Naulls altogether spent well over a decade and a half at McKinsey & Company across two stints in Australia and abroad, before joining Partners in Performance as chief financial officer in 2024 as the consultancy prepared for its sale to Accenture.
His appointment as COO follows last year’s elevation of Robert Miano as chief, with Naulls to support a small national executive which further includes APAC chairman James Komninos alongside Andy Graham and more recent additions in Jessica Olivier and Dace Harris.
Naulls external recruitment also perhaps marks a shift in approach at RSM, with the members of the national executive combining for more than a century of experience at the century-old accounting and consulting firm. A background at McKinsey & Company or any of the major management and strategy consultancies is also a rarity for a mid-tier top-level senior appointee.
New Zealand-raised with a bachelor of business in accounting and tourism from the University of Auckland, Naulls first joined McKinsey in the UK in 2003 after earlier time spent at Linklaters, before being quickly being promoted to director of finance for the firm in the Middle East based in Dubai and later briefly in the same role for McKinsey’s Greater China operations out of Shanghai.
A stint as strategic development leader at Dairy Innovation Australia followed, before Naulls rejoined McKinsey in Melbourne in 2015, later appointed Asia regional finance & pricing manager and ultimately director of finance for Australia and New Zealand ahead of joining Partners in Performance in early 2024 – with the firm famously founded by McKinsey alum Skipp Williamson.
While Naulls also led the firm’s global IT and real estate functions in addition to finance, which included expansion into new markets, it seems pretty clear Naulls was chiefly brought in to work on the Accenture deal – later reported to be worth around $375 million and described at the time as one of the most significant in the Australian management consulting landscape in many years.
Lest Naulls’ recruitment by RSM leads to any speculation amid competitor Grant Thornton’s upcoming private equity sale vote, Miano previously told the AFR; “We’re not contemplating it. If we have to reinvest dollars or people and resources, we have access to the required capital. We’ve prepared our 2030 strategy, and we believe we can achieve that with the current structure.”
As to Naulls appointment; “Tim brings extensive experience leading operations, finance and large-scale transformation across complex professional services organisations. He is known for his ability to move between detailed operational issues and high-level strategy, and will work closely with our executive to ensure RSM continues to run efficiently and effectively as we continue to grow.”
Source: https://www.consultancy.com.au/news/12424/rsm-recruits-tim-naulls-as-chief-operating-officer-for-australia