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Ernst & Young's chairman
KPMG International and KPMG UK's chairman
Deloitte & Touche UK senior partner and chief executive
PricewaterhouseCoopers senior partner
BDO Stoy Hayward managing partner

Nick Land

Chairman, Ernst & Young

Age: 54

Education: Pre-university

Salary: About £1m

Career path
Joined a small Brighton firm of chartered accountants in 1966, qualifying in 1970. He then moved to London joining Ernst & Young in the audit division, initially for two years experience, but has remained with the firm.

After varied experience including significant international work he became a partner in 1978. He's held a succession of management roles, including head of HR, head of the London audit division and managing partner of the London office before becoming UK managing partner in 1992.

In 1995 Land became chairman of Ernst & Young UK and a member of Ernst & Young's Global Executive Board.

He oversaw the sale of E&Y's consulting arm to Cap Gemini in 2000, one of the biggest deals in consulting history, from which he received shares worth almost £1m.

Land has pioneered greater transparency and openness in accountancy firms. E&Y was the first of the Big Five to publish an annual report and accounts in 1996.

He was the first senior partner to take an accountancy firm into limited liability partnership in 2001.

Land was rated as the 15th most influential person in UK finance in 2002 by Accountancy Age, just one lower than Gordon Brown.

Current challenges include sorting out the affairs of Railtrack and Equitable Life.

Mike Rake

Chairman, KPMG International and KPMG UK

Age: 54

Salary: £1.5m in 1999

Career path
Started working in accountancy at the age of 18 and spent much of his early career with KPMG in Europe, becoming a senior partner in 1979.

Moved to senior partnership with KPMG in the Middle East in 1986.

Became KPMG's UK chairman in 1998 and then chairman of European operations in 1999.

Rated as number 21 in Accountancy Age's Top 50 most influential list in January 2002.

Selected as chairman of KPMG International in May 2002, as a result of his instrumental efforts in bringing KPMG's European, Middle East and Africa regions together. He is now responsible for more than 100,000 staff in more than 150 countries.

John P Connolly

Senior partner and chief executive, Deloitte & Touche UK

Career path
Connolly has also spent his whole career with the same firm. Responsibilities have included running an office in the Middle East, being a regional managing partner, acting as head of the London office, and UK managing partner. His speciality is corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions.

He has been elected to the board of partners continuously since 1983, been a member of the executive committee since 1985 and was appointed UK senior partner in 1999, at which point the firm was at the bottom of the Big Five league table.

His current challenge is overseeing the merger between Deloitte & Touche and Andersen UK to create the country's second largest firm.

He was rated 24th in Accountancy Age's Top 50 most influential list for 2002 after achieving the biggest growth in fee income of all the Big Five firms.

Kieran Poynter

Senior partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers, now the world's largest accountancy and consultancy firm

Age: 51

Career path
Qualified as an accountant with Price Waterhouse in 1974.

Became a partner in 1982 and by 1984 was the industry leader for the insurance industry in the UK. In 1984 he took on the same role in Europe.

In 1992, Poynter was put in charge of the London audit groups, and in 1993, he was elected to the supervisory boards of PW UK and PW Europe.

In 1996, he became managing partner of PW UK. After the merger with Coopers and Lybrand he became a member of the global oversight board.

Poynter was appointed senior partner in 2000. In January 2001 he was responsible for reducing the number of UK partners by 10% from 1100 to 1000.

Poynter was rated the 16th most influential person in the world of UK finance by Accountancy Age in 2002.

Jeremy Newman

Managing partner, BDO Stoy Hayward

Age: 43

Career path
Newman joined BDO in 1978 and later qualified with the firm.

He has worked as an audit partner and has expertise in professional practices.

Newman joined the partnership council in 1991 and became part of the management executive in 2000.

He was appointed as the managing partner in October 2001, just as the firm achieved a record financial performance, with fee income of £201.5m.

He is rated 30th on the Accountancy Age most influential list.

Sources
www.pwcglobal.com
www.kpmg.co.uk
www.ey.com
www.deloitte.co.uk
www.bdo.co.uk
www.accountancyage.com

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