Throughout the last decade, Depa has worked closely with C-suite leaders and boards to bring innovative products and services to market, improve client and employee experiences, and help enhance operational efficiencies through technology. Most recently, he served as the inaugural Chief Data and AI Officer at a leading university and health care organization. At the university, he helped to promote AI literacy, launch a responsible AI governance program and enable a secure data foundation. Prior to that, he acted as Senior Managing Director and Global Lead for Data and AI at a global multinational professional services company, where he led a team of AI strategists and data engineers in developing and implementing new products and services

Alright so they’re going to make us Google it. That leading university appears to be Emory and he was appointed to the chief data and AI guy position just last year. Emory did name names in their announcement so now we know the “global multinational professional services company” mentioned in EY’s announcement is Accenture:

Depa comes to Emory from Accenture, a Fortune 50 technology provider, where he served as the senior managing director and global lead for data and AI for the company’s strategy and consulting business. There he managed their award-winning team of global professionals specializing in data science and AI strategy, and served on the global leadership committee. He focused on helping clients in health, life sciences and across industries to leverage data to develop new clinical data products, improve the patient and employee experience and reduce operating expenses.

At EY, Depa will “lead on the discovery and deployment of emerging technologies to help address business challenges and shape the future with confidence.” Translation: “Figure out how the firm can make buckets of money from AI.”

“I’m truly excited to join an organization that is ‘All in’ on its commitment to the transformative potential of emerging technologies,” said whoever wrote this quote attributed to Joe Depa in the press release, referencing EY’s post-Vision 2020 “All In” strategy that hasn’t caught on at all yet. “I look forward to working with the EY teams and clients to help empower them to apply innovation in bold, new ways that help create value for clients through data, AI and emerging technologies to make the world a better place.”

Missed opportunity to fit “build a better working world” in there, Joe. Maybe we’re not using that anymore.

EY’s last Chief Innovation Officer was Jeff Wong who held the position from 2015 until this past summer.

Joe Depa named as EY Global Chief Innovation Officer to lead its global innovation strategy [PR Newswire]

The post EY’s New Global Chief Innovation Officer Says the Thing appeared first on Going Concern.

On Friday, we prompted the readership to speculate about which mid-tier accounting firm was going to announce a private equity investment on Monday after a Reddit post teased an imminent announcement. Our money was on Carr, Riggs, & Ingram and a tip that came in shortly after publication confirmed that suspicion.

Imagine our surprise when the first press release of Monday morning wasn’t CRI but PKF O’Connor Davies. PKF announced they were getting cozy with Investcorp and Public Sector Pension Investment Board, one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers.

Was our intel wrong? No! CRI just hadn’t gotten around to announcing their deal first thing Monday morning. More like first thing Monday afternoon.

Like PKF, CRI struck a deal with not one but two outside capital firms:

Centerbridge Partners, L.P. (“Centerbridge”), a global alternative investment manager with approximately $40 billion in assets under management as of September 30, 2024, and a focus in the financial services, technology, industrial and healthcare markets, and Bessemer Venture Partners (“Bessemer”), a venture capital firm with more than $18 billion in assets under management primarily invested in the consumer, financial technology, enterprise, and healthcare markets. This first-time investment of institutional capital for CRI recognizes the firm’s exemplary track record of growth and creating value for its clients and is intended to help accelerate the firm’s innovation initiatives and expansion strategies.

The private equity deals in accounting are coming so fast they’re dropping on the same day now. WHO’S NEXT?

Earlier:

The post Private Equity is Picking Up Accounting Firms By the Handful Now appeared first on Going Concern.

Put on your tallest wading boots and let’s see the press release:

“We could not be happier to add a firm like Clearview Group to the Citrin Cooperman family. Clearview Group’s ability to expand our service offering and offer up-market solutions to our client base will allow us to continue to help our clients Focus on What Counts,” said Citrin Cooperman Advisors LLC CEO Alan Badey. “Clearview Group’s focus on a strong culture and technical excellence will fit perfectly with Citrin Cooperman.”

“We are thrilled to be joining Citrin Cooperman,” said Brian Davis, CEO of Clearview Group. “With Citrin Cooperman’s expansive geographical presence and impressive suite of world-class professional services and industry insights, this transaction enables us to expand the reach of our industry-leading risk and enterprise solutions to continue to provide clear solutions to the complex problems large corporations are facing in today’s ever-evolving market conditions.”

New Mountain Capital — the same PE firm that is pouring cash into Grant Thornton — has owned a majority stake in Citrin Cooperman since 2022.

Let’s check out Glassdoor to see salaries at Clearview Group shall we?

Because modern day PE-backed deals are extra complicated, Citrin Cooperman Advisors LLC will acquire the non-attest assets of Clearview Group, Inc. while Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP will acquire the attest assets of BD & Co., Inc., Clearview’s licensed CPA firm.

The press release says the transaction is expected to close November 2024 so…any day now.

Related:

The post PE-Backed Citrin Cooperman Adds a 150-Person Firm to the Roll appeared first on Going Concern.

The obligatory press release:

Dignari’s 300-strong workforce utilizes innovation at scale and data-driven strategies to advise US government clients. Since 2013, the company has been driving successful program implementations, designing high-impact solutions that maximize effectiveness, prototyping emerging technologies and using data science to improve performance measurement.

“We are excited about welcoming the world-class Dignari team to the EY Government & Public Sector practice,” said Doree Keating, EY Americas Government & Public Sector Leader. “We believe that blending EY US’s commitment to provide customers with mission-ready solutions and Dignari’s IAM capabilities in the homeland security space will offer a highly differentiated value proposition for our government clients.”

