Accenture promotes over 250 in North America to managing and senior managing director

Dublin-headquartered management and tech consultancy Accenture promoted just over 250 people in its US and Canada operations to the level of managing director and senior managing director. This was a part of a year-end promotion drive that saw 762 Accenture employees worldwide upgrade their title to MD or senior MD.

Of the 762 global promotions at Accenture, 41 were to Senior Managing Director level, while 721 were to Managing Director level.

Meanwhile, the firm trumpeted that 32% of the newly promoted managing directors were women – a record number (229). A further 22% of senior managing director promotions were women, up from 19% last year. Diversity and inclusion initiatives have been a core strategy and communications touchpoint for the consultancy in recent years.

“We always look for ways to grow and innovate in how we develop and support our people,” said Accenture Chairman and CEO Pierre Naterme. “Our ambition is to be the most inclusive and diverse company in the world — a true ‘culture of cultures’ — and this newest group of leaders will play a significant role in helping us get there.”The promotions spanned the firm’s geography, with 33% in North America, 34% in Europe, and 33% in growth markets. By the most recent estimates, Accenture employs about 49,901 people in the US and 4,800 in Canada.

The management and tech consulting giant has a particularly heavy presence in India, where it employed 140,000 as of 2016 according to The Economic Times. Speaking to the aforementioned publication, Chairman and Senior Managing Director of Accenture India Rekha M. Menon said, “The important story for us now is that India is the powerhouse in terms of what we're providing for our clients globally. All the top 100 clients for Accenture globally are served out of India.”

In the US, Accenture is among the top applicants for H1-B visas for non-immigrant foreign workers, along with Indian IT and BPO giants TCS, Wipro, and Infosys. About 75% of the skilled worker visas went to Indian workers in 2017, mostly in the IT field. The White House recently proposed tweaks to the program that entail electronic pre-registration with US Citizenship and Immigration Services, as well as new guidelines favoring US advanced degree holders in the 85,000-person cap.

The proposed change is expected to make it more difficult to secure the visas – which critics say replace US onshore jobs with less costly imported labor from India and China. The companies utilizing them typically respond that they simply cannot find the adequate talent in a shrinking and not properly-skilled labor pool, and must resort to the H1-B visa to fill the talent void.

$17.85 billion of Accenture’s $39.57 billion annual revenues were realized in North America, while $7.61 billion came from growth markets. Meanwhile, Europe accounted for $14.11 billion in revenues. The global firm currently has 459,000 employees, including 7,000 Accenture Leaders (rather than partners, because they’re a public company). Supposedly, that Accenture Leaders number will now have grown closer to 8,000.

“Our new managing directors and senior managing directors truly embody what it means to be leaders at Accenture,” added Nanterme. “With their dedication to our core values, commitment to our people, and superior service to our clients, they represent the future of Accenture and the best of a new generation of leaders in our industry.”