For nearly 70 years, the Management Consultancies Association (MCA) has championed the very best of UK consulting. The MCA Awards are independently judged and recognise standout work across the private and public sectors - celebrating teams who are raising the bar through innovation, collaboration and measurable impact.
KPMG finalists (2026)
We’re delighted to share our 2026 finalists. Lisa Fernihough, Head of Advisory, shared:
Explore our finalists below to hear their stories and discover the work behind each entry - brilliant examples of modern consulting at its best, and the positive difference it can make.
Individual Finalists
Megan was born to be a consultant. She’s been landing jobs since the age of nine and considered making PowerPoints with her sister a perfectly normal teenage pastime.
Fast forward to today: she leads colleagues on high-profile change transformation projects in higher education and central government. She led the creation of training pathways for employees of the new Martyn's Law regulator – the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 – work that will ultimately save lives.
As a People Consultant in KPMG's Corporate Services and People Team, Megan always goes beyond the brief. She genuinely cares about her clients and wants her impact to last long after projects end.
Her meticulous approach means she spots opportunities others miss and persuades clients to pursue more ambitious outcomes.
She persuaded the University of Leicester not to cut change management from their curriculum transformation. Understanding their requirements in depth, she challenged their thinking and highlighted the risks. The result: a successful implementation with minimal user error, and the client adopting her approach organisation-wide.
Spotting a broader opportunity, Megan organised a pro-bono workshop with the Executive Leadership Team. She's now collaborating with senior partners to set the university up for future transformations.
Her colleagues call her the "PowerPoint Guru" for visualising complex information with exceptional clarity. Senior leaders say they jump for joy when she's on their teams, valuing her ability to anticipate and meet their needs.
In just six years since joining KPMG after finishing school, Mollie Tattersall is taking on manager-level responsibilities, delivering high impact projects and inspiring others to pursue a career in consulting.
As an apprentice in KPMG’s Governance, Risk and Compliance Services (GRCS) team, Mollie’s performance, judgement and rate of development consistently exceed expectations for her career stage.
Based in Manchester, Mollie specialises in internal audit and SOX controls for FTSE-listed organisations. She has acted as the day-to-day lead on a complex annual SOX engagement, coordinating a multi-location team across the UK and offshore, working directly with senior client stakeholders and external auditors. Her early intervention and quality-focused approach have reduced rework and review effort, and Mollie is now widely regarded as the go-to SOX specialist in her team.
Mollie is recognised for her initiative and critical thinking. During a secondment to a FTSE 100 housebuilder, she identified weaknesses in audit documentation and proactively redesigned working paper templates. These were subsequently adopted by the client and are now relied upon by external auditors.
Alongside client delivery, Mollie raises standards through coaching junior colleagues and supporting new apprentices, demonstrating strong communication skills and emotional intelligence. Through her involvement with the Key4Life charity, she volunteers in prisons across the country to help reduce youth reoffending. She is also an active advocate for apprenticeships. She returns to her old sixth form twice a year to help widen access to the profession. Over the years, she has inspired five alumni to join the apprenticeship scheme at KPMG.
Four years ago, Jack left the shopfloor at Tesco to join KPMG's apprenticeship programme. Today, he operates at manager level – and has become an influential force in shaping two of the public sector team's most strategically important priorities.
He pioneered KPMG's Local Government Reorganisation methodology, trusted by council chief executives to design and evaluate structural change proposals. Jack’s calm, clear approach secured cross-council support, and his methods are now used by KPMG teams nationally.
He’s also taken a leading role in driving AI adoption across the firm. He's built AI tools that are used by 300+ colleagues, saving hundreds of hours of effort. He delivers training to senior leaders on harnessing AI effectively to solve real problems.
Jack is a leading figure in the apprentice community, using his maturity to build support structures for other apprentices. In 2023, he co-founded KPMG’s Consulting Apprentice Community. It now has 50 members, and is expanding to the wider Advisory function.
He co-designed an Apprentice Survey – drawing 200+ responses – and produced a 45-page report. After presenting the findings to senior leaders, he secured commitments to improved reporting, and is pursuing formal funding for the apprentice network.
KMPG’s Head of Lifelong Learning says Jack exudes “exceptional leadership and unwavering commitment to the development of our early careers programmes”.