“For over a decade, Dignari has made a significant impact on furthering the federal government’s security mission with modern technologies,” said Gena Alexa, Dignari Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “These efforts can be scaled across local and state governments as well — and when combined with the power of the EY network will strengthen outcomes for both the public sector and the people it serves.”

Dignari salaries from Indeed if anyone’s curious.

According to the 2023 Top 100 Contractors report (the Excel sheet can be found here from SAM.gov) that lists the top 100 vendors for the US Government by dollars obligated each fiscal year, Deloitte ranks #26 with $3,711,875,824.60 obligated. Big D holds the distinction of being the only Big 4 firm on the list, ahead of Accenture at #34 but unsurprisingly behind Booz Allen Hamilton at #16. As Trump fans are currently beefing with Deloitte and calling for their government contracts to get cancelled faster than a B-list comedian tweeting on Ambien, now seems like a great time for the other firms to make big moves in what has historically been a space Deloitte dominates.

The Department of Defense is by far EY’s biggest government client according to data on USASpending.gov. For FY23, EY received $312,906,294 in DOD obligations. The next largest obligation amount is the General Services Administration (GSA) with a comparatively tiny $37,306,035.

Security powerhouse Dignari joins EY to accelerate mission enablement across the public sector [EY]

The post EY’s Growing Its Public Sector Practice With a New Acquisition appeared first on Going Concern.

The total reported aggregate global revenue (unaudited): $67.2 billion for the fiscal year ending May 31, 2024. That’s a 3.1% increase in local currency (3.6% increase in USD) from FY2023. By comparison, the jump from 2022 to 2023 was a 14.9% increase; revenue growth from 2021 to 2022 was a staggering 19.6%. from Deloitte’s 2022 revenue, not quite as big a jump as the 19.6% increase between 2021 ($50.2 billion) and 2022 ($59.3 billion). It was only a few revenue announcements ago that Deloitte became the first Big 4 firm in history to break $50 billion in global revenue.

• 2024: $67.2 billion
• 2023: $64.9 billion
• 2022: $59.3 billion
• 2021: $50.2 billion
• 2020: $47.6 billion

“In a complex global environment over the past year, Deloitte successfully sustained a growth trajectory while investing heavily in the next generation of capabilities aligned to emerging areas of client demand,” says Joe Ucuzoglu, Deloitte Global CEO. “Our unrivaled breadth of capabilities spanning advanced technologies, sector depth, and expertise in critical business functions, positions Deloitte uniquely to help clients, markets, and society at large maximize the value of tech-driven transformation.”

Scrolling through the press release to figure out what information needs to be passed along to dear reader we got the idea to plug this thing into a word counter. Supposedly it’s “only” 2,718 words. Feels like five times that.

Growth — or shrink — by service line (in local currency):

• Tax & Legal: 8.7%
• Audit and Assurance: 4.1%
• Risk Advisory: 3.2%
• Consulting: 1.9% (ouch)
• Financial Advisory: -3.8% (double ouch)

There’s nothing else of value in this press release unless you enjoy the text version of those obscure videos of some guy trying to get his mouth around his own junk.

PwC or EY should be next to report revenue results, we’re going to guess it’s PwC since they just kicked off a round of layoffs.

Deloitte reports FY2024 revenue [Deloitte]

The post Deloitte’s Bringing a Small D to Revenue Season This Year appeared first on Going Concern.

Here are the details:

Sequoia Financial Group, LLC (Sequoia Financial), an SEC-registered wealth manager with more than $19.3 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2024, and Eide Bailly LLP, a top 20 national accounting firm, today announced a strategic partnership, with Sequoia Financial acquiring Eide Bailly’s wealth management practice and both firms collaborating to deliver expanded services to each other’s clients.

As part of the agreement, Eide Bailly Advisors, LLC, an SEC-registered firm with approximately $1.58 billion in assets under management as of April 30, 2024, will become part of Sequoia Financial Group, and Eide Bailly will have an equity investment in Sequoia. The firms expect the transaction to close in the fourth quarter.

Headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, Eide Bailly has over $700 million in annual revenue and more than 3,500 employees in 40 U.S. offices, with a major footprint in the western United States. Eide Bailly’s wealth management practice serves individuals, trusts, estates, pension and profit-sharing plans, businesses, and charitable organizations.

OK, we’re with you so far.

Through this partnership, Eide Bailly’s wealth management team will join Sequoia Financial, which includes Sequoia Sentinel, a multi-family office focused on high-net-worth clients with more than $25 million in assets. Brad Kelley, principal and wealth leader for Eide Bailly Advisors, will become an executive vice president of corporate development for Sequoia Financial, responsible for leading joint initiatives between the two firms.

So Sequoia Financial is acquiring Eide Bailly’s wealth management team and Eide Bailly has an equity investment in Sequoia. That’s a fresh new twist on professional services investments. Since the beginning of 2023, Sequoia Financial has made six acquisitions: Karpas Strategies, AltruVista, Zeke Capital Advisors, Cirrus Wealth Management, Affinia Financial Group, and M Capital Advisors.

There’s private equity money tangled up in here too. Sequoia Financial Group sold a minority stake worth $200 million to Valeas Capital Partners in 2022. Valeas Capital Partners is one of the two private equity groups that bought a majority stake in Baker Tilly worth a billion dollars in February; of that investment, $900 million is alleged to have come from the other private equity group in that transaction, Hellman & Friedman. Sequoia Financial is also backed by Kudu Investment Management and FGA Partners (Pitchbook deets here) though there’s no press release announcing the latter’s investment in Sequoia (if a sequoia falls in a forest of PE money with no one to hear it does it make a sound?).

