Southampton: PwC senior partner to retire

The senior partner of the Southampton and Bournemouth offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Geoff Briggs, has announced that he will be retiring as leader of the Solent practice at the end of June 2009.

Geoff Briggs has been the office senior partner in Southampton for the past nine years and in that time has seen the office grow from strength to strength in the local market place. He joined Pricewaterhouse in 1984 and has worked in both the London and Leicester offices, but has made a most significant contribution to the Southampton community in both his role as senior partner and Head of Community Affairs for the office.

Briggs’ successor is Keith Evans. Evans has recently moved to Southampton to strengthen the south coast team from the Thames Valley office where he had been instrumental in the development of the PricewaterhouseCoopers ‘Vision to Reality’ initiative – providing support to fast growing companies in the UK. He has been a partner with the firm for 20 years working in both assurance and consultancy in Swansea, London and the Thames Valley. Evans will become the senior partner for the Southampton and Bournemouth offices from July 1.

Briggs commented: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time leading the south coast offices and am proud of their achievements over the years. I will continue to lead both offices until June next year and will be working closely with Keith to ensure a smooth transition for both our clients and our employees.”

Evans commented: “I am delighted to be taking over the reins of the south coast offices. As the largest business advisory firm in the region by far our firm’s focus will be to use the enormous range and depth of our skills to bring real benefit to organisations in the area, especially in the challenging times that we’re facing.”

He added: “I will be working closely with Geoff over the coming months to ensure that we continue to build on the great work achieved over the past years. Even in these tough times we have some exciting plans to further grow our south coast practice over the next five years. We have some great people who are able to provide a wide range of services designed to help organisations realise much needed cash and profits.

"We are very much committed to developing long-term relationships with the major and up-and-coming organisations on the south coast.”