5 Minutes with Chris Ussher – Assurance Partner, PwC

Tell me a bit about your background – where you are from, what schools did you attend, things like that?

I’m actually a born and raised Wellingtonian. I went to Wellington College for High School, graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce from Victoria University, and joined PwC as a graduate. I got qualified for CA after three years and made Manager a year and a half after that. From there, I worked two more years as a Manager in Wellington, before transferring to San Francisco. There, I spent two and a half years as a Manager in the banking and capital markets group. I audited a few banks and financial institutions there, from First Hawaiian Bank to Bank of the West and PayPal, just to name a few. After a couple of years, I came back to New Zealand, as a Senior Manager in the Auckland office, working initially on the ASB audit – I spent all up around seven years in Auckland.

I moved back to the Wellington office in 2014, made Partner a few months later on 1 July 2015. Friday 15 Feb was my 20th anniversary at PwC.

So you spent quite a long time there in Auckland – what other jobs did you work on?

While I was there, I moved from financial services audits into non-FS. That allowed me to work on a whole range of clients: The Warehouse, Pumpkin Patch, Sky City, Air NZ, Virgin Airlines, Cathay Pacific, these were just some of the bigger ones I worked on in the later years.

What lead you to choose Assurance over the other lines of services?

I was always told it was a good training ground – you get to learn a lot about business, a lot about financial statements and a lot about accounting. When I entered the firm, there were a lot of leadership opportunities available to me quite early in my career, to interact with clients, to know about business.

Did you know much about Assurance beforehand?

To be honest, at first I didn’t even know what I was getting into. In those days we didn’t even need to take auditing or tax at university, so when I first joined PwC I had no idea what I would be doing. After working here for a while, I found that I really enjoyed the work, and that it was always challenging. I also appreciated the abundant resources and opportunities that were available to me to help me learn and grow both as a professional and as a person e.g trainings and workshops. If you get into a big company like PwC, you will get a lot of training you might not get in smaller corporate companies. These aren’t just technical skills either, they’re soft skills that help you develop in a wider context. At the end of the day, I felt that I could grow and achieve more by being with the company, and that’s why I stayed here.

What was your journey to Partner like? Alternatively, from a broader perspective, what was your journey in PwC that lead you to where you are?

It was probably unplanned; I didn’t join the firm thinking of making Partner. In fact, I was just like many others looking around after getting my qualification. However, while I kept looking around at jobs in this industry and government, nothing was appealing or exciting to me. My job at PwC on the other hand seemed to be constantly refreshing, and kept on challenging me. Throughout my journey I was always able to get more training on developing my soft skills, for example EQ and leadership. I really appreciate what I’ve received from the firm, and decided that it’s something I would like to give back in return. A lot of Partners would think something similar: We are like stewards for the firm, the firm’s been around long before we’re here, and we would like to see it be here long after we’re gone.

As an Assurance Partner, what do you do on a daily basis?

We work with teams to plan, execute, and review audits. Ultimately, it’s my responsibility to be involved in the process from start to finish, and to facilitate the team the whole way through. We do have lots of client meetings to attend as well, I had something like nine meetings Thursday last week. The purpose for meeting the clients is usually two-fold: to understand more about the business and the potential impact on the audit, but also how can we help them. For me, it’s really about understanding their business and people, as opposed to simply checking off boxes. Beyond that, I hope to do a lot of coaching, mentoring, to be more involved in running the practice in a broader sense. As an example of that, I’m now the people’s Partner in Assurance.

Finally, for all the students out there looking to get into Assurance, what are you looking for in the next intake of interns/grads?

We’re looking for people who are willing to learn and who want to grow their career quickly. I’m aware that business moves quickly, so I’m always looking for young people who think differently and are prepared to challenge us - not afraid to speak their mind and show initiative. I’d love to welcome students who are both self-motivated and a good fit with the culture. Passion is another quality that’s important to me. I’m always impressed by students who are dedicated to something, whether it’s being a member of their local sports club or a treasurer at a non-profit entity. We try to bring out the best in everyone here both in the office, but also inspire them beyond the job. This is why we have things such as the PwC foundation, to give people the platform to channel their desire to make a difference in the world.