Eide Bailly hasn’t made any PE deals that we’re aware of, surely there would be a press release and a bunch of people employed there saying on Reddit “I’m polishing up my resume right now!” if they had or are imminently about to. But let’s get back to this…deal.

“We have found a true partner with a strong cultural alignment and broad range of services and expertise to support the complex wealth planning needs of our accounting and business advisory clients,” said Jeremy Hauk, Eide Bailly’s CEO and managing partner. “Over many decades we have built deep relationships with our clients. With Sequoia Financial, a recognized leader in wealth management, we can significantly enhance our offerings and serve more clients.”

Wait, so is this a referral-type situation or…? Confused again.

“This partnership is a key strategic move that will expand our wealth management footprint meaningfully, especially west of the Mississippi River, where Eide Bailly has a large presence in major wealth markets,” said Tom Haught, Sequoia Financial’s CEO. “Equally important, both firms measure success by client success. Together, we will help more businesses and families achieve their financial goals.”

Whatever.

The post Eide Bailly Gets in Some Kind of Wealth Management Circlejerk, IDK appeared first on Going Concern.

Because she doesn’t start until October, her KPMG profile is still live:

Helluva resume there. Harvard Law School, working for President Biden back when he was just Senator Biden, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Special Assistant to Obama for Justice and Regulatory Policy at the White House…and KPMG.

Vanguard couldn’t be more excited. “Tonya is an accomplished lawyer and trusted business leader who brings extensive experience in the public and private sectors,” said Vanguard Chief Executive Officer Salim Ramji. “She has spent her career championing access and transparency for individuals across a range of issues and amid increasingly complex legal and regulatory landscapes. We are pleased to add her counsel, business acumen, and policy expertise to further our mission of giving individual investors the best chance for investment success.”

For her part, Tonya is “thrilled” herself. “I’m thrilled to join Vanguard, a firm with a rich history of helping everyday investors get a fair shake,” she said. “For nearly 50 years, Vanguard has helped families save for their education and retire better with a strong ethos of integrity and commitment to client success. I welcome the chance to work with Vanguard’s talented and purpose-driven management and legal teams to help propel the next 50 years of the firm’s impact on helping investors reach their goals.”

Vanguard Announces Tonya T. Robinson as General Counsel [Vanguard]

The post Vanguard Poaches Someone From KPMG and Issues a Press Release appeared first on Going Concern.

“These artificial intelligence capabilities enhance our overall transformation to deliver a better audit experience for our people and the companies we audit,” he added. “Our AI capabilities will further strengthen our engagement teams to more effectively engage Audit committees and management committees.”

And now, the press release talking points:

KPMG Clara with AI is connected to our broader transformation efforts to enhance audit quality through our Trusted AI framework. For example, new generative AI capabilities will help teams:

• Refine risk assessments: AI assistants can review documents to help engagement teams identify risk factors. For instance, within KPMG Clara, engagement teams can leverage AI to help review meeting minutes and flag possible accounting and fraud risks.
• Develop substantive testing procedures: Our AI assistant has direct access to our audit methodology, enabling auditors to design appropriate substantive testing procedures to respond to risks quicker.
• Enhance audit documentation: By working with our AI assistant, team members can quickly summarize, question and consider improvements to engagement-specific audit documentation within KPMG Clara.

And:

KPMG today also unveiled AI and generative AI capabilities that will be deployed in the workflow in the coming months. These include:

• A growing prompt library that will, over time, include AI-powered agents to assist Audit teams in driving audit quality;
• Automated quality scoring to generate AI assessments and deliver feedback to Audit teams on actions for quality improvement;
• Use of AI and machine-learning to automate the review of financial statements, augmenting engagement teams’ assessment that all required disclosures have been made to the capital markets; and
• Assurance capabilities integrated into the workflow for teams delivering assurance over disclosures, such as emissions disclosures. 

“All of our auditors are trained on how to effectively use AI with a human-in-the-loop mindset to maintain quality, accuracy and professional skepticism,” said Thomas Mackenzie, KPMG U.S. and Global Audit Chief Technology Officer.

We trust this development will help KPMG push its deficiency rate below 25% for the first time since 2011.

KPMG Announces AI Integration into Global Smart Audit Platform, KPMG Clara [KPMG

The post Maybe AI Will Help KPMG Finally Get Gud at Auditing appeared first on Going Concern.

Grant Thornton and Grant Thornton Lite today announced a partner, principal, and managing director class of 56 people. They’re going to make us do math here to figure out how many partners and principals they have this year so we can compare it to prior years. Sorry, MDs, you’re left out.

Historical number of partners and principals promoted each year at Grant Thornton:

• 2024: 22
• 2023: 43
• 2022: 38
• 2021: 46
• 2020: 30
• 2019: 42
• 2018: 32
• 2017: 39
• 2016: 47
• 2015: 50
• 2014: 32
• 2013: 30
• 2012: 27
• 2011: 26
• 2010: 22

Because this is the first PPMD announcement since Grant Thornton’s huge private equity deal and mixing attest services in with PE-backed entities is a no-no, they made sure to separate the audit and non-audit peeps. Everyone get used to these convoluted announcements, it’s only going to get worse from here.

In total, Grant Thornton Advisors LLC, which provides non-attest services, admitted nine new principals and promoted 22 professionals to managing directors. At the same time, Grant Thornton LLP, which provides attest services, admitted 13 new partners and promoted 12 professionals to managing directors. These appointments and promotions are effective August 1, 2024.