In just over two years as a consultant at KPMG, Ben has delivered impact that would be remarkable at any level – let alone as a graduate analyst.
He’s influencing national health policy in two countries, takes a leading role in multi-million-pound projects, and presents to ministerial-level stakeholders.
Ben brings a unique perspective to people consulting: his first-class mechanical engineering degree gives him analytical rigour. But it’s his critical thinking, teamwork and communication skills that make him the person everyone wants on their team.
Internationally, Ben played a leading role in designing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) first national Rare Disease Programme. The work aims to transform outcomes for the estimated two million people in the country living with rare diseases - most of them children, many with no known treatment.
He led the development of core elements of the national strategy, designed the Programme’s organisational structure, validated it with global experts, and presented to senior Ministry of Health officials. His work has already helped train over 200 clinicians across the country.
In the UK, Ben used this experience to shape KPMG’s view on the future of NHS national workforce planning. His published thought leadership on workforce transformation was described by a global healthcare systems expert as “a tour de force”. It’s now informing the NHS’s 10 Year Workforce Plan.
Beyond client delivery, Ben co-founded KPMG’s Healthcare Community for 250+ colleagues. He’s a wellbeing ambassador, and leads the KPMG-Department for Transport peer mentoring programme that connects public and private sector apprentices.
Amanda is the team leader that KPMG goes to when the firm wins particularly challenging government contracts. With a deep sense of integrity, a passion for teamwork and a keen focus on communication, Amanda’s clients, colleagues and stakeholders recognise and embrace her leadership capabilities.
Her recent projects attest to her skills and reputation. From helping Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) plan and execute a rapid organisational transformation through to working with the Home Office to plan and stand up the new Martyn’s Law Regulator, Amanda excels at motivating, supporting and encouraging teams of individuals to achieve their goals.
Talk to anyone who has worked with Amanda and you’ll hear the same thing: she’s inclusive, open and collaborative. She is a critical thinker and a flexible problem solver. She pushes her teams (and her clients) to succeed while also building their confidence and helping them develop their skills. She is detail-oriented - an exceptional project manager – but never loses track of the outcomes she is trying to achieve.
Amanda embodies all the attributes that make an exceptional consulting team leader. She is client-focused and team-oriented. She prioritises transparent and inclusive communication. She rises to challenges yet leads from behind. She is humble and always acts with integrity. She is the type of team leader that consultants want to work with, and clients remember and want to hire.
Sam Sanders is recognised as one of the education sector’s leading voices on financial sustainability, digital transformation and collaboration.
At a time of unprecedented financial pressure and policy reform, Sam’s thought leadership has helped reshape the national conversation about the future of universities. As a Partner and UK Head of Education for KPMG, Sam was a contributor to Universities UK’s White Paper on the future of higher education (HE) and joint author of the Radical Collaboration playbook, a comprehensive guide to shared services, collaborations and merger options across the HE sector. He has provided practical guidance to institutions across the globe on mergers, shared services and structural reform. His work has supported KPMG’s involvement in major sector developments, including the merger that created City St George’s University.
Sam has also led national guidance for the British University Finance Directors’ Group on finance and HR systems implementation, directly influencing major ERP transformations at institutions including Cambridge, York, Hull, St Andrews and University College Dublin. Through research with Jisc on shared services and contributions on AI and the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, he has helped university leaders move from debate to delivery.
His reputation as a consultant who turns thought leadership into actionable strategy has helped KPMG’s Education practice grow from £400k to over £22m over the past decade, reflecting the trust placed in his insight and advice by vice chancellors, CFOs and governing bodies across the UK.
By combining sector influence with practical delivery, Sam’s work is helping universities navigate one of the most challenging periods in their history with clarity and confidence.
Everything can be better. This is the philosophy that’s driven Yusuf's career. He started at KPMG as an economics graduate in audit 22 years ago, and qualified as an accountant. But he always wanted to create something more tangible.
It was when he moved into financial modelling in 2012 that he spotted a new market opportunity in healthcare analytics. He started with a team of three, and a conviction that data could transform the NHS.
Today, he leads KPMG's Public Sector Data & AI practice: a multi-million-pound, multi-award-winning capability he built from scratch.
