Hywel Ball

Hywel is the UK Chair and UK&I Managing Partner. He has over 35 years of experience with EY and has been a Partner for 25 years. Hywel was previously the EY UK&I Managing Partner of Assurance and UK Head of audit.

Hywel was a lead member of the Auditors’ Advisory Group for Sir Donald Brydon’s independent review into the quality and effectiveness of the UK audit market. He is also on the Advisory Board for the Financial Reporting Council’s work on the Future of Corporate Reporting. In addition, Hywel is on the audit committee of The British Museum.

Passionate about long-term value creation, Hywel co-authored EY’s Long-Term Value framework, which is designed to help companies measure and communicate the value they create for all stakeholders. He also led a proof of concept of this framework with the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism and over 30 global participants, in a unique initiative called The Embankment Project for Inclusive Capitalism. Additionally, Hywel is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Council on long-term investing.

With a broad range of experience, Hywel has worked in EY's London, New York and Edinburgh offices and served clients in a variety of sectors including Financial Services, Consumer Products, Oil and Gas and Utilities. He was previously the industry leader for the Energy and Utilities sector for Europe, Middle East, India and Asia and Chairman of the firm in Scotland. Hywel is currently the client partner for a number of EY’s largest accounts and is the audit partner for two FTSE 50 companies.

Hywel has a BEng in Civil Engineering from Imperial College, London. He is married to Liz and has three sons, Morgan, Lewys and Evan. Hywel splits his time between London and his home in Scotland.

How Hywel is building a better working world

“In order for society and economies to thrive, business needs to focus on long term value creation for their customers, employees and the wider community, rather than just short-term results for shareholders. I’m really proud of the work I have been leading on this important topic, by developing a framework to help companies to measure and communicate the long-term value they create for all their stakeholders.

I also took a leading role in the development of the Embankment Project for Inclusive Capitalism, where over 30 global companies came together to try and find a market solution. These are big issues and there is no silver bullet, but I am encouraged by the progress we have made so far and remain committed to doing more in the future.”