KPMG Australia has appointed John Sams as chief executive, replacing partner Stan Stavros, who spent nearly eight weeks as interim CEO overseeing the firm’s initial response to a damaging scandal involving the misuse of confidential client information and its treatment of a whistleblower.
Sams took office immediately on 21 July, one day after KPMG disclosed that seven people had been sanctioned over the inappropriate sharing of client documents. The disciplinary measures ranged from formal warnings and restrictions on career progression to financial penalties of up to $180,000. Two of the partners involved had retired before the sanctions were imposed.
Sams’s appointment brings Stavros’s temporary leadership of the firm to an end. Stavros was installed as interim CEO on 29 May following the resignation of Andrew Yates, who accepted responsibility for KPMG’s handling of the whistleblower and the investigations into the allegations.
Julian McPherson, KPMG Australia’s National Managing Partner of Audit and Assurance, also stepped down at the time. From the beginning, Stavros’s appointment was explicitly interim, with the board continuing its search for Yates’s permanent successor.
A KPMG partner for almost two decades, Stavros has more than 30 years of experience advising governments and corporations on infrastructure, property and major service-delivery projects. Before taking the top job temporarily, he was the firm’s National Managing Partner of Deal Advisory and Infrastructure.
His role during the crisis was not simply ceremonial. Stavros became responsible for stabilising the firm, reshaping its leadership and beginning the governance reforms that Sams will now be expected to carry through.
Within days of Stavros taking over, chief operating officer Eileen Hoggett stepped aside from that role and returned temporarily to audit work. Sams, who had been chief financial officer since October 2025, was given the additional responsibilities of chief operating officer on 3 June. Other appointments were made across the audit and advisory businesses as KPMG attempted to contain the fallout.
Later in June, Stavros announced a broader leadership and governance overhaul. Chairman Martin Sheppard confirmed he would leave the firm, while KPMG committed to appointing its first independent chairman, increasing independent representation on its board and strengthening oversight of audit quality, ethics and whistleblower complaints.
Michael Ebeid, a former managing director of SBS and senior Telstra executive, was subsequently appointed independent chairman.
“The decisions announced today are necessary and immediate,” Stavros said when unveiling the reforms.
“We did not meet the standards expected of us, and we recognise the impact this has had on the whistleblower, our people, our clients and the community.”
Stavros said KPMG was changing its leadership, tightening controls and commissioning external reviews, adding that trust would only be restored through “sustained action and demonstrable change”.
The crisis began with allegations raised by a KPMG whistleblower in 2024 and made public in Parliament in March 2026. The allegations concerned confidential information belonging to major audit clients, including property group Lendlease and telecommunications company Optus.
According to Reuters, Lendlease and Optus information was shared among KPMG personnel involved in efforts to win audit work from Westpac, Dexus and Telstra. The allegations raised serious questions about whether information obtained through one client relationship had been used to pursue business from another.
KPMG’s initial internal investigation, followed by an external legal review, did not substantiate the whistleblower’s allegations. However, a later investigation identified another incident in which internal documents containing client information had been shared inappropriately, supporting part of what the whistleblower had reported.
The KPMG board ultimately acknowledged that the firm had fallen short in its management of the whistleblower, the rigour of its investigations and the actions taken by senior leadership. It apologised unreservedly to the whistleblower, affected clients and its employees.
The firm has since engaged law firm Allens to investigate the allegations and Principia Advisory to review its speak-up culture, policies and processes. KPMG has also committed to strengthening its controls around client confidentiality and improving independent oversight of whistleblower matters.
The consequences have extended well beyond KPMG’s executive offices.
Lendlease has decided to replace KPMG as its auditor, ending a relationship that had lasted for decades. The firm has also agreed not to bid for new Commonwealth Government work until 30 September while the Department of Finance commissions an independent review of its governance, culture, ethics and integrity frameworks.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has opened an investigation into the conduct of several registered company auditors at KPMG. ASIC is examining whether the conduct breached auditors’ legal duties and whether those involved remain fit and proper to hold registration. KPMG is also facing scrutiny from the Tax Practitioners Board and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
Sams now inherits responsibility for navigating those investigations, repairing relationships with clients and demonstrating that KPMG’s promised reforms amount to more than a change in personnel.
He joined KPMG UK as a graduate in 2003, moved to Australia in 2006 and later built his career in corporate finance and infrastructure advisory. He became a partner and eventually led the business now known as Commercial Advisory and Transactions before being appointed chief financial officer last October.
KPMG said Sams was selected after a process that considered candidates from within the Australian firm, across its international network and externally.
“The board believes that John has the strong attributes required to be the firm’s successful leader, including agility, courage and integrity,” Ebeid said.
The decision to appoint another long-serving insider has nevertheless attracted scrutiny. Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill, who has been central to the parliamentary examination of the scandal, questioned whether someone already connected to the firm’s leadership could deliver the degree of cultural change now required.
Sams acknowledged the scale of the challenge in his first statement as chief executive.
“I do not underestimate the task ahead but commit to our clients and people that I am prepared to be courageous, take the tough decisions and lead the changes we need to set us on the right path,” he said.
“We have serious work to do on our culture, our leadership and our governance and it will take resolve and endurance.”
Stavros’s place in the story is distinct. He was not presented as KPMG’s permanent answer to the crisis, but as the experienced partner asked to take control after the former leadership fell, oversee the first executive departures and begin the firm’s governance reset.
Sams must now determine whether the changes initiated during Stavros’s interim tenure are sufficient to restore the confidence of regulators, governments, clients and KPMG’s own employees.
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