Chipangura becomes first Australia KPMG partner "w...

Chipangura becomes first Australia KPMG partner "who looks like me"

Audrey Galawu

Zimbabwean born, Australian-based Tax Expert Kudzai Chipangura has been appointed as a partner at KPMG, Sydney, Australia marking a new sign of diversity at the top.

While the tax expert thinks the diversity in his workplace is vastly improved on what it was 20 years ago, he says he has still struggled with a lack of role models.

“I have had mentors and sponsors who have helped me along the way and I don’t want to discount the impact they have had on my life, but I have not seen anyone really walk my path as a tax professional who has come through the ranks and then to partner…who looks like me,” Chipangura said in an interview with a financial publication.

He said one of the major challenges he has encountered in his career is not having someone who understands his background and some of the fears or internal pressures that he had.

He is one of the 68 experts to be promoted by the firm since July 2022.

Serving at the firm’s ’s Enterprise practice since 2019 as Tax Director, Chipangura has been with the firm for nine years, joining in 2013 from Newcastle-based financial services outfit Prosperity Advisers Group, where over eight years he worked his way up from trainee accountant to assistant manager.

He moved to Australia with his parents when he was 17 years old and said his success is based on him being conscious of the sacrifices that his parents made.

“In their late 30s, early 40s they decided to sacrifice their own careers as professionals Zimbabwe to say ok, the situation is deteriorating, we are moving to Australia,” he said.

Chipangura holds a bachelor of commerce from the University of Newcastle.

KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing a full range of services to organisations across a wide range of industries, government, and not-for-profit sectors.

Their service areas are Audit, Assurance and Risk Consulting, Deals, Tax and Legal, Management Consulting, and Innovation and Digital Solutions.