When NHS adoption of the Federated Data Platform stalled at 40 Trusts, Yusuf diagnosed the barriers to take-up and rebuilt the proposition. Adoption hit 100+ Trusts in under six months. The work resulted in 80,000 additional surgeries performed and more than 50,000 lives saved.
His technology leadership comes to the fore when things go wrong. When the mobilisation of the £1bn-plus NHS Single Patient Record programme faltered, he told senior stakeholders: "I'm accountable. We'll fix this." The project has now secured ministerial approval and funding.
His guiding philosophy comes from his parents, who migrated to Britain to build a better life. His journey has taken him from state school to senior Partner, leading work that improves millions of lives.
After achieving the highest A-level maths score in East Africa, Jalpa moved to the UK. She earned a first-class degree in maths and became one of the first female hires in her field of consultancy. She rose rapidly – until questioned whether motherhood and career progression could coexist.
That moment set her on the path to becoming an inclusion champion.
Drawn to KPMG by its flexible working practices, she joined the Risk & Regulatory Advisory team in 2017. She was promoted to Senior Manager within a year, during her second pregnancy.
She established the Parenthood Network in 2019 to help break the silence around parental challenges in the workplace. Working alongside existing networks, it’s a catalyst for policy and infrastructure change at KPMG – tackling sensitive issues, like breastfeeding, fertility and miscarriage.
She’s driven policy change to create awareness and support around the challenges that breastfeeding mothers have when returning to work. She’s created safe spaces, championed male allyship for working parents, and embedded Parenthood Champions in the team.
As Co-Chair of talent development programme AccelerateHer, she's supporting 20 female directors to achieve their career goals and aspirations. And through roundtables with major banks, she's sharing KPMG's leading IDE practices.
She's achieved all this while reaching Partner as a recently divorced, single mother of two, and often being the only woman in the room. Her goal is to make consultancy a better place where young women, like her daughters, can thrive.
Ugochi Onwuanibe’s leadership has delivered sustained, measurable impact on inclusion at KPMG, alongside the highest levels of client delivery.
As an Associate Director in the firm’s Strategy Group, she combines technical excellence in complex transactions with a deep, practical commitment to creating inclusive environments where people can perform and progress.
As the most senior Black women in her service line, Ugochi has used her visibility and influence to support colleagues, particularly women and those of Black heritage, through long-term mentoring, community leadership and senior advocacy. Over several years, she has mentored colleagues through firm-wide allyship programmes, the Afro-Caribbean Network, and through informal relationships often spanning multiple career stages. Her support has helped improve confidence, progression and retention, with several of her mentees remaining at the firm for several years.
Ugochi also founded and continues to lead an internal community for Black heritage colleagues within her service line. Established over four years ago, the community provides connection, pastoral support and a trusted channel for raising issues, contributing to stronger networks, increased confidence and sustained engagement.
Following the integration of KPMG’s UK and Swiss firms, Ugochi launched a cross-country buddy scheme for women in Deal Advisory. Sponsored by senior leaders in both countries, the scheme builds networks, increases visibility of female role models and demonstrates how inclusive practices can be effectively translated across borders.
Through courageous leadership, sustained commitment and inclusive delivery, Ugochi has strengthened teams, retained talent and enhanced client outcomes, making her a compelling candidate for the MCA Inclusion Award.
Moving into HR consultancy in 2017 after more than 15 years as an HR practitioner in industry, Caroline Čujić is an experienced leader known for leveraging deep expertise, credibility and insight to deliver meaningful, sustainable change. Working across multiple sectors and organisations of varying scale and complexity, she is recognised for her ability to bring clarity, structure and momentum to fast‑paced transformation programmes.
Most recently, Caroline led a major HR operating model design for a complex public‑sector organisation. The programme reimagined the end‑to‑end employee experience, alongside HR services and ways of working, within a highly regulated, multi‑agency environment. Her leadership, tenacity and design‑thinking approach were instrumental in enabling the organisation to redesign how HR operates, while maintaining strong senior stakeholder engagement and delivery momentum.
Alongside this, Caroline has delivered HR transformation across various industries such as manufacturing, retail and construction. She is particularly valued for translating HR and organisational design theory into practical, client‑specific solutions, ensuring that change reflects each organisation’s culture, brand and strategic ambition.
