Mad scramble for PwC staff starts at breakaway Scyne

afr.com:

PwC’s breakaway effort Scyne on Tuesday began a mad dash to convince sought-after professionals at the big four firm to join its new government consulting outfit rather than moving to a rival outfit.

The rush to formally sign up staff began as soon as Allegro Funds, which is backing Scyne, confirmed it had wrapped up its $1 fire sale of PwC Australia’s government, health, infrastructure, defence and risk advisory consulting business.

Part of the team behind the Allegro Funds-backed Scyne Advisory: (from left) Tim Jackson, Diane Rutter and Ben Neal. Renee Nowytarger

PwC’s consulting rivals are all circling a potential $250 million in annual Commonwealth contracts the firm was cut out of after the extent of its tax leaks scandal became public. There is another potential $350 million in state and other public sector contracts up for grabs now that PwC has announced it would retreat from all government consulting.

Ex-PwC partners who are part of Scyne’s leadership team briefed targeted colleagues and staff on the opportunities they would have if they crossed over to the new firm. While informal discussions had been held before the deal with Allegro was finalised, the signed “binding term sheet” means Scyne’s backers can begin formally recruiting PwC staff to the start-up.

Meanwhile, Allegro personnel will next week start what the private equity outfit calls “listening tours”, where leaders such as co-founder Adrian Loader will talk to Scyne’s leaders and PwC staff about the new business.

Former PwC partner-cum-Scyne leader Tim Jackson said the new entity wanted to sign up as many of the 132 targeted partners as possible, and had scheduled meetings with other staffers about coming on board.

“There is a whole set of cascading