Ernst & Young recruited Jamie Miller, the departing chief financial officer of Cargill Inc., to lead the finances of its consulting arm, which the Big Four accounting firm is spinning off.
EY on Tuesday said Ms. Miller would serve as its global chief financial officer and eventually as CFO of the consulting division that is set to be hived off as a stand-alone, publicly traded entity, leaving behind a business focused on audits. EY executives devised the separation more than a year ago as regulators increased their scrutiny of potential conflicts of interest in the audit profession.
Cargill on Monday said Ms. Miller plans to step down from the Minnesota-based agricultural company on Friday. She joined Cargill about a year and a half ago from General Electric Co.
, where she served as CFO for about two years. Earlier in her career, Ms. Miller worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, another Big Four firm, as an audit partner for insurance companies and lead partner for the Midwest financial-services advisory practice.
Jamie Miller
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Cargill
“It is a unique opportunity to be part of what will be one of the most disruptive strategies in any industry this decade,” Ms. Miller said in a statement.
To carry out the split, EY is looking to raise roughly $11 billion in equity and $18 billion in debt. The firm is also setting aside $2.5 billion to fund a series of acquisitions for its consulting arm following the planned separation, an EY spokeswoman said, confirming a Financial Times article.
EY partners are expected to start voting on the deal this spring, the spokeswoman said.
The new consulting firm could struggle to establish itself amid strong competition and a slowing economy, researchers have said. The audit-focused business would also be pale in comparison in size to the Big Four firms it’s competing against for clients.
EY didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Ms. Miller’s priorities in the new role. “Her skill set, experience in the public market and business depth will be a crucial asset for our organization as we undergo this transition,” EY Chief Executive Carmine Di Sibio, the architect of the split, said in a statement.
EY said it plans to name other executives to help run both businesses over the next several weeks. The firm last month said Mr. Di Sibio would run the new consulting firm and Julie Boland, the US chair and managing partner, would head the remaining audit-focused business.
PwC, KPMG and Deloitte have said they don’t intend to pursue a similar split. Deloitte is a sponsor of CFO Journal.
Write to Mark Maurer at [email protected]
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Appeared in the January 11, 2023, print edition as ‘Cargill Finance Chief To Take Post at EY Consulting Spinoff.’
