Former PwC chief economist Jeremy Thorpe has taken on a brand new function as consulting managing director for Bondi Companions, the advisory established by ex-Australian treasurer Joe Hockey.
Transferring on from a quick stint at knowledgeable advisory Sapere following his departure from PwC after greater than a decade and a half, the Huge 4 agency’s former chief economist and Canberra workplace boss has now crossed to Bondi Companions.
Thorpe has been recruited as Australia managing director for consulting and can co-coordinate with Bondi’s advisory staff in Washington, the place co-founding companion Joe Hockey established the agency after serving as ambassador to the US.
“Bondi Companions offers unrivalled expertise navigating the crucial intersection of coverage, politics and the personal sector,” Thorpe stated of his change from Sapere, noting the rising geopolitical battle over points such because the vitality transition and AI supremacy. “This can be a actual alternative to use my financial, coverage and broader consulting expertise in a barely completely different context.”
Thorpe spent the early a part of his profession as an economist with the Australian Productiveness Fee and Commonwealth Treasury, earlier than a quick stint at Coopers & Lybrand adopted by a decade at Allen Consulting (now ACIL Allen). He joined PwC in 2007, later serving as Canberra workplace managing companion and NSW authorities lead previous to his 5 years as chief economist.
In accordance with the Bondi Companions web site – which this writer was for some motive blocked from accessing throughout the course of penning this text – the agency offers cross-border funding and advisory companies in areas reminiscent of mergers & acquisitions, provide chain, and market entry, backed by its “distinctive expertise and networks to interpret, forecast and handle alternatives and dangers.”
Bondi Companions
Established by Hockey in 2020, Bondi notes nationwide and cyber safety, consumables, medtech, and significant minerals as amongst its areas of focus. His foray into consulting isn’t alone amongst ministerial contemporaries, with former home chief Christopher Pyne in the end harangued out of becoming a member of the defence apply of EY earlier than beginning his personal advisory enterprise, Pyne & Companions.
Elsewhere, former overseas affairs minister and long-term Liberal Social gathering deputy chief Julie Bishop stepped up her personal self-branded consulting apply final 12 months, whereas throughout the aisle, ex-Western Australia Labor premier Mark McGowan, who copped loads of warmth from the proper for his strict strategy to frame lock-downs throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, joined Bondi Companions in 2023.
Hockey, in the meantime, served as Australian treasurer from 2013 to 2015 below the Abbott authorities, and was famously captured smoking a cigar after delivering the extremely unpopular austerity-styled 2014 federal finances. He was later appointed as Australia’s ambassador to the US upon his parliamentary retirement, a place he held till early 2020 earlier than establishing Bondi.
A tentative voice on the newly-reelected US president throughout his ambassadorial tenure and since, Hockey not too long ago stated of the following 4 years, whereas urging native concessions; “It’s going to be an enormous quantity of disruptive exercise, from just about the second Donald Trump swears the oath onwards. Australia is correct down the precedence order, and there’s no upside in ‘us’ being up the checklist.”
