EY’s New Global CEO Challenged to Heal Rifts, Fix Audit Quality

Now comes the hard part for EY’s new global CEO and chair.

Janet Truncale broke gender barriers this week as Ernst & Young‘s top partners elected her as the first woman leader of the Big Four network. She will land in a tough job as the firm grapples with audit quality concerns and industry-wide angst over recruiting more accountants and auditors. But at the fore is an EY-specific headache: recovering from a messy failed firm breakup and healing internal rifts.

“That’s got to be foremost the biggest challenge,” said James Cox, a Duke University law professor who specializes in ...