Guillaume Johannes "Giam" Swiegers (born 27 July 1956) is a South African-born Australian business executive. Swiegers was the Global CEO of international engineering company Aurecon from 2015 to 2019, and was previously CEO of Deloitte Australia for twelve years.

Early life and education

Swiegers was born in 1956 in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

, and was educated at

Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (also known as Affies), is a public Afrikaans medium high school for boys situated in the suburb of Elandspoort in Pretoria in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The school was founded in 1920 by Jan Joubert and ...

, and graduated from the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...

with a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) (Honours) degree in 1978. Swiegers was a first-class

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

player.

Early career

He joined Deloitte South Africa as an auditor, and also worked for the firm in the United States, before emigrating to Australia in 1997. He was a managing partner of the Queensland practice before moving to Sydney in 2000 where he was appointed chief operating officer of the Australian firm.''Who's Who in Australia'', Crown Content, 2010.

Deloitte CEO

After the resignation of the previous CEO Domenic Martino in 2003, Swiegers was appointed CEO of Deloitte Australia. Giam chose

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

for the company's first meeting of national partners to begin the process of turning Deloitte Australia's operations around. Giam was subsequently appointed member of

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

's Global Board and Global Board Governance Committee and was a member of Deloitte's Global Executive Committee from 2010 to 2015. BRW described Swiegers as 'Mr Fix-It' as he has overseen a turnaround in both organisational culture and revenues. Swiegers was also involved heavily in the adoption of new technology, particularly

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

including

Yammer Yammer () is an enterprise social networking service that is part of the Microsoft 365 family of products. It is used mainly for private communication within organizations but is also used for networks spanning various organizations. Access to a ...

. This has fostered agility within the organisation. Swiegers also spearheaded efforts to improve the recognition of women. Swiegers received the 2005 Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace ''Best CEO for the advancement of women in business'' award. Over 2011–13, the admission of women to Deloitte has increased 30% and the number of female partners has increased over 25-fold over fourteen years. In 2008, Deloitte itself was named ''Best firm for the advancement of women''. The

Sex Discrimination Commissioner The Sex Discrimination Commissioner is an Australian federal government position established to oversee the operation of the ''Sex Discrimination Act 1984''. The position was created alongside the Act as one of the specialist commissioners of the ...

appointed Swiegers a founding Male Champion of Change. In 2006, Swiegers was named the ''HR Champion – CEO'' and Deloitte was named the ''Inclusive Workplace of the Year'' in the Australian Human Resources Institute Diversity Awards. When Giam retired from Deloitte in 2015 he was succeeded by Cindy Hook having recruited her from the Deloitte USA firm in 2009.

Global CEO Aurecon

Swiegers retired from Deloitte Australia on 30 January 2015. Aurecon Chairman Teddy Daka announced Swiegers would commence as Aurecon's new Global CEO effective 1 February 2015. Swiegers' South African background, and extensive experience in Australia, South Africa and the United States was noted in the announcement. Following a very successful four years at Aurecon he retired on 1 February 2019 as was agreed at the time of his appointment. In 2020 the AFR named Aurecon Australia's most innovative company as well as most Innovative professional service firm in Australia. This was achieved after being rated one of Australia's most innovative companies in 2016, 2017 and 2019. At the close of his career at Aurecon Giam wrote a note to all stakeholders reflecting on his time at Aurecon and the gift(s) that Aurecon gave him. This note has been widely distributed https://justimagine.aurecongroup.com/gift-aurecon-giam-swiegers/

Board appointments

Giam was appointed as the Chairman of Aurecon on 1 January 2021 after serving on the Board as a NED from 1 July 2019 to 31 December 2020. Giam was also appointed as Chairman of Brisbane based finance company Attvest on 1 April 2021. Giam is a NED of The Australian Design Council. He has started his own consulting company Learntthehardway consulting and consults to several organisations with focus on strategy and strategy execution through an emphasis on culture. Swiegers was a member of the

University of Technology, Sydney The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Although its origins are said to trace back to the 1830s, the university was founded in its current form in 1988. As of 2021 ...

Vice-Chancellor's Advisory Board and the Australian School of Business (

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

) Business Advisory Council. Swiegers was also a member of the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

President's Council.

Personal life

Swiegers plays

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, is a

fly fisherman Fly fishing is an angling method that uses a light-weight lure—called an artificial fly—to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. The light weight requires casting techniques significantly diffe ...

and

oenophile Oenophilia ( ; Greek) is a love (''philia'') of wine (''oinos''). In the strictest sense, ''oenophilia'' describes a disciplined devotion to wine, accompanying strict traditions of consumption and appreciation. In a general sense however, ''oeno ...

. Swiegers' alma mater, the

, awarded Swiegers a laureate in 2009.

References

External links

Deloitte profile page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Swiegers, Giam 1956 births Living people Australian chief executives South African chief executives South African emigrants to Australia University of Pretoria alumni People from Pretoria Deloitte people Alumni of Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool