It was on a snowy night in February 2008 — as the country was battling one of the biggest financial crises of the past hundred years — that Tim Ryan believed his accounting career to be over.
Ryan was working with one of the firm's biggest clients until audits revealed a material weakness, meaning the company's internal controls and processes preventing financial statement irregularities were ineffective. As the lead partner, it was his responsibility to report it to the board's chairman, with all the consequences that would come with that. When reflecting on that winter night, Ryan remembers feeling like no one would work with him ever again.
But a surprise was waiting for him, as he came back to the 31st floor of the PwC offices in New York, around 40 people were waiting for him, ready to support his decision, along with the senior partner at the time. Their presence made Ryan feel like his colleagues would always have his back, and he understood right away that he would remain at PwC for the rest of his career.
"Today, my job is to make sure that type of culture continues and that this firm is always going to do the right thing," said Ryan. "It was certainly not an easy situation or conversation, but upholding the values of being an accountant and what the public and markets trust us to do, it was the right decision to make."
At the beginning of his career at PwC, Ryan worked with a client bank in New Hampshire during a 1991 banking crisis, which was particularly hard on the state and caused 12 local banks to fail. In October 1991, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation shuttered seven banks in what was known as the "nightmare on Elm Street." Ryan spent six months standing at a teller's desk, collecting the keys of people who lost their homes, filling out FDIC forms. One day, a woman came to him and asked a question that confronted him with the role of accountants in the financial system: "You're either an accountant, a lawyer or a regulator. Where were you in this mess?"
At that moment Ryan realized the critical role that CPAs play in society as well as their responsibility to serve the public's interest. This experience continued to influence his leadership style for years to come.
It's about people
For people who find themselves at a tough point in their career, Ryan recommends never trying to accomplish everything on one's own. Difficult times eventually pass, and a professional learns to carry on. It's how they proceed that matters. Ryan believes it's these experiences that shape people into who they are, and who they'll become.
For him, one of these turning points came on his first day at PwC, which he remembers as an incredibly stressful time. As a first-generation college student brought up in a working-class family, Ryan said his parents couldn't truly prepare him for a professional setting and he came in with no idea of what awaited him. As he worked in a basement with 55 people in burning heat, he soon noticed his colleagues removing their jackets. As they did, Ryan realized he had bought the wrong kind of shirt.
While everyone was wearing long-sleeve cotton shirts, he was wearing a short-sleeve polyester shirt. When he finally took off his jacket as well, Ryan felt like everyone was looking at him. But when lunchtime came, one of his instructors took him to Filene's Basement to show him what kind of shirts to buy. Ryan recalled what one of his accounting professors, Richard Bruno, told him when he was a student at Babson College: "I think you should try accounting because it's about people."
"He is the reason I interviewed with the Big Eight, and I never dreamed that I would be in one place for 35 years," said Ryan. "The role of a CEO isn't to be the smartest person in the room and control everything. It's to make sure you're creating a culture and environment where people can speak up, reach out and know they're not going in alone, just like my superiors did for me."
Ryan said a leader needs to be deliberate with their actions because they are routinely influencing people's lives without realizing it. That was one of the many surprises that came with taking on the role of PwC US chair and senior partner in 2016, along with the realization that problems always come in big groups. He had to learn not only to deal with them but to come to terms with the fact that he wouldn't have a backstop. Employees would look to him to understand the firm's future.
For the fiscal year ending in June 2022, PwC firms globally earned gross annual revenues of $50.3 billion and US revenues increased by 17 percent. Upon hearing those numbers, however, it's not profits that come to Ryan's mind, because of an old work anecdote that taught him the real significance of a business' growth.
While he was in high school and college, Ryan worked at a family-owned supermarket led by two brothers. During his sophomore year, the chain grew from six to eight stores, raising the question of whether they were diluting the brand and losing quality by trying to grow too fast. One of the owners then pointed at Ryan's brother, who had dropped out of college to focus on the supermarket as his career. If the business didn't continue to grow, it wouldn't create opportunities for people like Ryan's brother, who has now been with the company for 40 years. There's an analogous situation with PwC.
