Giam Swiegers

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

Early life and education

Swiegers was born in 1956 in Pretoria, and was educated at Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, and graduated from the University of Pretoria with a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) (Honours) degree in 1978. Swiegers was a first-class rugby player. He owned one of South Africa's first mobile phones.

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, and he moved to Sydney where he was appointed Chief Operating Officer of the Australian firm in 1999.

Deloitte CEO

After the resignation of the previous CEO Domenic Martino in 2003, Swiegers was appointed CEO of Deloitte Australia. Giam chose Hobart 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's Global Board and Global Board Governance Committee and now sits on Deloitte's Global Executive Committee. 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 including Yammer. 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 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.

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 and the United States was noted in the announcement.

Swiegers is a member of the University of Technology, Sydney Vice-Chancellor's Industry Advisory Board and the Australian School of Business (University of New South Wales) Business Advisory Council. Swiegers also sits on the Art Gallery of New South Wales President's Council. Swiegers also plays golf, is a fly fisherman and oenophile.

Swiegers' alma mater, the University of Pretoria, awarded Swiegers a laureate in 2009.