campaign and strong organic growth in areas including strategy consulting, cybersecurity and digital transformation.

Earlier this year, EY was named one of Asia’s 25 best employers by an independent research house.