KPMG Leeds office boss Euan West promoted to new national role but will keep Yorkshire base

KPMG Private Enterprise (KPE) supports privately owned businesses of all sizes with their growth agendas and business strategy, from early-stage funding advice to planning an exit.

Mr West’s role will span KPMG’s 20 offices around the country but he told The Yorkshire Post that Leeds will remain his main location.

"Although it is a new role internally, I will still be spending at least 50 per cent of my time supporting clients,” he said. “My portfolio of clients tend to be in this part of the world.

"Although I will have a national remit in terms of leadership, my client base is still here. Leeds will remain my home base office although I will probably get fairly familiar with the East Coast Main Line.”

His new job will start when Karl Edge becomes the firm’s Chief People Officer and joins KPMG’s UK Executive Committee. Mr Edge will keep his additional role as Head of Regions.

Mr West said his replacement as Leeds Office Senior Partner is due to be announced in March, with the recruitment process already under way.

"It is a big office with an exciting client base so it is quite an attractive proposition to run this office,” he said.

Mr West said that his four-and-a-half-years overseeing the Leeds office has been the most enjoyable part of his 23-year career with KPMG.

"It has been an amazing time. We helped build the Nightingale Hospital in Harrogate, we helped run vaccination rollouts from our project rooms downstairs, there’s no way you could have predicted the things we would do during that period.

"It has been challenging but hugely rewarding. I’ve been very fortunate to do that job in a city I know and have grown up in. I’ve been incredibly proud to represent our brand in Leeds, it has meant a lot to me.

"I’m pleased that Leeds will remain my base although I’ll try and avoid the Alex Ferguson syndrome of being on the shoulders of whoever comes next!

"Leeds as a city region has had its moment in the sun in the last couple of years, is continuing to do really well and there are many reasons for optimism as we go into FY24 in this part of this world. I’m sure whoever succeeds me will do a cracking job.”

He added: “We’ve got 1,110 colleagues based in Leeds and as we all came back to this hybrid world after Covid, no one was quite sure what that meant. We’ve worked very hard to maintain community, culture and that sense of belonging to an office. Keeping that sense of place and the importance of the office has been really encouraging.”

He said his new responsibility for KPE’s operations spans family businesses, private equity-backed businesses and AIM-listed businesses.

"It is a real range from tech-led IP-heavy scale-up businesses through to £3 or £4bn revenue businesses working on a global scale with an international footprint.”

He said: “We are blessed at KPMG to have the office network but more than that is the people who work here who spend their lives working with and supporting organisations with those particular ownership structures. They understand the pressures and challenges they are facing. It means we are particularly well-placed to provide support.”

Mr West joined the firm in 2002 and became partner in 2011 by which time he was leading relationships with several of the firm’s largest regionally based clients. He then worked in London before leading KPMG’s Liverpool office between 2017 and 2019.

Karl Edge, current Head of KPE and Regions at KPMG UK, said he was delighted by Mr West’s appointment to his new post.

“Our Private Enterprise business is an integral part of our firm and runs across all of our capabilities,” he said.

“Wherever we are in the country, our teams ultimately support local businesses and Euan’s appointment demonstrates the importance of the regions to the firm and the value they bring through growth opportunities.

“I know Euan will continue to do a great job supporting the entrepreneurial spirit that KPE embodies in this new role.”