Marco Vassallo, Simon Xuereb and Jonathan Dingli have been appointed as partners while Adrienne McCarthy, Mark Curmi and Vanessa Borg have been appointed as directors at KPMG.
Mr Vassallo joined KPMG in 1995 as a software programmer and has been a driver in the evolution of IT administration, IT operations management, IT security and strategy. During his progression towards the role of CIO, he planned and deployed numerous IT projects locally and also led a number of large-scale deployment projects across other KPMG jurisdictions.
He spearheaded a number of IT due diligence projects and led the IT stream during the acquisition assignment of one of the top software development companies in Malta, followed by the establishment of their IT infrastructure and the adoption of KPMG’s IT policies, procedures and processes. He has now joined the advisory team, bringing to the table a new service offering to the market, custom software development via KPMG Software. This tech company offers expertise within the software development field across the whole project life cycle to clients from across the globe.
Simon Xuereb, a lawyer, specialised in international taxation and law, has led the ongoing development and broadening of KPMG in Malta’s private client and global mobility services offering and today leads a multi-disciplinary team of professionals in this space.
He is also actively involved in the development of this service offering at a global level for KPMG. Dr Xuereb, a regular lecturer, examiner and supervisor on various tax-related courses in Malta and abroad, has authored a number of papers in leading international publications.
Jonathan Dingli leads the accounting advisory services unit, which he helped set up. He assists local and international clients across various industries with respect to IFRS advice and IFRS adoption, including first-time adoption of IFRS and transitioning to new standards. During a term of office with the MIA technical department, he wrote a number of technical pronouncements on the application of IFRS to specific local circumstances and was responsible for the drafting of GAPSE.
He has been specialising in IFRS since 2008; he has lectured on IFRS in various countries, ran various IFRS courses for KPMG and the MIA and has given presentations at various events and conferences. He lectures on advanced financial reporting in the Master in Accountancy postgraduate degree at the University of Malta.
Adrienne McCarthy manages the firm’s internal HR team, focusing on attracting talented people to the firm and implementing important employee engagement strategies, which have played a key role in achieving the firm’s growth strategies. Since joining, she has led numerous projects in areas such as recruitment, engagement, management development and talent management. She is MSc qualified in organisational psychology with a BBS in business studies and has over 20 years’ global HR experience, having worked in five continents in a combination of HR consultancy and in-house HR roles.
Mark Curmi is an industry specialist leading the banking, financial institutions and VFA advisory services arm of the Malta practice. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in banking, with an Honours in management from the University of Malta, and has in excess of 12 years of local and international banking experience. He joined KPMG in 2014, to drive the banking service offering across audit, tax and advisory within the firm.
His role within the firm is one of an industry specialist, which has seen him at the forefront of some major engagements, including advice with disposals and acquisitions of banks and financial institutions, licensing of new credit and financial institutions, ongoing regulatory advice and assistance and, more recently, assignments related to the emerging fields of financial technology, coin offerings and virtual currencies. He represents the local practice at KPMG’s ECB office in Frankfurt and forms part of KPMG’s Global DLT working group.
Vanessa Borg has taken up the role of director, strategy advisory having joined the organisation in September 2018. She has direct experience of the challenges based by C-suite executives in growing their business and the acumen to engage in board level discussions, supporting them in their high-level, strategic decision-making processes. She has been engaged in a number of international projects, as a strategy adviser, within the hospitality, manufacturing, education, tourism, information technology, communications, retail, i-gaming, financial services and public sectors.
She has been active within the international management field for over 20 years, recently serving as a chief executive officer within the insurance industry. Besides being engaged in providing strategic levels support, she has also assisted companies to improve their operational business models.