Steven Bragg

STEVE Bragg, a 15-year motor industry specialist with extensive experience in the area of automotive retail, has been appointed director of consulting, compliance and dealer reporting at KPMG Motor Industry Services.

In the third recent senior appointment made to the newly-formed motor industry services team at KPMG in as many months, he joins team leader Wayne Pearson and Brian Fellowes.

Mr Bragg will be heading up the compliance and advisory space creating opportunities for his motor industry clients by providing industry best practice consulting. He will be involved in buy-sell transactions and putting his motor industry experience into KPMG’s compliance offering in audit and tax.

Previously Mr Bragg was at CNH Industrial Australia where he was simultaneously head of finance as well as head of retail operations in Australia & New Zealand.

CNH Industrial is a large multi-national conglomerate which includes Case and New Holland Agriculture covering a wide range of mechanised farming and construction equipment as well as taking in Iveco where Mr Bragg was responsible for trucks and vans ranging from small vans all the way up to B Double road trains.

CNH has more than 600 dealers in Australia and Iveco has 60.

An early assignment for him at CNH was to turn around the business performance of five factory-owned dealerships which were drifting. Over 15 months he cleaned them up before being called into head office to help with manufacturing operations, logistics, purchasing, the dealer network and marketing and sales.

He told GoAutoNews Premium: “I had a very mixed role, more on the operational side than financial the side, but there is a lot of consolidation of roles in every company these days so you take on a bit of everything.”

Mr Bragg is also a veteran of Horwath Motor Industry Services where he first worked with Wayne Pearson. He moved with the practice after it morphed into Deloitte Motor Industry Services.

Mr Bragg first worked in the motor industry in the United States starting his career in the motor industry division at Crowe Chizek in Columbus, Ohio.

He first came to Australia while working on end of financial year (EOFY) exchanges over a three-year period which ultimately saw him move permanently to Australia to join Horwath.

Wayne Pearson, the national leader of KPMG Motor Industry Services said: “Steven is an enormous addition to our growing team and I’m thrilled to have him on board.

“Initially, when he worked in Australia on secondment from the US and later as a permanent member of the Motor Industry Services team at Horwath/Deloitte, Steven became a valuable asset to our business. He was an instrumental team member at Deloitte, leading audits and consulting projects for our largest dealer groups,” he said.

“What makes this appointment more rewarding for me personally is that Steve has been a long-time friend of mine since his first secondment to Australia.”

Mr Bragg will be based at KPMG’s Parramatta office.

By John Mellor