Jon Holt, UK CEO at KPMG: From Serving Pints to Becoming Partner
My Duvet Flip by Jack Parsons
Jack Parsons
4.2 • 5 Ratings
🗓️ 29 July 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode Guest:
Jon Holt is the UK CEO of KPMG, where he leads a team of over 16,000 professionals. With more than 30 years at the firm, Jon brings a reflective, values-led approach to leadership.
Episode Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction – Jon Holt joins My Duvet Flip
1:28 Starting out washing dishes in a Yorkshire pub
3:10 What Jon learned behind the bar
4:42 Advice to young Jon: try everything, especially work experience
6:20 Why accountancy beat law for Jon
7:35 Do what you enjoy – or go do something else
9:10 Getting early career advice – and learning to stay
10:52 From Wakefield to KPMG partner
12:15 The value of diverse work experience
13:36 When to leave a job and when to double down
15:00 Investing young – Jon’s biggest financial regret
16:30 How to spot good vs bad career advice
18:00 Feedback fear & learning from failure
20:15 What makes a great future accountant?
22:10 Curiosity in the age of echo chambers
24:00 Tips for building a curious mindset
25:45 Kindness and culture at KPMG
27:10 What it really takes to become a partner
28:50 The loneliness of leadership – and why outside mentors matter
30:10 Everyone’s the CEO of their own life
31:25 Why the journey matters more than the destination
33:00 The myth of enjoying success without earning it
34:20 Life after KPMG – Jon’s future beyond the firm
35:48 Final lessons from 30 years at the top
37:00 What flips Jon’s duvet every morning
38:25 Jack’s closing reflections on kindness, culture & leadership
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Disclaimer:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, my name is John Holt. I'm the CEO and senior partner of KPNG in the UK and Switzerland. |
| 0:08.0 | We have around 25,000 people in our firm. This is my duvet flip. |
| 0:13.0 | What makes a good future account? |
| 0:16.0 | Curious mind, you've got to go and ask questions and you have to be able to think outside the box. |
| 0:21.0 | How do you become a curious mind? |
| 0:22.7 | The world today is full of echo chambers. |
| 0:24.9 | It will repeat things that you like. |
| 0:26.8 | I like to read that Legion United States of the wing. |
| 0:29.0 | I believe. |
| 0:29.8 | What's your advice to anyone who may have feedback for it? |
| 0:32.6 | You think you are always right to never learn. |
| 0:35.0 | What if you dovet flip? What gives you out of bed in the morning to flip the duvet? |
| 0:42.2 | Hi, my name's John Holt. |
| 0:43.6 | I'm the CEO and senior partner |
| 0:46.2 | of KPMG in the UK and Switzerland. |
| 0:50.4 | I'm really excited about sitting down with Jack today. |
| 0:52.9 | It's a great podcast slash show. |
| 0:56.7 | So I really look forward to. I'm really excited to talk to Jack about the journey you get along through your career. |
| 1:03.1 | And also explaining to people that it's the journey that's exciting. It's not the end game. |
| 1:07.9 | I think I'm going to be able to take away from the episode. It is you've got to enjoy your career and you've got to enjoy what you're doing. And if you enjoy it, you'll be successful. And if you don't enjoy it, if you can, do something different. Hi, Jack. Looking forward to this. John, welcome to my duvet. Thank you very very much. Thanks for inviting. How you doing? I'm really good. How are you? Yeah, good, thank you. I said it earlier that I've seen most of your LinkedIn post, so inspiring you as a leader. So I want to kind of go through the journey, break that down and learn lots from you today. |
| 1:45.3 | Fantastic. Are you ready? I'm definitely ready. So tell me a little bit about your first job. |
| 1:49.1 | You said in your intro that when you was old enough to be out behind a pub, you did some pub work. |
... |
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