Seth Siegel, CEO of Grant Thornton Advisors LLC, emphasizes that the newly named leaders will serve clients with excellence and propel Grant Thornton forward at a poignant moment for the firm.

Poignant, that’s a new word for them. At least we got one familiar DYNAMIC among all this word salad.

Thanks for internalizing last year’s criticism and giving the people what they want, Seth.

Audit wins the PPMD race by a long shot with 44% of the newly promoted peeps coming from there and the only service line to have any new partners. Coming in second — and reminder, this is a separate entity — is tax with 27% followed by advisory at 20% and internal services at 9%.

New PPMDs at Grant Thornton LLP (the audit business):

New PPMDs at Grant Thornton Advisors (the PE side of the business that they will remind you multiple times is a totally different business from the attest side):

New this year thanks to private equity is the following disclaimer at the bottom of the promotions press release:

“Grant Thornton” is the brand for two professional-services entities: Grant Thornton LLP, a licensed, certified public accounting (CPA) firm that provides audit and assurance services ― and Grant Thornton Advisors LLC (not a licensed CPA firm), which exclusively provides non-attest offerings, including tax and advisory services. With revenues of $2.4 billion for the fiscal year that ended July 31, 2023, and dozens of offices nationwide, Grant Thornton represents a community of almost 10,000 problem solvers, relationship builders, and industry specialists who know that how we serve matters as much as what we do.

Grant Thornton LLP, Grant Thornton Advisors LLC and their respective subsidiaries operate as an alternative practice structure (APS). The APS conforms with applicable laws, regulations and professional standards, including those from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Grant Thornton LLP and Grant Thornton Advisors LLC serve as the U.S. member firms of the Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL) network. GTIL and its member firms are not a worldwide partnership and all member firms are separate legal entities. Member firms deliver all services; GTIL does not provide services to clients.

Congrats to all.

Grant Thornton names 56 new partners, principals and managing directors [Business Wire]

The post Promotion Watch ’24: 56 People Rise to the Top of the Heap at Grant Thornton* appeared first on Going Concern.

Law.com has them at #5 in revenue after Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, DLA Piper, and Baker McKenzie. A few sources, some of them at least a couple years old, say Dentons does lead the global law syndicate in size by headcount. Still others, many of which appear suspiciously aligned with ChatGPT’s dialect, contradict this claim. Our former sister site Above the Law has a story from 2023 detailing how Dentons became the world’s largest law firm in 2015 and it wasn’t from hiring 6,000 lawyers (Vault calls it “the Pac-Man of law firms“). Anyway, splitting hairs here.

How about that press release:

Dentons, the world’s largest global law firm, today announced that its Global Board of Directors and Global Advisory Committee have elected Kate Barton as the Firm’s next Global CEO. Barton will join Dentons from EY, where she has had a highly distinguished 35-year career in a variety of executive leadership roles, most recently as Global Vice Chair. She will succeed Elliott Portnoy, the founding Global CEO, who has served since the Firm’s launch in 2013.

As one can imagine would happen over a 35-year tenure, Barton held numerous positions since starting out as an intern in 1985. New England Tax Managing Partner, Northeast Sub-Area Tax Managing Partner, New York Office Managing Partner, Americas Vice Chair, Tax, Law and People Advisory Services, Global Vice Chair – Tax, Law and People Advisory Services, and her most recent title of Global Vice Chair.

The handover period begins in September and her first official day is November 10.

Do we want to read the obligatory corpospeak quotes? We do.

“Kate has extensive experience in leading a complex and global professional service organization and has an outstanding skillset in managing people, processes and systems. Her successful client service experience, coupled with her thoughtful approach to integration, make her the ideal individual to lead our Firm,” said Elliott Portnoy, Global CEO. “She has my unqualified support, and I am confident she will lead Dentons from strength to even greater strength and success.”

Reflecting on her appointment, Kate said, “I have watched Dentons redefine the legal services landscape with its pioneering business strategy and client offerings. Under Elliott’s leadership, this Firm has differentiated itself with its polycentric approach and integrated cross-border and multidisciplinary client engagements, proving that uniting and operating as one firm is far more impactful. I am looking forward to working with Elliott on a transition and to collaborating with Dentons’ accomplished regional leadership to continue challenging industry norms and adapting to the ever-changing world of technology and innovation faced by law firms and professional service firms around the world in order to deliver excellence for the benefit of our people and our clients.”

Well that sure was a spectacular corporate meat beating.

The post ‘The World’s Largest Global Law Firm’ Snags a Longtime EY Veteran appeared first on Going Concern.

Aprio (or the “Company”), a leading business advisory and accounting firm, today announced that it has received a strategic investment from Charlesbank Capital Partners (“Charlesbank”), a middle-market private investment firm with more than $18 billion of capital raised since inception, to accelerate innovation and growth of the business. The transaction represents the first investment of institutional capital into Aprio.

“As our profession continues to rapidly evolve, our partnership with Charlesbank is an important leap forward in our ability to bring state-of-the-art solutions to top business leaders, while making investments that will benefit our team, clients, and communities. We are building the business advisory firm of the future, and Charlesbank shares our vision and commitment,” said Richard Kopelman, CEO. “Aprio is poised to advance to the next level, and we are excited about the opportunity to best serve our clients and fast-track our growth with a widely respected partner.”

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. If anyone cares to leak them, you know what to do.

Earlier:

The post It’s Official, Aprio Inked a Private Equity Deal appeared first on Going Concern.