Caroline places strong emphasis on the success of transformation being rooted in team cohesion. She leads with clarity and direction, while empowering individuals to focus on their areas of expertise and operate with confidence and ownership. Her leadership style promotes collaboration, shared accountability and continuous learning, creating inclusive, high‑performing teams that sustain momentum and deliver impact.
Mathew Ettelaie is a trusted adviser in environments where cyber security meets national resilience, public safety and critical public services.
Mathew is a Director in KPMG’s Cyber Defence Services practice and a nationally recognised leader in security testing and ethical hacking. Having progressed from hands-on technical delivery to leading KPMG’s UK Security Testing and Ethical Hacking team, he oversees a multidisciplinary group of over 60 specialists delivering high-risk cyber assurance engagements across defence, government, critical national infrastructure and regulated industries.
He has supported organisations including the Ministry of Defence, Home Office, Ministry of Justice, NHS and major corporates such as BAE Systems, Lloyds Banking Group and Vodafone, often in situations where systems must remain operational during testing.
Mathew is recognised for combining deep technical credibility with sound judgement and ethical leadership. He has advised senior leaders on nationally significant programmes, contributed to regulatory assurance frameworks such as CBEST, TBEST, GBEST and TIBER, and is known for his refusal to offer false assurance, instead helping boards and regulators understand real-world risk and resilience.
His leadership is most visible during moments of crisis – supporting clients to rebuild during major cyber incidents, including ransomware attacks on critical public services, with calm, decisive leadership under intense pressure.
Mathew has played a significant role in shaping the wider cyber security profession through industry bodies, government advisory groups, international engagements and academic outreach. His focus on stewardship – developing people, strengthening organisations and raising professional standards – further adds to his reputation as an outstanding leader.
Keith is a globally recognised quality engineering and AI assurance leader. He delivers complex transformation with pace and rigour – and the courage to give decision-makers the unvarnished truth.
He has over 25 years’ experience in software quality management, leading global teams at UBS, Citigroup, Fiserv and Barclays before joining KPMG in 2020.
As a Director of Quality Engineering, he leads KPMG's quality engineering capability for financial services and shaped the firm's approach to AI assurance. His practice drives around £10 million in annual revenue for the firm.
Keith's client impact is defined by clarity and an unwaveringly ethical approach. For the UK's national payments infrastructure programme, he designed an end-to-end testing approach and built a managed testing service from scratch.
Industry testing was completed early and over 35 participant banks were certified against the new payments architecture.
Keith stands out as a Chartered Consultant for his leadership under pressure.
When brought into a stalled £100 million ERP programme, he was recognised for his integrity and bravery. He "held up a challenging mirror", in the client’s words, to stakeholders, and ensured decisions were grounded in evidence. He earned board-level trust to take the project live.
Keith is a EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award winner, prolific publisher and international speaker, and advocates for access to technology careers. He’s developed programmes to help 1,000+ people from underrepresented communities get into tech – leading to three invitations to the White House to advise on training.
A partner at KPMG since 2012, Steven Hall has become a go-to expert on financial risk and regulatory issues. His impressive technical and analytical mind cuts to the heart of complex issues and helps clients navigate the prudential risk maze.
Steven has become one of the industry’s leading s166 skilled person reviewers, conducting or being the concurring partner on more reviews (21) than any other KPMG partner. He has led multi-million pound, multi-national projects for globally significant banks, supported small players with complex regulatory compliance matters, and set up important forums for dialogue and learning including for the chairs of Bank Board Risk Committees.
But professional and technical excellence isn’t all Steven offers. He is also committed to developing others as an active participant in mentoring and cross-company allyship schemes. In the last few years alone, he has mentored five individuals to Director, four to Partner and four others outside KPMG. He even mentored a police sergeant who wanted to reach inspector!
Becoming a Chartered Management Consultant during 2025, Steven is now a firm advocate of obtaining the qualification and has recommended it to many others.
An exemplary financial services and regulatory risk leader, described as ‘the best in the industry’ by one senior external stakeholder, Steven sets the standard that inspires and motivates others.
Project Finalists
Cyber-attacks are taking a toll on the UK economy, and the UK government is moving quickly to shore up the nation’s cyber security and preparedness, with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) assuming responsibility for government and public sector cyber security and working to encourage organisations across the UK economy to raise their cyber resilience.
