Mike Baird joins KPMG Australia board

Mike Baird, former CEO of HammondCare and NSW Premier, has accepted a role as independent director of consultancy KPMG Australia. Mike will be joined by former Managing Director Asia Pacific Accenture and former Commonwealth bank and Telstra director, Jane Hemstritch. Patty Akopiantz, who became an independent director of KPMG Australia in 2021, will remain in the role. Mike's appointment boosts the number of KPMG Australia independent directors to three, the increase reflecting concerns about consultancies' governance in the wake of the PwC scandal, in which a former PwC partner shared confidential government information with clients. Mike joined HammondCare in September 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the middle of the Aged Care Royal Commission. He spent more than a decade in NSW Liberal politics, serving as Premier between 2014 and 2017 before returning to the banking sector as Chief Customer Officer – Consumer Banking at National Australia Bank. Mike, the only aged care CEO to be appointed to the Aged Care Taskforce, recently told SATURDAY his three-and-a-half years in the aged care sector had been the toughest of his career. “Mike’s distinguished career across the public and private sector is rare and positions him to provide our Board with unique insight and challenge," said KPMG National Chairman Martin Sheppard. "His government expertise, understanding of regulatory drivers and parliamentary processes is a valuable addition to the Board." Mike will begin his appointment as soon as his responsibilities at HammondCare allow.