According to a press release they put out yesterday, EY plans to invest a billion dollars over three years on talent and technology “to revolutionize the experience of early career accounting professionals and improve the attractiveness of the profession.” Let’s see what exactly they think that looks like:

This investment includes a significant increase in early career compensation, artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled audit and tax platforms, an innovative new “360 Careers” experience, outreach and support for college students, and enhanced wellbeing benefits.

Call us skeptical but this sounds like a lot of non-compensation stuff that could eat up a healthy chunk of that billion bucks. They did say the salary bump will put accounting “on par with other business majors” though:

EY US will increase early career compensation as part of a total rewards package that recognizes the value of a certified public accountant (CPA) career path. This investment will place the profession and accounting degree on par with other business majors and position EY US as a pay leader in an increasingly competitive US market.

No salary number was given so we’ll just have to keep an eye on the next few compensation seasons to find out just how much more they’re paying.

Added the firm:

EY US will continue to be a beacon for top talent, supporting professionals as they pursue a degree in Accounting and as they progress in their career, through:

• Pathways to CPA licensure, including the EY Career Path Accelerator, to remove barriers to entry and create a growing pool of future CPAs
• New EY 360 Careers experience for early career professionals starting in 2025, which will serve as a launch pad and accelerator to give campus recruits the essential skills they need to grow as leaders at the global EY organization, forge their paths as entrepreneurs or advance to prominent C-suite positions later in their careers
• Wellbeing enhancements to help professionals perform at their best, including dedicated coaching and wellbeing assistance for audit and tax teams during periods of peak performance

If you didn’t know, EY Career Path Accelerator is “an accessible, affordable, and relevant alternative for students to meet the 150 hours of education required for CPA licensure” meant for people who aren’t on the Master’s track. This is what’s currently on offer:

Says EY about the program, the Career Path Accelerator “offers hands-on learning through our EY internship, ensures participants receive the guidance they need to be successful, and equips students with the future-focused skills and subject-matter experience that they’ll need upon entering the workforce.” The program is administered by Hult International Business School.

Let’s wrap this up with the expected quote:

“Investors and global capital markets depend on a thriving accounting profession,” said Ginnie Carlier, EY Americas Vice Chair – Talent. “Our goal is to make EY US the most preferred place to launch an audit or tax career and become a springboard for future business leaders – for our own organization and leading public and private enterprises.”

EY US to invest $1 billion in compensation and technology to improve the attractiveness of the accounting profession [PR Newswire]

The post EY Promises to Increase Starting Salaries to Make Accounting More Attractive appeared first on Going Concern.

Who or what is Fair360, you ask? Who cares!

For real though, Fair360 used to be called DiversityInc, a name that might be slightly more familiar to you. They rebranded last year, citing “the ever-changing sociopolitical landscape and our commitment to a holistic approach to workplace fairness” as why. The list methodology is long and complicated, let’s not get too deep into it. The ranking is “based on empirical data obtained through organizations completing and submitting the online survey” and this next part is too long for quotation marks so here you go:

The assessment provides detailed insights into representation metrics across several dimensions and intersectionality segments including race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status and veteran/active military status of employees, leadership and board of directors. In addition, the assessment captures information regarding supplier fairness and philanthropy-related spending and practices to generate relevant benchmarks, best practices and research.

KPMG naturally put out a press release to inform everyone of this wonderful news.

KPMG LLP ranked #5 on Fair360’s 2024 Top 50 Companies list, appearing on the list for the 18th consecutive year. The announcement was made live on May 13, 2024, at Fair360’s annual event in New York.

Since 2001, the Fair360 (previously known as DiversityInc) Top 50 survey has recognized U.S. employers that are committed to overall workplace fairness.

The obligatory leadership fluff:

“The world is growing increasingly complex, and the future leaders of our industry will be those who attract the most innovative and skilled people, create diverse and well-managed teams, and build connections based on trust with their clients and our society,” said KPMG U.S. Chair and CEO, Paul Knopp. “By fostering a work environment where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered, we unlock the full potential of our people and create a culture of innovation and excellence.”

And more fluff:

As a values-driven organization, KPMG has a long-standing commitment to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion and a sense of belonging both within the firm and in the broader marketplace, and it continues to be a strategic priority. 

And MORE fluff:

“At KPMG, we prioritize a culture of genuine understanding and empathy, so we are equipped to meet the unique needs of our workforce,” said KPMG U.S. Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, Elena Richards. “Together, we are building an environment where everyone can flourish and reach their highest potential.”

OK, we’ve gotten to the end of the fluff. Really was worried for a minute there it was going to go on for many more paragraphs.

KPMG moved up one spot from #6 on last year’s list and amazingly, this isn’t their first time as the only Big 4 firm on the list. See our 2019 report: KPMG Gets Another Award For Being the Big 4 Firm That Is the Least Old, Male, and Pale

We suppose it’s worth noting that neither EY nor PwC qualify for the Top 50 list as once a company earns a #1 spot, they’re forever retired to the Hall of Fame. PwC took #1 in 2012, EY in 2017. This makes them ineligible for inclusion in the Top 50, possibly to prevent the kind of PwC/Deloitte domination we’ve witnessed year after year on the Vault rankings. Only makes sense an organization called Fair360 would like to give others their fair shot at glory.

Fans of lists will love to hear that there are even more lists, Fair360 has conveniently listed (ugh) them out and included KPMG’s rank for each.

Specialty Lists

They better watch out, EY is dangerously close to unseating them as supreme leader of employee resource groups.

Congrats to them and maybe if they keep self-reporting performing as well as they have they will one day join PwC and EY in that storied Hall of Fame.

KPMG named No. 5 on Fair360 Top 50 Companies List [KPMG]

The post You’ll Never Guess Which Big 4 Firm Is the Only One to Make This Top Companies List appeared first on Going Concern.