To better assess the materiality of the risk and better design their policy approaches, DSIT commissioned a series of reports aimed at creating a much more holistic view of what the risks are and the economic cost of different scenarios and contexts.
KPMG is one of the country’s leading cyber security firms and we have an exceptional economics team with deep experience conducting economic analysis. We were the right team to help DSIT.
Working closely with academics from University College London, we developed a range of approaches and designed an overall workplan to enable us to best model the costs under each scenario and context. We undertook comprehensive literature reviews to understand the existing evidence. We created impact maps to show how cyber-attacks may affect the provision of goods and services. We engaged with stakeholders to gather data and inform our assumptions. And we used our findings to provide DSIT with quantitative evidence on the cost of cyber-attacks.
The reports have been well received by industry and businesses – particularly those involved in critical national infrastructure or the provision of key services – who are already using the findings to analyse the risks and potential costs of cyber-attacks. This is helping organisations and cyber security leaders to improve their strategies, develop investment business cases and enhance their cyber posture.
The reports have also proven valuable to the government's analyst community, with around 80 government analysts and cyber policy officials attending our presentation on the findings. Analysts from multiple government departments have also used our methodologies to inform potential future research into other business resilience risks.
Since their publication in November 2025, the reports have been viewed over 3,000 times on GOV.UK. On top of this, the key findings have been frequently cited in ministerial speeches and responses to parliamentarians' queries regarding the impact of cyber-attacks on the economy, in particular with regards to the introduction to Parliament of the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill.
We are proud of the work we have delivered and believe it will play a key role in the development of policy decisions and frameworks within DSIT and across aligned government departments.
Nomad Foods was facing a strategic crossroads in 2021. Europe’s largest frozen food company, owner of brands including Birds Eye, Findus and igloo, faced a tougher trading environment than ever before. Inflation, supply chain disruption and intense retailer scrutiny were putting sustained pressure on margins, just as the business was integrating acquisitions across 22 European markets.
Revenue management practices varied widely between markets, with heavy reliance on spreadsheets, inconsistent definitions and limited cross-market alignment. Nomad recognised it needed to move from reactive, data-light net revenue management model to a fully embedded, data-driven Revenue Growth Management (RGM) capability operating consistently across Europe.
KPMG worked closely with Nomad to deliver this step-change transformation. Beginning with a rigorous maturity assessment, the team developed a clear three-year roadmap and implemented an integrated RGM capability combining advanced analytics, structured playbooks, governance and capability building.
At the heart of the programme was a central RGM Analytics Hub, replacing fragmented local analysis with a single source of commercial truth. Core pricing, promotional and trade investment decisions are now underpinned by harmonised data, automated modelling and consistent methodologies across markets.
Within 15 months, the platform was live in 12 markets. The transformation has released 30% of analytical capacity for higher-value activity and contributed to a 4% increase in annual profit during a period of acute cost pressure. More importantly, it has embedded lasting commercial capability, positioning Nomad at the forefront of revenue growth management in its sector.
A global consumer brand with more than 200 brands across 180 countries had reached a decisive inflection point. Its digital footprint – over 500 independently created websites – had become too fragmented, inconsistent and inefficient to support the demands of modern consumers. What once reflected brand autonomy had become a barrier: duplicated effort across markets, rising costs, uneven user experiences and a digital estate that simply couldn’t keep pace with the speed and sophistication required in today’s omnichannel world.
Rather than patching legacy systems, the business recognised the opportunity to fundamentally reimagine its digital ecosystem. And to deliver transformation at scale, it turned to KPMG – its trusted partner in previous data, asset and product information programmes.
Working hand in hand with the global consumer brand’s digital, marketing and technology teams, KPMG helped shift digital from a siloed function to an integrated business enabler. The joint team designed a modern, composable architecture that gave the business the structure, governance and agility it needed, without limiting the creativity that makes its portfolio of brands so distinctive.
At the core of the transformation was a move from hundreds of standalone websites to a strategically curated set of 38. Instead of each brand or market building bespoke solutions, the organisation now operates a flexible “Lego‑style” component library and shared design system. Features can be created once and reused everywhere – speeding up delivery, strengthening consistency and eliminating costly duplication across markets and agencies.
