John McCalla-Leacy

John is the Head of Global Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) at KPMG International and Vice Chair for ESG, KPMG in the UK. He is responsible for embedding ESG practices into the firm’s strategy. He has held a number of senior UK, ASPAC region and global leadership positions at KPMG over the last 21 years, including:

• Elected member of the KPMG in the UK Board, which oversees the stewardship, accountability and leadership of the UK firm, providing clear sighted counsel on the firm’s strategic direction and alignment to its Vision, Values, and Purpose.

In addition to John’s leadership roles within the UK firm, he is a strong external advocate for the “S” in ESG, driving inclusion, diversity and social equality. Recent initiatives include:

• Prince's Trust – John sponsors and supports a number of initiatives with the Prince's Trust, including a national volunteering program which is focused on tackling regional inequality in the UK.
• Disability Confident Business Leaders Group (BLG) – John is the KPMG senior BLG representative, working with government and senior business leaders to develop and implement policies focused on increasing the number of disabled people in the workplace.
• International Business and Diplomatic Exchange (IBDE) – Vice Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group.

John is very experienced in leading rapid, complex change. He is a former senior leader within KPMG’s Global Centre of Excellence Mergers & Acquisitions team. To date, he has led both the overall and technology aspects of some of the largest multi-billion-dollar client mergers, acquisitions, and divestments that KPMG firms have ever supported across multiple sectors and geographies.

Now John’s sole focus is on inspiring and driving rapid ESG-related change for KPMG firm clients.