BrazilKPMG MESA holds 18th regional partners conference in Colombo
The 18th KPMG MESA Partners Conference is underway, with this year’s gathering held in Sri Lanka.
More than 100 KPMG partners from across the Middle East and South Asia have descended on Sri Lankan commercial capital Colombo for the firm’s 18th KPMG MESA Partners Conference. Held last year in Manama to mark the firm’s 50th anniversary in Bahrain, the Kingdom is still likely to be a topic of conversation, with the local branch part of the consortium recently awarded a near $9 million consulting contract for a megaproject connecting KSA and Bahrain.
Spanning more than 30 offices in 15 countries across the Middle East and South Asia, with a collective headcount in excess of 7,500 employees (generating revenues which jumped by a massive 17.2 percent in 2018), KPMG’s MESA geography is currently chaired by Sri Lanka Managing Partner Reyaz Mihular, who was appointed to a two-year term in a historic election in October of last year. He also gained a seat on KPMG’s EMA Board and Global Council.
Mihular, who has been with the local firm for some forty years, will welcome over 100 of his regional senior colleagues (including, potentially, a number of recent additions) to this year’s partners conference alongside KPMG International Chairman Bill Thomas, who like last year will be making his first visit to the host country. KPMG’s EMA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) chair and KPMG in Portugal Chairman Sikander Sattar will also be in attendance.
Subtitled “Re-inventing to meet clients’ agenda”, the conference will discuss leading disruptive companies in a time of accelerated change. The attendees will however likely also take a moment to celebrate KPMG’s recent coup as part of a consortium with AECOM and law firm CMS in landing a $8.9 million consulting contract for the King Hamad Causeway project, a $3.5 billion, 25 kilometre multi-transport infrastructure development linking Saudi Arabia with Bahrain.
“We are pleased to announce the appointment of the main consultancy consortium to start developing all necessary requirements and the financial model required for the construction of the new King Hamad causeway,” stated Bahrain’s Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed. “This is a strategic project for us which will further enhance our logistics sector and the links between our two countries.”
The minister signed the agreement on the side-lines of the recent Future Investment Initiate Summit in Riyadh (for which KPMG served as an official knowledge partner), together with senior causeway officials, representatives from the other consortium members, and KPMG Saudi Arabia’s Chairman and Senior Partner Abdullah Al Fozan – who also served as chairman of KPMG MESA before handing over to Mihular.