A MACH‑aligned tech stack (microservices, API‑driven, cloud‑native, headless) underpins this new approach, enabling the business to rapidly activate new capabilities and integrate emerging technology, including AI‑driven content, analytics and personalisation. KPMG also redesigned the company’s operating model: introducing global governance, clarifying accountability, updating agency accreditation and establishing integrated product teams that bring together brand, digital, engineering and partners under one unified way of working.
The impact has been transformative. The business can now launch updates far more quickly, operate with predictable and scalable processes and adapt effortlessly to shifting consumer expectations and market conditions. Website performance and accessibility have improved markedly; compliance issues have reduced; and data across consumer journeys is now more connected and actionable.
This new digital ecosystem has also unlocked substantial efficiencies – reducing programme management, legal, assurance and development costs, and creating a foundation capable of supporting the company’s ambition to accelerate into a £1bn+ direct‑to‑consumer opportunity. Internally, the programme has received exceptional feedback, including a 10/10 NPS from key stakeholders.
Today, the business has a future‑ready digital platform that combines global consistency with local agility. More than a technology shift, this is a strategic transformation that aligns precisely with composable best practice: reusable components, strong governance and a business‑led operating model that enables innovation at scale. With KPMG as its orchestration partner, the enterprise has moved from a fragmented estate to a connected, composable ecosystem designed to power the next decade of brand experiences.
Millions of people globally have rare diseases: complex, poorly understood conditions overwhelmingly affecting children. Yet many countries lack a national approach to supporting them.
KPMG worked with a national Government Ministry to change that – creating the country’s first ever national Rare Disease Programme.
It’s transforming how rare illnesses are diagnose, and improving the lives of those affected.
We established the Programme from scratch over five phases:
- Benchmarking best practice in rare disease management globally
- Formulating a Rare Disease Strategy to address priorities for patients, families and clinicians
- Designing an operating model to turn the strategy into reality
- Building resources to enable operations
- Transferring knowledge to the Ministry and clinicians
We brought together rare disease experts, and our experience in healthcare, life sciences, research, strategy, operating model design and training.
This truly international project was delivered by our UK and international teams, Ministry staff and local clinicians. We benchmarked and consulted globally, collaborating with experts and facilities worldwide.
To date, the Programme has:
- raised awareness of local challenges through our peer-reviewed research paper,
- developed the country’s first ever Rare Disease Strategy,
- improved knowledge and understanding of 200-plus clinicians on symptom recognition and treatment pathways,
- created and distributed patient and physician awareness material for five high-priority conditions,
- connected healthcare leaders with rare disease experts worldwide
As a result, clinicians are becoming better equipped to diagnose rare illnesses and make referrals, and there is improved oversight and focus on supporting those affected – meaning the nation is increasingly being recognised among the leaders in this field.
In 2023, UBS came to us with a challenge: following their merger with Credit Suisse, they needed to migrate over 1 million customers safely and quickly. They were under scrutiny from the market, the general public and their regulators. And competitors were circling. They needed to move at pace but were also acutely aware of the risk profile such a migration brings.
Jointly we developed a customer centric migration solution that could solve the challenge of moving the customers safely and quickly without impacting the existing UBS client base and business. This approach was known as the Customer Migration Factory – a combination of tooling and combined delivery capabilities.
Our firm brought together a talented international team across ten different markets to help stand up and manage the Customer Migration Factory in the critical in scope booking centres. We tapped into the best talent our firm had to offer, regardless of their location.
Keeping our international team aligned, engaged and integrated was key to the project’s success. We helped them overcome barriers. We kept them motivated and focused on their objectives. We worked closely with UBS and developed a new way of working with small, empowered teams, bringing the teams together in a way not often seen by the industry. Any doubts on achievability and viability were replaced with strong determination and a real can-do spirit that permeated across all teams.
Ultimately, we delivered on UBS’s objectives and requirements. And we couldn’t have done it without our integrated and motivated international team.
As one of the UK’s leading mid-sized law firms, Mishcon’s growth rate has been outstanding. But rapid growth had created challenges. Back-office overhead costs were creeping up as a percentage of revenue. Infrastructure had become a bottleneck. And the quality of service being provided to fee-earners was falling below expectations.
