John P. Connolly (businessman)

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John P. Connolly
Born
John Patrick Connolly

(1950-08-29) 29 August 1950 (age 73)
Manchester, England
NationalityBritish
Education St Bede's College, Manchester
Known forFormer senior partner and CEO, Deloitte
Founder, Cogital
TitleChairman, G4S
Chairman, Amec Foster Wheeler
Board member of G4S
Amec Foster Wheeler
Cogital
Great Ormond Street Hospital
SpouseOdile Lesley Griffith
Children2

John Patrick Connolly (born 29 August 1950) is an English businessman. He is the chairman of Eisner Advisory Group LLC, Interpath Advisory, Stonehage Fleming and Metric Capital Partners. He was chairman of two FTSE-100 companies, G4S and Amec Foster Wheeler. Prior to that he was senior partner and chief executive of Deloitte in the UK, and global managing partner and global chairman of Deloitte until his retirement from the firm in June 2011.

Contents

Early life

John Connolly was born on 29 August 1950. [1] His father was John Connolly and his mother, Mary Morrison. [1] He was educated at St Bede's College, Manchester. [1]

Career

Connolly ran an office for Deloitte in the Middle East, was partner-in-charge of its Leeds office and a regional managing partner. He was also head of the London office and UK managing partner. [2] He was also global managing partner and global chairman of Deloitte until mid 2011.

Connolly transformed Deloitte in UK – once the smallest of the Big Four accountants – after masterminding a merger with Arthur Andersen in 2002. Rivals predicted that Andersen, which collapsed because of its association with Enron, would be a bad fit with Deloitte. However, under Connolly’s stewardship, the two gradually merged and avoided mass defections. [3] He has also insisted that the firm retains its consulting arm, the only big accountancy practice to do so, and plays a significant role in advising some of the firm’s biggest clients.

In 2008, Connolly was named at number 58 in the Times Power 100, the annually compiled list of men and women who hold sway over British business, ranking 34 places above Sir Richard Branson. [4] Connolly was also named as the Personality of the Year in the Accountancy Age Awards 2008, described as “the accountancy world’s equivalent of Sir Alex Ferguson”. [5]

Connolly steered Deloitte to a credit-crunch-busting 16 per cent jump in 2008 pre-tax profits to £654 million. Global revenues for the accounting and professional services giant were up by 12 per cent to £2.01 billion in the year to 31 May 2008, comfortably beating its £2 billion target for this financial year. [3] Connolly cemented his status as Britain’s highest paid accountant in 2008, when his £5.7million pay packet was disclosed in the company’s annual results. [3] In 2009, Connolly's pay was reported to have decreased slightly to £5.22million.[ citation needed ]

Connolly was previously the chairman for Hampshire-based debt recovery agency, Capquest. Capquest was one of the market leaders of the debt recovery industry until board changes took place in 2012.

Connolly became embroiled with the Barlow Clowes affair. He was heavily criticised by the accountancy profession in 1995 for his role when the report into the scandal was published. [6]

Connolly served as the chairman of G4S from January 2012 until May 2021. [7] He also served as the chairman of Amec Foster Wheeler. [8]

In October 2016, Connolly founded Cogital (now Azets), a British multinational accounting and business services company, with the financial backing of the private equity firm Hg Capital. [9] [10] Accountancy Age has reported that Cogital and its private equity backers have big plans to challenge the dominance of the Big Four accounting firms. [11]

Philanthropy and equine interests

Connolly served as the chairman of the Great Ormond Street Hospital until July 2019. [12]

Connolly is also a racing fanatic, owning four horses at a stable near the South Coast. His horses are Crimson Monarch, Tungsten Strike, Night Crescendo and Gaia Prince. [13] He also has an interest in others 'horses through the formation of the Green Dot Partnership, a racehorse syndicate that raised £630,000 from Deloitte partners to buy yearlings. The registered colours are blue, with a big green dot. Fellow partners have invested between £5,000 and £25,000. [13]

Personal life

Connolly married Odile Lesley Griffith in 1992. [1] He has a son and a daughter. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "CONNOLLY, John Patrick". Who's Who 2017. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  2. ↑ "John Connolly - 11 Nov 2004". Accountancy Age. 11 November 2004. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 Movers and shakers The Times
  4. ↑ Movers and shakers The Times
  5. ↑ Accountancy Age awards 2008 [ dead link ]
  6. ↑ Reece, Damian (12 January 2004). "Deloitte UK boss 'lacked competence' - Business News - Business" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  7. ↑ "Our Group Board: John Connolly". G4S. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  8. ↑ "John Connolly Chairman". Amec Foster Wheeler. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  9. ↑ Gill, Oliver (3 October 2017). "Big Four challenger Cogital has grown from zero to 4,600 staff in one year". cityam.com. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  10. ↑ "Home - CogitalGroup". cogitalgroup.com. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  11. ↑ "Former Deloitte boss John Connolly plots 'rival' to Big Four". Accountancy Age. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  12. ↑ "Trustees". Great Ormond Street Hospital. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  13. 1 2 Taking the bit between the teeth The Spectator Archived June 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
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