First, the earlier reporting. DutchNews wrote in July 2023:

At least 500 workers at KPMG in the Netherlands have cheated during the compulsory exams which accountants are required to take, the consultancy group has confirmed.

KPMG said it had imposed sanctions on an unknown number of employees, and “a handful” had been fired following an internal investigation into the claims that staff had swapped answers to the tests.

KPMG Nederland director Marc Hogeboom is also stepping down as boss of the accounting arm, but remains an auditor and partner at KPMG. He said in a statement he “should have been more alert to signals” that pointed towards workers sharing their answers.

We brought the situation up again late last month when Mazars’ Dutch arm reported their own “misconduct on exams” in its annual report. If the PCAOB wasn’t interested in digging around already, that certainly would have gotten their attention.

Alas, they had already been on the case. Announced today, the PCAOB has hit both KPMG Netherlands and former Head of Assurance Marc Hogeboom with some hefty fines related to cheating.

Said the PCAOB in a press release:

As described in the PCAOB’s orders, from 2017 to 2022, hundreds of professionals at KPMG Netherlands engaged in improper answer sharing – either by providing access to test questions or answers, or by receiving such access without reporting it – in connection with tests for mandatory firm training courses. These courses related to a variety of topics, including U.S. auditing standards, professional ethics, and independence. The improper answer sharing reached as far as partners and senior firm leaders, including Hogeboom (at the time the firm’s Head of Assurance and a member of the firm’s Management Board). The growth of this widespread answer sharing was enabled by the firm’s failure to take appropriate steps to monitor, investigate, and identify the potential misconduct. For example, starting in June 2020, the firm was aware that (1) answer sharing had occurred at a KPMG service delivery center serving KPMG Netherlands and KPMG LLP (United Kingdom) and (2) the sharing had extended to the U.K. firm’s personnel. Nevertheless, KPMG Netherlands took virtually no steps to investigate potential answer sharing among its personnel until a whistleblower reported such misconduct in July 2022.

During the PCAOB’s investigation, the firm submitted – and failed to correct – multiple inaccurate representations to the PCAOB. In the submissions, the firm claimed that it had no knowledge of answer sharing by its personnel until it received the July 2022 whistleblower report. These submissions, reviewed by the firm’s Management Board and Supervisory Board, were false because members of those two Boards had themselves already engaged in answer sharing misconduct before July 2022.

The above misconduct revealed an inappropriate tone at the top of KPMG Netherlands and a failure by firm leadership to effectively promote an ethical culture among firm personnel with respect to improper answer sharing and monitoring of the firm’s system of quality control.

“The PCAOB will not tolerate cheating nor any other unethical behavior, period,” said PCAOB Chair Erica Y. Williams. “Impaired ethics threaten the investor confidence our system relies on, and the PCAOB will take action to hold firms accountable when they fail to enforce a culture of honesty and integrity. I thank the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets for its cooperation in the investigation of this matter and applaud the enhanced supervision measures it has taken to hold the firm accountable going forward.”

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Look, a historic fine is great and all but the question that always gets asked in the comments every time this issue comes up is does it really matter? There was a big scandal with PwC Canada sharing answers that came to a head in 2020 — staff thought helping each other out on these bullshit training exams was “collaborative culture” — yet while it was happening the firm was getting ZERO deficiencies in its PCAOB inspections. Isn’t that what we want? Isn’t that peak performance?

To be fair, the lying to the PCAOB part is a little out of line.

PCAOB Imposes Record $25 Million Fine on KPMG Netherlands and Bars a Firm Leader After Exam Cheating, Misinforming Investigators [PCAOB]

The post The PCAOB Just Handed Out Its Biggest Fine to Date to Some KPMG Cheaters appeared first on Going Concern.

“We are very pleased about the planned addition of Carmine to our Board given his demonstrated record of championing innovation, extensive experience advising regulated financial companies, and keen understanding of what it takes for global companies to succeed,” said Alex Chriss, President and CEO, PayPal. “If appointed, Carmine will be helpful in sharing his expertise in driving transformation and profitable growth in markets around the world to help us revolutionize commerce globally.”

We implore you, just one time can you use actual language human beings use in these press releases? Pretty please?

The post PayPal Wants to Snap Up Carmine Di Sibio When He Leaves EY This Summer appeared first on Going Concern.

Grant Thornton LLP has welcomed Chris Scarpa to the firm’s Asset Management industry practice in Philadelphia. Scarpa joins Grant Thornton as a Tax principal, and he will use his nearly 30 years of experience to further strengthen the firm’s service offerings within the asset management sector.

“Chris provides a powerful combination of in-depth industry knowledge and a knack for fostering genuine relationships,” said Dave Maturo, the firm’s market managing principal in Philadelphia. “As both our Philadelphia office and our Asset Management team continue to grow, Chris will help deliver the personalized service clients need in today’s challenging business environment.”

Scarpa’s distinctive background will also be a boon to clients: He is both a tax professional and an attorney, and for more than 26 years, he practiced law as a partner for the firm Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP.

And before that he worked at PwC for a year. Let this be a lesson to those of you eager to jump from Big 4 before the two-year mark.

According to the press release Chris largely focused on the taxation of pooled investment vehicles, including mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and real estate mortgage investment conduits (REMICs) at his old gig.

He received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from La Salle University and a doctor of law and a master’s of law in taxation from Temple University.

We shall watch the remainder of his career with great interest.

Grant Thornton bolsters its Asset Management practice with new Philadelphia principal [Grant Thornton]

The post Grant Thornton Poaches a Partner From a Law Firm and Issues a Press Release appeared first on Going Concern.

