PwC Norway's new leadership: Leif Arne Jensen and Petter Vold

PwC has in the summer installed a new leadership team in Norway. Leif Arne Jensen is the firm’s new Managing Director, succeeding Håvard Abrahamsen, while Petter Vold has been appointed Deputy Managing Director.

With a team of nearly 1,800 employees spanning four business areas – audit, advisory, accounting, tax and legal services – PwC’s Norwegian arm holds a leading position in Norway’s professional services industry. In comparison, KPMG and Deloitte both employ around 1,000 professionals in the Nordic country, and EY’s headcount is also markedly below that of PwC.

PwC’s ascendance to the top position was led in the past eight years by Håvard Abrahamsen, who has been serving the accounting and consulting firm since 2002, after previously also working for PwC in his first four year tenure at the firm between 1990 and 1994. However, having held two terms in office, which is the maximum period subscribed by PwC’s governance model in Norway, it was known well in advance that Abrahamsen would hand over the baton to a new leader.

Now, three months into their new roles, PwC’s Board of Directors is formed by Leif Arne Jensen and Petter Vold. Together they lead PwC’s 27 offices across Norway and all operations, from client work and engagement management through to internal operations and corporate culture. “Our goal is to create a company that maintains its leading position in the market and that customers and our employees love,” said Jensen regarding his top priorities. 

The pair were selected out of a group of PwC Partners that were contending for the top roles. Jensen had several years of leading PwC Norway’s Audit business under his belt. In the role, he advised major Norwegian and international companies, leading some of PwC's largest audit assignments and internal control projects in the country. Vold is the leader of PwC's Advisory unit, a role which the 20+ year PwC veteran will continue to fulfil. The Advisory division includes PwC’s corporate finance activities, strategy consulting arm Strategy&, and management and technology consultancy activities bundled in PwC Consulting. 

According to PwC’s Supervisory board in Norway, Jensen and Vold were the preferred candidates for the job. “They have both achieved impressive results as leaders of PwC Audit and PwC Advisory, they enjoy high trust within the partner team and they complement each other in many dimensions.”

Last month, PwC Norway acquired the Olso office of Livework, integrating the unit into its consulting division. 

Related: Norway is globe's best country for turning prosperity into citizen wellbeing.