What they wanted was a transformation partner that could help them design the optimal operating model design and deliver its implementation effectively. At the same time, they wanted to build internal capability, equipping their people with the skills and experience to drive subsequent waves of transformation in the future.
A rapid operating model diagnostic and design were undertaken. Key design choices included establishing a global capability centre in a far shore location, centralising technology capability and investing in modern, standardised processes underpinned by technology and automation.
Alongside the implementation of new organisation structures, the team progressed the detailed design and planning to set up the new global capability centre. We used our proprietary accelerator assets to guide the design of their process library and helped them recruit local capabilities, allowing Mishcon to successfully open their first Global Capability Centre staffed by over 50 new colleagues.
Our work has already enabled Mishcon to grow revenues by more than 15% CAGR whilst maintaining the high bar for client feedback and Net Promoter Scores (NPS). Overheads were reduced as a percent of revenue from 35% to 28% and there was a clear plan to get them below the original target of 25%.
What could 10,000 empowered NHS staff achieve?
Starting in January 2025, the Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust partnered with KPMG to implement a disciplined Board-to-Ward management system to drive improved patient outcomes and smarter ways of working.
Working shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders and frontline teams, the focus of the KPMG team was clear: help align priorities, optimise leadership behaviours and build the internal systems and capability to make improvement systematic rather than episodic.
The programme, Improving Together, translated this management system into daily practice.
At Executive level, leaders now set a small number of breakthrough priorities and review them through visible performance routines. At ward level, teams run daily huddles, track performance visually and test improvements in real time. Crucially, the two are connected. Ward-level measures directly link to Trust objectives. Leaders can see variation and bottlenecks as they emerge, and frontline teams understand how their daily actions contribute to organisational performance.
The formative results in the first year have been notable, including:
- Patients spend 10% less time than equivalent months in previous year in 3 elderly care wards, returning home sooner and freeing beds for others who need them.
- MRI waiting times cut by 50% in one focus ward, reducing average waits from six days to three and bringing diagnostic clarity days earlier.
- Pre-10am discharges improved by 46% in surgical wards, improving flow in the hospitals.
- CT waiting times reduced by 80%, with on-time scans increasing from 42.5% to 100%, eliminating avoidable diagnostic delays.
- Staff survey participation in Adult Community Services significantly increased from 46% to 72.4%, reflecting stronger staff engagement and ownership.
This approach was not a single intervention or external fix. It was the cumulative performance improvement of empowered teams solving problems every day, connected to a clear strategy from Board to ward. Moreover, as the programme continues to scale, spread and embed itself and further learnings are uncovered, the benefits can be expected to significantly accumulate.
This partnership between KPMG and the Trust has helped create an organisation where:
- Priorities are clear and limited
- Performance is reviewed daily, not retrospectively
- Frontline teams own problem solving
- Improvement is sustained because it is embedded in routine
- Patients are experiencing the benefits
This is the first year of a multi-year improvement journey where challenges will naturally arise as the climate in the NHS evolves and new ways of working start to scale, spread and embed across Mid Yorks’ 10,000 staff. But with the organisation’s newfound capability and its commitment to making improvement systemic, they will be able to continue to deliver benefits for patients and staff for years to come.
The role of the finance function continues to evolve, as organisations navigate economic volatility, digital acceleration, geopolitical uncertainty and growing stakeholder demands.
Finance teams are now expected to shape decisions, influence outcomes and help steer the business through this ever-changing landscape — rather than simply reporting on past performance.
In this context, KPMG and bottler Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) co-created and delivered a transformational learning programme – to equip CCEP’s finance leaders with these future-facing capabilities.
We worked in close partnership with CCEP to develop the course. Experts from both organisations designed the content, tailoring it to CCEP’s business environment. We then repeatedly piloted, iterated and refined the outputs.
The result is the Future of Finance Academy: an immersive training programme covering strategy, data and technology, controls and change leadership.
The course is delivered by KPMG and CCEP presenters. We bring our expertise in the finance landscape and best practice, which CCEP contextualises for the climate in which it operates.
The programme culminates in a Dragons’ Den-style showcase: participants apply their learning to real business challenges, presenting solutions to the board.
To date, around 120 finance leaders have been through the programme; 240 more are scheduled to do so.
