Michael Ebeid's roadshow campaign to win support for his candidacy as KPMG chairman has seen him visit every large Australian office, but it's unclear if the face-to-face tour will pay off.
The many miles Ebeid has covered are proportional to the level of anger among the KPMG partners he needs to convince that he is the right person for the chair role.
The trouble is Ebeid's candidacy has been tainted by his membership of a KPMG board that dismissed a whistleblower's allegations that the firm had shared confidential client information to win new audit contracts, and that it subsequently outsourced a whitewashed legal inquiry.
As a board member, Ebeid was on the subcommittee overseeing the investigations. The scandal has left many doubting his suitability for the top role.
KPMG argues that expediting the appointment of a new chair is necessary to find and appoint a new chief executive. Finding a different chairman could take months, and it assumes there are good candidates out there, with the right governance and ethics credentials.
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.
Ebeid's strategy is to drown the partners in a flood of mea culpas. But sorry may not be enough for the legion of partners who could be facing a major pay cut and a cut in the value of their capital.
Ebeid's candidacy has been rocked by accusations that he accused Labor senator Deborah O'Neill of making false statements to the Senate in March when she aired the whistleblower's allegations of misconduct at the firm, suggesting her conduct was inappropriate and unfair.
The partners will vote in the coming months to change the partnership agreement that will allow for an independent chair to be appointed. They don't get to vote on who it will be, but a vote against changing the agreement will act as a proxy vote against Ebeid.
It's Ebeid's second strategy that may save him – arguing that as a board member, he was acting on the advice of the firm's chief executive and chairman, Andrew Yates and Martin Sheppard, respectively. Both have since departed KPMG following the scandal.
So he was parroting what he was told, and he didn't know what he didn't know.
Many of the KPMG partners being love-bombed by Ebeid during his election campaign will understandably argue that a true cleanskin chairman would be a better appointment if the firm is to put the current mess behind it.
But KPMG argues that it needs a governance team in place, including a chairman, to implement its belated 'action plan' around culture, whistleblowing oversight and integrity. Someone also has to front for the firm when it's called for another grilling before the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, which will sit again in September.
But will this be reason enough to win support for Ebeid's appointment from the firm's 684 ropeable partners? It will certainly usher in some defacto partnership democracy, given they get to vote on whether to change the partnership agreement to allow for an independent chair.
It would be prudent for KPMG to have a plan B given the depth of partner anger.