Wayne Pearson

KPMG has just added seven new people to its Motor Industry Services (MIS) team as demand for automotive advisory services continues to grow.

The MIS team has also announced that Wayne Pearson, who was planning to retire this year, has elected to remain on in a part-time role.

A start-up just over two years ago, KPMG MIS has now grown to more than 20 people dedicated solely to providing financial solutions to the motor industry.

Included among the new hires is 20-year industry veteran, Joel Shashoua, who has been taken on as part of a strategy of having senior retail experienced people in the MIS group to build on its focus to help dealer clients navigate the current changing retail climate.

Mr Shashoua started in the industry selling cars before moving on to the Automotive Training Institute (ATI) where he worked closely with another KPMG veteran, Wayne Pearson, in the Horwath Motor Industry Services training business.

Missing retail, Mr Shashoua then moved to the McCarrolls group where he held the roles of DP of Volkswagen and general manager of Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Renault dealerships, before his return to the dealer consulting world with KPMG

Joel Shashoua

Mr Shashoua told GoAutoNews Premium: “I am really excited to start working with dealers and get results. Our industry is moving fast and there’s some uncertain times ahead, so I look forward to helping assist dealerships to take advantage of future opportunities”.

David Brown, who has held senior roles in network development and aftersales at both Jaguar Land Rover Australia and Volkswagen has also joined the KPMG MIS team as a senior manager in the consulting and training division.

Mr Brown started his career on the dealership floor and is looking forward to using his experience to help dealers improve their profitability, particularly from the back bone of the business where efficiency and continual connectivity to the customer is the key to ongoing success.

Mr Brown said he is “excited about making the transition to a role where helping dealers be successful is a key component”. He told GoAutoNews Premium: “Our industry is going through change and maintaining profitability through customer service will be a key challenge.”

David Brown

KPMG MIS has also recently engaged long-time industry finance stalwart, Scott Hardie, as a consultant to the firm with a focus on helping dealers manage the changes in the F&I world affecting returns to dealers and the finance industry.

Mr Hardie has had a long history in automotive finance, holding senior roles at GMAC and St George Automotive Finance over the years.

He also has significant experience in establishing new finance entrants into the market place and has successfully launched many white label finance brands.

National leader, Steve Bragg, said: “Over the past couple of years we have fielded a lot of enquiry about the process changes in dealerships to handle the ASIC changes, new finance entrants and dealer requirements to establish their own ACL. For us, Scott is the missing piece of the puzzle as his experience is quite unique in this area.”

Scott Hardie

Mr Hardie, who still runs his own finance broking business, said he is “very passionate about the industry and the changes implemented by ASIC and am very happy to assist dealers through the change period”.

Two additional audit senior analysts with motor industry experience have also recently joined the MIS compliance team headed up by Steve May and David Pring.

Mr Bragg said that, as a one stop shop, KPMG MIS was often asked “to do many and varied things for dealers and their brands”.

“But, at our core, we are still an old fashioned tax and audit business and we spend a lot of our time helping clients make the right decisions.

Steve Bragg

“Our major focus is ensuring our year-end services teams ‘speak the language’ and understand how to add value to the dealers’ businesses when it comes to our year-end services process.

“We are always adding new talent to the year-end services and compliance team and we are very happy to have secured the services of these two experienced team members who have motor experience and wanted to commit to specialising in the motor industry full time.”

Mr Bragg also confirmed that the founder of KPMG MIS, Wayne Pearson, a long-time industry veteran, would be staying with KPMG MIS in a part-time capacity.

“Wayne had originally decided to retire full time, but has been recently working closely with our clients and has found a balance between work and life that allows him to do both,” Mr Bragg said.

“The current seven people joining the team are the tip of the iceberg as we move forward. We are currently recruiting for four additional roles and have another senior manager joining the team in the not too distant future.”

Mr Bragg said: “At a time when we have seen most of our competitors disband their motor industry teams, our focus has been on building a specialist motor industry group that wakes up everyday with one thought in their minds; how can I make my dealers and the brands they represent more successful?

“Many of the recent senior hires are a reflection of this single focus in relation to the industry.”

He said the KPMG MIS ethos was: “One team, one industry, one focus; growing our dealers and the brands they represent is what we are all about.”

By John Mellor