KPMG in Qatar has appointed Venkat Krishnaswamy as its Country Senior Partner with effect from 1 October 2026, handing leadership of one of the Gulf state's longest established professional services practices to a partner drawn from its advisory business. The appointment, announced on 28 September, is the first change at the top of the firm's Qatar operation in more than a decade.
Krishnaswamy assumes responsibility for the firm's strategic direction in Qatar, its commercial development, client relationships and talent development. Ahmed Abu Sharkh, who led the practice for 11 years, is staying with the firm and moving into the Head of Advisory role that Krishnaswamy is vacating, an arrangement the firm presented as a continuation rather than a break. "I am honoured to take on this responsibility," Krishnaswamy said, adding that the practice had "a highly talented team, a respected market position, and longstanding relationships that provide an excellent foundation for the future." Abu Sharkh described his successor as "a highly respected leader whose commitment to our people, clients, and values makes him the right person," and said he was "proud of what we have achieved together over the past 11 years." No external search firm was named in the announcement.
Krishnaswamy was most recently partner and Head of Advisory at KPMG in Qatar, running the unit that covers strategy and transformation, deals and mergers and acquisitions, risk management, technology implementation and organisational change. He has more than 15 years of experience as a partner at the firm and has built his practice around deal advisory, mergers and acquisitions and financial services, working with both government and private sector clients. KPMG's own profile of him records more than 20 years in private equity and financial advisory in the Middle East, with expertise spanning banking, real estate, debt structuring and raising, valuations, equity raisings through private placements and public offerings, and privatisations, and describes him as leading a deal advisory team of roughly 20 professionals. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Madras Christian College in India and is an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.
KPMG has been present in the Qatari market for more than 45 years. Its Qatar practice comprises 10 partners and more than 350 professionals and operates as a member firm of the KPMG International Limited network, one of the four largest accounting and consulting organisations in the world. The advisory unit that Krishnaswamy has led addresses strategic, operational, financial and technology questions for clients that include government entities and private sector groups, alongside the firm's audit work.
The change comes as Qatar pursues the economic diversification agenda set out in its national vision, with financial services, infrastructure, sport and hospitality generating demand for transaction and transformation advice. Promoting the head of advisory rather than an audit partner is, by inference rather than on the firm's own account, a signal that KPMG expects consulting and deal work to carry a growing share of its Qatar growth; the firm did not frame the choice in those terms. Retaining Abu Sharkh inside the partnership, and placing him in charge of the advisory unit his successor led, also points to an emphasis on continuity of client relationships through the handover. Neither the firm's Qatar revenue nor any financial target for the new leadership term was disclosed.
