EY chair leaves after ‘historical behavioural matter’ raised
The chair of EY New Zealand has left the company under a cloud.
Braden Dickson, who was also an EY Oceania partner and business development leader, left the company in February.
An EY Oceania spokesperson would not comment on the departure, saying “we don’t get into a lot of detail about partners departing,” but provided a statement which said “following a[n] historical behavioural matter being raised in December 2023, EY conducted an investigation and Braden Dickson departed EY in early February. He is no longer a partner of the firm.”
The spokesperson said: “We are aware there has been some discussion about the circumstances but we are not in a position to comment on those.”
EY is a multinational professional services firm which boasts a vision to “build a better working world”.
Dickson is also a former board member of prestigious school Auckland Grammar and, according to its website, remains on the Executive Committee of the Old Boys’ Association.
Stuff has sought comment from Dickson but he has not returned messages.
Questions to EY New Zealand managing partner Simon O’Connor were referred to a Sydney spokesperson.
Dickson was appointed partner at EY in 2007 and advisory partner in 2014.
The company commissioned an independent review of its workplace culture in 2022 which concluded that despite the company having a range of equity and diversity principles, bullying, sexual harassment and racism continue to exist and cause significant harm to staff.
The review, led by Australian lawyer Elizabeth Broderick, the former Sex Discrimination Commissioner, found 17% of women working in the firm’s New Zealand and Australian offices experienced bullying and 15% of women reported having been subjected to sexual harassment in the past five years.
The review also found issues with the company’s reporting procedures.
Just one in three (36%) of those who had been bullied, followed up with a formal report.
The reporting rate for those who experienced sexual harassment was even lower, with one in six (17%) of those who were sexually harassed having reported the incident*.
“Many people have experienced retribution, particularly loss of access to advancement opportunities, when they have either formally or informally reported harmful experiences.”
The report includes a 27-point action plan to bring about change at the company.
After Stuff began making inquiries on Thursday, Dickson changed his job title on his LinkedIn page to “Strategic Advisor – Speargrass Consulting”, based in Australia.
Prior to the change Dickson had detailed his EY roles along with describing himself as a “challenger”, who “has always looked for a better way, or another way”.
“My passion is working with clients and colleagues to solve complex problems tha will make a difference and build a better working world.”
He has kept a quote from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos: “If you’re going to do anything new or different in the world, i is going to be misunderstood, sometimes by well-meaning critics, sometimes by self-interested critics. It’s OK, it’s all part o the process.”