Carmine Di Sibio

Carmine Di Sibio
Speaking at the 2021 World Economic Forum
Carmine Di Sibio
Born	23 3, 1963
Birthplace	Frigento, Italy
Nationality	American, Italian
Occupation	Business executive
Title	Operating Partner, Advent International
Known for	Global Chairman and CEO of EY (2019–2024)
Education	New York University (MBA) Colgate University (BA)
Children	4

Carmine Di Sibio (born March 23, 1963) is an Italian-born American business executive who served as the Global Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EY (formerly Ernst & Young), one of the world's largest professional services organizations, from July 1, 2019, to July 1, 2024. During his five-year tenure, Di Sibio oversaw approximately 40 percent growth in the firm's revenues, which exceeded US$50 billion. Born in the small Italian town of Frigento and raised in the United States, Di Sibio spent 39 years at EY, rising from an auditor to the firm's most senior leadership role. He succeeded Mark Weinberger as Global Chairman and CEO and was in turn succeeded by Janet Truncale. His leadership period was marked by ambitious strategic initiatives, including the widely reported but ultimately abandoned plan known as "Project Everest," which proposed separating EY's audit and consulting businesses. Following his departure from EY, Di Sibio took on board and advisory roles at major corporations and investment firms.

Early Life

Carmine Di Sibio was born on March 23, 1963, in Frigento, a small municipality in the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. He subsequently moved to the United States, where he was raised and educated. Details about his family background and upbringing prior to his university education are limited in publicly available sources. Di Sibio holds both Italian and American nationality.

Education

Di Sibio attended Colgate University, a private liberal arts institution in Hamilton, New York, where he completed his undergraduate studies. He later earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from New York University. His educational background in business provided the foundation for a career that would span nearly four decades in the professional services industry.

Career

Early Career at Ernst & Young

Di Sibio joined Ernst & Young (later rebranded as EY) at the outset of his professional career, beginning as an auditor. Over the course of approximately 39 years at the firm, he advanced through a succession of increasingly senior roles. His early career was rooted in audit and assurance services, the traditional core of the Big Four accounting firms. Di Sibio's progression through the firm's ranks reflected both his technical expertise and his growing profile as a client-facing leader within the organization.

Global Managing Partner for Client Service

Prior to his election as Global Chairman and CEO, Di Sibio served as EY's Global Managing Partner for Client Service, one of the most senior operational roles within the firm's global structure. In this capacity, he was responsible for overseeing the firm's client relationships and service delivery across its global network. The role positioned him as a leading candidate for the firm's top leadership position, giving him broad visibility into EY's operations across multiple service lines and geographies.

Before his appointment as Global Managing Partner for Client Service, Di Sibio had also served as the Managing Partner of EY's Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) practice, and before that, as the Managing Partner of the Americas Financial Services Organization (FSO). These roles gave him substantial experience in both advisory services and financial services, two of the fastest-growing areas of the professional services industry during the 2000s and 2010s.

Election as Global Chairman and CEO

On January 18, 2019, EY announced that Di Sibio had been elected as the firm's next Global Chairman and CEO, effective July 1, 2019. He succeeded Mark Weinberger, who had led the firm since 2013. The election followed the standard governance process within EY, in which the firm's global partners select their leader.

Reporting on the announcement, The Wall Street Journal noted Di Sibio's selection and his background in advisory and financial services. The Financial Times also covered the appointment, noting the transition at the helm of one of the Big Four accounting firms. Consultancy.asia similarly reported on the election, describing the leadership transition from Weinberger to Di Sibio.

Upon assuming the role, Di Sibio articulated a vision for EY centered on technology, innovation, and talent development. In a 2021 appearance on the World Economic Forum's "Meet the Leader" podcast, he discussed his approach to leadership, stating: "The days of the imperial CEO, they're gone." The remark reflected his emphasis on collaborative leadership and the evolving expectations placed on chief executives in major global organizations.

Tenure as Global Chairman and CEO

Di Sibio's five-year tenure as Global Chairman and CEO of EY, from July 2019 to July 2024, encompassed a period of significant growth and strategic change for the firm. Under his leadership, EY's global revenues grew by approximately 40 percent, with the firm's annual revenues exceeding US$50 billion by the time of his departure.

His leadership coincided with a period of profound disruption in the global economy, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in early 2020 and forced rapid adaptation across the professional services industry. The pandemic accelerated the adoption of remote working practices and digital transformation initiatives, areas in which EY, like its Big Four peers, invested substantially during this period.

Di Sibio placed significant emphasis on mentoring and organizational culture during his time as CEO. In a 2024 interview with Chief Executive magazine, he discussed the role of mentorship in building effective teams, arguing that "great teams have a mentoring culture." He emphasized the importance of making mentorship an institutional expectation rather than an informal practice.