The Academy has taken the team’s capabilities to the next level, upskilling them for the new reality. Participant feedback is strong, and trainees are demanding opportunities to further strengthen their skills, fostering a culture of continuous learning.
Finance has seen an uptick in staff engagement and retention as a result.
CCEP is now exploring how to roll the Academy out more widely, as it will play an important role in helping the company achieve its strategic goals.
The UK faces an increasingly complex cyber and digital resilience challenge. Legacy technology, fragmented accountability and growing cyber threats have left public services and critical national infrastructure exposed to unacceptable levels of risk. While the Government Cyber Security Strategy set out a clear ambition for improvement, there was no agreed way to deliver it across a highly federated public sector.
Working in close partnership with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, KPMG helped address this challenge by designing the UK Government’s first cyber action plan. The project created a single, system-wide blueprint for how cyber resilience will be governed, delivered and continuously improved across central government, 250+ arm’s length bodies, the NHS and the wider public sector.
This was the first time the UK Government had attempted to design a target operating model (TOM) and delivery plan at this scale. The TOM brings clarity to roles and responsibilities, strengthens accountability at senior leadership level, and enables a more coordinated response to cyber risks that cannot be managed by individual organisations acting alone. It also supports better value for money by defining shared services and common standards across government.
Alongside the TOM design, KPMG supported urgent responses to critical cyber risks and helped shape a costed delivery plan to 2030. The work directly informed HM Treasury Spending Review submissions, influencing around £1 billion of cyber investment in FY2025/26 alone.
The result is a step change in how government understands and manages cyber risk. With clearer accountability, improved coordination and a unified approach to incident response, the Government is now better equipped to protect public services and strengthen national resilience for the long term.
In an era of rising risks to energy security, sagging economic growth and growing demand for sovereign industrial capacity, the UK’s focus on offshore wind seems exceptionally prescient. Around the world, governments are moving quickly to install new renewable generation capacity. And the UK is well-positioned to take a leading role to support global ambitions.
Working alongside RenewableUK (RUK), the Offshore Wind Industry Council, The Crown Estate and The Crown Estate Scotland, KPMG helped the industry build consensus around an Offshore Wind Industrial Growth Plan outlining the investment requirements, policy enablers, activities and timelines required for the UK to dominate key aspects of the value chain.
By combining KPMG’s deep experience in the energy sector, proven tools and methodologies with RUK’s profound understanding of their members and ambition, our team helped the consortium assess and prioritise more than 170 components and services central to the offshore wind sector. We provided a clear evidence-based analysis of the UK’s potential to win in each element alongside a stakeholder-tested action plan to enable the industry to rapidly execute on their agenda.
Yet this project was about more than just developing a ‘plan’. It was about creating a shared vision for the future of the UK’s offshore wind sector, a clear pathway to success and confidence within the supply chain. And that, in turn, should enable the UK to take the lead in the competition to develop a global offshore wind capacity and unlock the associated economic and environmental benefits.
Global building supplies manufacturer Heidelberg Materials has bold sustainability ambitions.
Despite making some carbon-intensive products, the firm is targeting significant reductions in the carbon embodied in its materials in the coming years.
This presents a particular challenge for its cement works in Padeswood, North Wales. Cement production is a carbon-intensive process: the plant emits around 800,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
The solution lies in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. That means building a carbon capture facility at Padeswood, and connecting it to the HyNet North West carbon transport and storage network.
This requires significant investment; it would not be viable without government support.
KPMG helped Heidelberg Materials UK to secure the necessary funding, advising and supporting them by:
- articulating the government’s expectations
- distilling complex documentation on contractual and industry arrangements
- conducting contractual and financial analysis of what the government was proposing
- calculating project costs, and identifying the risks associated with CCS
- joining Heidelberg Materials UK throughout negotiations with the government
In September 2025, Heidelberg Materials reached a final investment decision with the UK Government, to build the world’s first carbon capture facility enabling fully decarbonised cement production.
It’s one of only two UK CCS projects to be greenlit – and will be the first cement works worldwide to capture almost all of its emissions. Early works to construct the facility have already begun.
The plant’s future, and the 200 jobs it supports, are on a more secure, low-carbon footing as a result. And the project will create 50 new roles. In addition, the UK construction sector will have a source of near-zero-carbon cement.
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