- James Marwick
James Marwick (b. 1862 in
Edinburgh , Scotland) was an original founder of an accounting office that became one of theBig Four auditors ,KPMG .Marwick's father was Sir
James David Marwick , an Orcadian who was Town Clerk of Glasgow from 1873 to 1904. The young Marwick qualified as achartered accountant , but set his sights elsewhere. He began his accounting practice inGlasgow , and quickly jumped at the chance to travel toAustralia to conduct a bank examination for a group of Scottish investors during the Australian banking crisis in the 1890s.Energetic and ambitious, Marwick sailed from Australia to
Canada , fully intending to return to the Land Down Under. But after being so impressed with business opportunities inNorth America and cultivating banking clients, he went to theUnited States in 1894 and began looking for a partner.Marwick and
Roger Mitchell , schoolmates from theUniversity of Glasgow , literally ran into each other on aNew York City street in 1897. Mitchell had been sent to the United States to run the family textile business. The two set up a practice together in what has been labeled the perfect "front office/back office partnership."After opening Marwick, Mitchell & Company in New York, Marwick began traveling to other cities, opening offices all over the United States. Percy Garrett, who ran the
London office, once wrote that the tireless Marwick traveled as many as 15,000 miles a year.Later on, in 1911, Marwick and Mitchell joined with Sir
William Barclay Peat as Marwick, Mitchell, Peat & Company. Eight years later, they demerged. Marwick retired in 1917, handing the reins to Mitchell, who took over as senior partner and stayed on until 1925. That same year, Mitchell and Peat re-united and changed the firm name to Peat, Marwick & Mitchell.Main source
* [http://kpmghu.lcc.ch/dbfetch/52616e646f6d4956c247e50a674f62a32f0d015479d0165a302d8f3a286f0314/who_were_kpmg.pdf Who were K, P, M & G?]
* [http://www.kpmg.hu/index.thtml/hu/_ki/strollth/marwick_james/index.html KPMG Hungary]
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