Of note, and barely mentioned in the press release, is Edwards’ prior gig:

Edwards joins Crowe from EY, where he began his career and most recently served as Americas, Consumer Industry Supply Chain Leader. In addition to his work with EY, he also served as a senior leader of supply chain improvement with General Mills. Edwards received his BBA from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Indiana University.

His LinkedIn is conveniently linked in the announcement:

Wow, that’s a direct yoink from EY. Nice.

“I am thrilled to join Crowe, a firm with an impeccable reputation built on culture and values,” Edwards allegedly said. “Every interaction I’ve had with people in the firm has demonstrated that the reputation they’ve earned is well founded and very real.”

Crowe LLP names Mike Edwards new managing principal of its consulting business [PR Newswire]

The post Crowe Poaches Someone From EY and Issues a Press Release appeared first on Going Concern.

RSM, the leading provider of assurance, tax and consulting services to middle-market businesses, has today announced worldwide revenues of US$9.4* billion for the 12 months to December 2023, a year-on-year growth of 16%.

It seems they forgot to define the asterisk as there is no corresponding footnote explaining why it’s there. Whoopsie.

Their press release bullet points as follows:

• Double-digit growth in five RSM regions for third successive year
• RSM headcount worldwide increases by 13% to 64,000
• RSM’s global brand re-energised to better support RSM’s strategic direction
• Global tech and digital investment increased four-fold.

Last year, the headcount was up 10% to 57,000 professionals and they were thrilled to report global revenues were up over 41% in three years.

Fee income in USD and increase from last year by service line:

• Audit: $3.6 billion (+13%)
• Tax: $2.6 billion (+17%)
• Consulting: $3.1 billion (+17%)

RSM had single-digit growth in tax and audit in 2022 (8% and 6% respectively) so that’s a healthy jump. 2022 global fees from consulting grew by 37% so the growth has slowed but still strong.

All regions showed impressive growth. Europe grew by 36% compared to 2022 as a result of sustained development across 33 Member Firms and the addition of RSM Ebner Stolz in Germany. North America, RSM’s largest region by revenue, saw an impressive 13% rise in fee income for the latest financial year, powered by significant growth in both tax and consulting services, particularly in relation to IT and ESG consulting. A strategic merger in South Africa in July 2023 coupled with overall progress across the region contributed to a 29% leap in revenue from Africa over the period. Exceptional growth was also recorded for both the MENA region, with a 30% increase on 2022, and Latin America, with an increase of 18%. Representing more than US$1bn in fee income, the Asia Pacific region grew by a strong 8%.

RSM US reported $3.7 billion in 2023 revenue back in August.

The rest of the press release is the usual self-fellating trash. Choice quotes include:

RSM has established the critical building blocks for ongoing growth, transformation and change, focusing on four Strategic Drivers – People, Clients, Technology and Solutions

RSM is dedicated to developing an unrivalled, inclusive culture and talent experience, believing investment in both people and technology to be critical to sustained growth and delivering rich, personalised client experiences.

Jean Stephens, CEO of RSM International, said: “With an emphasis on the generation and sharing of insight, streamlining the efficiencies and effectiveness of service provision and building connectivity through an enhanced global digital infrastructure, RSM is focused on providing innovative and valuable human insights powered by technology.”

Yeah whatever. Congrats to them on a fabulous year.

The post RSM Reports Double-Digit Growth and Record Global Revenue of $9.4 Billion appeared first on Going Concern.

Growth by service line was modest but decent considering the year advisory has had:

• Audit: Local growth 9% (6% US$)*
• Advisory: 7% (4% US$)
• Tax & Legal: 10% (7% US$)

Obligatory explainer on the difference between local and US$ growth:

*Local growth percentages maintain consistent US$ exchange rates in FY23 and FY22 and therefore do not reflect exchange rate changes between the years. US$ growth rates are derived from underlying revenue numbers and not rounded figures used for presentation purposes.

Headcounts across the globe saw single-digit increases except Americas where the headcount shrunk by six percent.

KPMG global revenue by region:

And service line:

Global partners, directors, leadership, and others:

The post KPMG Announces $36 Billion in Global Revenue, Comes in 4th Yet Again appeared first on Going Concern.

In fiscal 2023, the SEC filed 784 total enforcement actions, a three percent increase over fiscal year 2022. This includes 501 original, or “stand-alone,” enforcement actions, an eight percent increase over the prior fiscal year. The SEC also filed 162 “follow-on” administrative proceedings seeking to bar or suspend individuals from certain functions in the securities markets based on criminal convictions, civil injunctions, or other orders and 121 actions against issuers who were allegedly delinquent in making required filings with the SEC.

Curious which violation racked up the most SEC enforcements in 2023? Got you.

Disgorgement was higher in 2023 than 2022  — nearly higher than every year the SEC includes in the chart, actually — but wasn’t enough to top last year’s penalties and disgorgement total.

While 2023 was busier than last year, it didn’t beat out FY18 and 19.

And now for the obligatory press release humblebragging:

The stand-alone enforcement actions spanned the securities industry, from billion-dollar frauds to emerging investor threats involving crypto asset securities and cybersecurity, and charged violations by diverse market participants, from public companies and investment firms to gatekeepers and social media influencers. The SEC also brought numerous enforcement actions addressing conduct that undermines oversight of the securities industry, including actions to protect whistleblowers and actions to enforce recordkeeping requirements and other investor protection requirements applicable to industry participants, including broker-dealers and investment firms.