Project Everest

The most prominent and contentious strategic initiative of Di Sibio's tenure was "Project Everest," a proposed plan to separate EY's audit and consulting businesses into two distinct entities. The plan, which emerged publicly in 2022, would have represented one of the most significant structural changes in the history of the Big Four accounting firms. Under the proposal, the consulting business would have been spun off into a publicly listed company, while the audit and tax practices would have remained as a partnership.

Di Sibio was reported to have named himself as the prospective CEO of the future public consulting company. The rationale for the split centered on the growing regulatory scrutiny of potential conflicts of interest between audit and consulting services within the same firm—a tension that had been a recurring theme in the accounting profession since the collapse of Arthur Andersen in 2002.

However, the initiative ultimately proved divisive among EY's global partnership. Different regional partnerships held varying views on the merits and risks of the proposed separation, and the plan faced resistance from partners concerned about the financial and operational implications of breaking apart the integrated firm. By early 2023, it became clear that the proposal lacked sufficient support to proceed, and Project Everest was formally abandoned.

The failure of the split plan had direct implications for Di Sibio's leadership. In June 2023, the Financial Times reported that Di Sibio had informed partners of his intention to retire the following year, a decision that was widely interpreted in the context of the collapsed restructuring effort. In November 2023, EY announced that Janet Truncale had been selected as the firm's next Global Chair and CEO, effective July 1, 2024.

Departure from EY

Di Sibio stepped down as Global Chairman and CEO of EY on July 1, 2024, concluding a 39-year career at the firm. Janet Truncale became the first woman to lead one of the Big Four accounting firms as she succeeded him in the role. Di Sibio's departure marked the end of a tenure characterized by strong revenue growth alongside the high-profile failure of the Project Everest restructuring plan.

Post-EY Career

Following his retirement from EY, Di Sibio moved quickly into new professional roles in the corporate and investment sectors.

On March 28, 2024, PayPal announced that its board of directors intended to appoint Di Sibio as an independent director, effective July 2024, coinciding with his departure from EY. The appointment reflected Di Sibio's experience in financial services and technology-driven business transformation, areas of direct relevance to PayPal's operations as a global digital payments company.

On September 30, 2024, Advent International, one of the largest global private equity firms, announced that it had appointed Di Sibio as an Operating Partner. In this role, Di Sibio was expected to leverage his decades of experience in professional services, financial advisory, and corporate governance to support Advent's portfolio companies and investment activities.

Personal Life

Di Sibio was born in Frigento, Italy, and later moved to the United States, where he built his career. He has four children. Beyond these publicly documented facts, Di Sibio has maintained a relatively private personal life. He has spoken publicly about the importance of work-life balance and mentoring, themes he discussed during his tenure as EY's CEO.

Recognition

Di Sibio's leadership of EY, a firm with operations in over 150 countries and hundreds of thousands of employees, placed him among the most prominent figures in the global professional services industry during his tenure. His appearances at major international forums, including the World Economic Forum at Davos in 2021, reflected his standing as a leading voice in discussions about corporate governance, economic policy, and the future of professional services.

His election as EY's Global Chairman and CEO was covered extensively by major business media outlets, including the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Accounting Today, reflecting the significance of the appointment within the accounting and consulting professions.

Following his departure from EY, his appointments to the PayPal board of directors and as an Operating Partner at Advent International indicated continued recognition of his expertise and leadership capabilities within the corporate and investment communities.

Legacy

Di Sibio's legacy at EY is shaped by two defining narratives of his five-year tenure. On one hand, the firm experienced substantial revenue growth—approximately 40 percent—during his leadership, reaching annual revenues above US$50 billion and solidifying EY's position among the world's largest professional services organizations. This growth occurred during a period marked by global economic disruption, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which tested the resilience and adaptability of professional services firms worldwide.

On the other hand, the failure of Project Everest, the ambitious plan to separate EY's audit and consulting businesses, represented a significant setback. The initiative had been the defining strategic proposition of Di Sibio's leadership, and its abandonment raised questions about governance and decision-making within the Big Four partnership model. The episode became a case study in the challenges of executing transformative structural change within large, partnership-based organizations, where consensus among a diverse and geographically dispersed group of equity partners is required.

Di Sibio's emphasis on mentoring, collaborative leadership, and the rejection of what he termed "the imperial CEO" model contributed to broader conversations about leadership culture within the professional services industry and beyond. His post-EY career trajectory, with roles at PayPal and Advent International, demonstrated the transferability of the skills and networks developed over a nearly four-decade career at one of the world's preeminent professional services firms.

Janet Truncale's selection as his successor—the first woman to lead a Big Four firm—was also a notable development of Di Sibio's final year in office, marking a milestone in the industry's progress toward greater diversity in senior leadership.