Gayathri Parthasarathy leads financial services advisory arm of KPMG
KPMG India has appointed a new head of financial services within its Advisory practice in the country. Gayathri Parthasarthy joins from IT company IBM, having previously served competitors Accenture and Capco.
Big Four accounting and advisory firm KPMG has been in recovery/expansion mode in India over the last few months. Having survived a raid from Big Four rival Deloitte, which cost KPMG’s advisory practice nearly 350 professionals, the firm has bounced back by appointing around 20 new partners and scores of new executives.
Among new staff appointed to the Advisory practice, the latest addition is Gayathri Parthasarthy, who has been called in to head the firm’s financial services in the country. Parthasarthy takes on this new role after a four-year spell in the upper tiers of IT company IBM, where she held the positions of Senior Partner and Vice President for Global Business Services in the Financial Services Sector for India and South Africa.
Since completing a Masters in Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics at the University of Madras in India in 1986, Parthasarthy has accumulated nearly thirty years of experience in the area of financial services. She began her career at i-flex Consulting, where she delved into a number of domains, including software development, account management, product management, architectural and technology consulting, and other solutions-based areas.
In her 13 years at the firm, she began as a consultant before ascending to Principal Consultant in 2000, and eventually being appointed as Vice President for Prime Sourcing and the Head of Corporate and Retail Banking.Building on her consulting experience, Parthasarthy spent two spells at consulting firm Accenture: first as Partner from 2006 to 2007 as part of the Delivery Center Management Team, and then as Managing Director and Partner in the firm’s Financial Services Operating Group between 2010 and 2013, before taking on her role at IBM.
In the three-year period between her two spells at Accenture, Parthasarthy Served as Partner and Executive Vice President for the Global Delivery Organisation segment at consulting firm Capco’s Indian arm.
Parthsarthy’s expertise lies primarily in technology transformation and financial services solutions, particularly in the telecom industry. She is also well versed in the world’s top core-trading platforms, and the firm will hope that her wealth of experience and expertise will help accelerate growth in its new phase.
Commenting on the appointment, Arun M Kumar, the Chairman and CEO for KPMG in India said, “She (Parthasarthy) is a strong leader with a clear understanding of how to bring about transformational change in large organisations especially when technology is a key enabler. In response to the rising demand for transformation initiatives, KPMG in India is creating a focus on this area with Gayathri’s appointment. Her expertise in building enterprise class products and growing businesses from inception will deliver effective results for our clients."
Meanwhile, Vikram Hosangady, the Partner and Head for the firm’s Advisory practice in the country said, “KPMG in India’s advisory practice is a large platform and our focus will be on being sharper and relevant to changing needs of our clients in these disruptive times. With a view to offering sector depth and customized solutions, we hope to have significant wallet share across all marquee clients in each of our chosen sectors. “Gayathri’s in- depth knowledge will amplify this further, paving the way forward for long-standing and enhanced engagement with our clients.”
Last month, KPMG's Indian arm received international plaudits by setting a world record as part of its cyber-security initiative.