"I am very proud of our 17% growth in revenue, but when I see that we promoted more than 250 partners and 16,500 people last fiscal year, and hired 20,000 employees from both experienced hires and college hires, it really makes me look forward to the future," said Ryan. "Growth is really about driving opportunity, and that is my responsibility to give everybody the same great chances I had."
A time of commitment and transformation
According to Ryan, 2021 was an important year for PwC, as it saw the emergence of high-profile initiatives that gave the firm a new direction. After studying the market for three years using a deliberate scientific study to determine what clients, stakeholders, investors, board regulators and others wanted for the next 10 years, the Big Four firm launched
Ryan explained that this initiative focuses on achieving sustainable business results by maximizing the benefits of technology, M&A and integration. The New Equation aims to create more trust for clients by addressing ethical concerns in a business environment, including whether a company does the right thing by its people in terms of worker safety, worker pay, etc.
To uphold those principles, PwC also went through a significant
"In many cases, technology almost takes on too much part of the dialogue in the business world," said Ryan. "The New Equation was set to build a strong brand of trust while leveraging a human-led, tech-powered approach. We've made employee upskilling akin to an employee benefit, so our people have learned bots, automation, visualization over the last several years, because we know that's important to them."
Five months later, PwC launched the
Alongside other business leaders, Ryan co-founded the
"We all contributed one or more full-time employees to CEO Action for Racial Equity to work on projects and research to appropriately influence public policy around the topics of systemic racism, everything from public health and public safety to financial literacy," said Ryan. "It has been one of the best things we've ever done to make a difference in society, but it's not just us: It's 100 companies providing leadership for this goal, and it's incredible."
Wants and needs of the future
Last year, another Big Four firm, Ernst & Young, sent shockwaves through the accounting world when it
"Our clients expect a quality audit and that is what we give to them, but when they are adopting a new ERP system, or when they are doing an M&A, they also expect us to have a point of view," said Ryan. "If we don't have a multidisciplinary firm, we can't meet those expectations, so our clients' wants have guided us here, not our wallet or our growth. The day that I or anybody else gets lost in arrogance and loses their humility, we'll be in trouble, because we consistently need to change with our clients' expectations."
Ryan believes the most successful leaders are those who pay the closest attention to their clients and stakeholders. For example, regular conversations with clients revealed that most of them wished to reinvent their business models, which led to the creation of the
The initiative was also intended to help professionals explore new use cases for AI. Ryan said use cases could include how to buy a car differently, but they can also be about using AI to find the most effective ways to run a business while improving service quality and risk management. This year, PwC also revealed a plan to invest
According to Ryan, it all goes back to The New Equation and upskilling employees. He doesn't consider anything to be unfeasible without giving employees the tools to succeed.
"I don't consider anything my individual accomplishment, because success has many participants, and with an organization of 75,000 people and 4,000 partners, we all work together toward it," he said. "Over the past seven years, we've made great strides to continue to build on our culture of belonging and to hold ourselves accountable for transformative progress as an essential aspect of our purpose, culture and values."
To continue supporting its employees, PwC
As he visits around five or six university campuses a year, Ryan said he is not concerned about the future of the profession, as the new candidates are "brighter and more well-prepared than ever before," but the challenge will be navigating an environment that increasingly relies on soft skills. How does one lead in a world that is more complicated, where geopolitics pull people in different directions? How can one truly be an inclusive leader and think about what their clients' challenges are? According to Ryan, these skills will be especially important to focus on to ensure a business is successful going forward.
"If the past few years have taught me anything, it is that the world will continue to change at an unprecedented pace, and while constant change often comes with headwinds and challenges, it also brings great opportunity," he said. "I believe the innovation and relevancy of our profession will only continue to grow. I'm bullish on our people and their capabilities, and whatever comes our way, we will continue to build trust and drive sustained outcomes for our clients."
At a Glance: Tim Ryan
- Where did you go to college? Babson College
- Where did you grow up? Dedham, Massachusetts
- Where did you begin your career in accounting? PwC
- Where and when did you first make partner? PwC; July 1, 1997
- What is something that people may not know about you? I love to run and have completed 26 marathons.
- Who is someone you admire? My parents — I wouldn't be who I am today without them and the lessons they instilled in me growing up.
- Favorite music. Bruce Springsteen — I love his music and the stories in his songs.
See the other installments of