“The investing public benefits from the Division of Enforcement’s work as a cop on the beat,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “Last fiscal year’s results demonstrate yet again the Division’s effectiveness—working alongside colleagues throughout the agency—in following the facts and the law wherever they lead to hold wrongdoers accountable.”

If you follow that press release link to the “Addendum: FY23 Enforcement Statistics,” you can see everyone they dinged and for what all in one grievously long PDF.

The post The SEC Has Released Its Enforcement Action Totals For 2023, Will Have to Try Harder Next Year appeared first on Going Concern.

For the 12 months ending June 30, 2023, PwC firms around the world reported record gross revenues of $53.1 billion, growing by 9.9% in local currency and 5.6% in US dollars over the gross revenues of $50.3 billion for fiscal 2022.

Revenues were up by 10.7% across the Americas with the US growing by 11.2%, Canada by 4.5% (10.9% for Continuing Operations). This is down from 16% growth across the Americas and 17% growth for the US business in 2022. No biggie, it’s been a rough year for everyone.

Revenue by service line in US currency, PwC was even kind enough to include the FY22 figures:

• Assurance grew by 8.9% to $18.7 billion (FY22: $18.0 billion)
• Advisory grew by 13% to $22.6 billion (FY22: $20.7 billion)
• Tax, Legal and Workforce grew by 12.5% to $11.8 billion, PwC notes this growth was strong compared with growth of 8.7% in the previous year but does not include the FY22 number as they did with assurance and advisory: it’s $11.6 billion (is that math not mathing??).

Ah wait, here’s their chart.

Aggregated revenues of PwC firms by line of service (US$ millions)

*The growth rates for Tax and Legal services includes revenues from our Global Mobility and Immigration business, which was sold on 29th April 2022 in the prior year comparison. Excluding revenues from the sold business, revenues at constant exchange rates grew by 12.5% instead of 5.8% and at variable exchange rates by 7.8% instead of 1.6%.

Some other stuff per the press release:

Across the PwC network, we invested US$3.7 billion during FY23, following investments of more than US$3.1 billion in FY22.

In addition to investments in attracting experienced teams and people to PwC firms around the world, PwC firms completed 17 acquisitions and five strategic investments around the world in FY23, expanding our professional capabilities in a number of key areas particularly in the areas of technology consulting and cloud.

Across our network we are investing nearly $2 billion to grow and scale our AI capabilities by launching partnerships with multiple AI leaders, as well as rolling out AI tools across all of our lines of service.

The press release also mentions PwC’s 2021 goal to create 100,000 net new jobs by 2026. They say they created more than 32,000 new jobs in FY22 and added more than 36,000 positions in FY23. If they keep up this pace they’ll hit the goal by 2024, two years ahead of schedule. That brings PwC’s global headcount to more than 364,000 professionals in 151 countries.

The firm also said the average amount of time spent on training a PwC person in FY23 was 65.7 hours.

Let’s throw this in, too:

While there is always more to do in making PwC the best place to work for our colleagues, last year eight in 10 of our people said: PwC is a great place to work (80%), a place where they ‘belong’ (79%), a place to apply newly developed skills (82%), and a place they expect to be still working at in a year (78%).

Today’s announcement bumps EY out of the second spot (as expected) in the Big 4 pissing contest of money generating for FY23 and marks the eighth year in a row PwC has watched Deloitte dominate from the top.

Big 4 Revenue Leaderboard:

1. Deloitte: $64.9 billion
2. PwC: $53.1 billion
3. EY: $49.4 billion

KPMG always announces last, typically in December, and at $35 billion for 2022 it would be a miracle if they beat out EY to take third.

The post PwC Announced $53.1 Billion in Global Revenue appeared first on Going Concern.

At that same conference he also expressed the importance of skepticism, something average citizens might call “paranoia” if you applied it to basic life transactions like checking your bank balance at the ATM but in auditors’ case it’s just part of the job. “The most important thing an auditor can bring to an audit is an attitude that includes a questioning mind for a critical assessment of evidence,” he said. “It is important to stress this with less-experienced staff who may have been working entirely remotely since they joined the firm. I encourage firm leadership to embrace and promote a culture of ‘I’ve got your back’ to ensure that engagement teams feel empowered to maintain a questioning mind and push back when warranted.” Relevant GIF.

“A questioning mind” also appears in this April 2023 PCAOB Spotlight entitled Professional Competence and Skepticism Are Essential to Quality Audits [PDF]:

The application of professional skepticism – an attitude that includes a questioning mind – is critical to planning and performing high quality audits and ensuring investors are protected.

And of course the most important reference of all, AS 1015: Due Professional Care in the Performance of Work:

.07 Due professional care requires the auditor to exercise professional skepticism. Professional skepticism is an attitude that includes a questioning mind and a critical assessment of audit evidence. The auditor uses the knowledge, skill, and ability called for by the profession of public accounting to diligently perform, in good faith and with integrity, the gathering and objective evaluation of evidence.

So, with George’s enthusiasm for skepticism and the PCAOB’s recent hard-ass stance on audit quality in mind, let’s see what the SEC announced yesterday:

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the appointment of George Botic, CPA to a term as a Board Member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB).

“I am pleased that George will serve on the PCAOB Board,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “George will advance the PCAOB’s mission to build trust in the financial information that public companies disclose to investors. I also would like to thank Duane for his five years with the Board, including his service as Acting Chair.”

“I am honored to be selected to serve on the Board and look forward to working with Chair Williams, the other Board members, and the SEC in my new role to help advance investor protection and improve audit quality through improvements to our standards and rules and continuing our rigorous inspection and investigation programs,” said Mr. Botic.

His CV is no joke:

Botic was most recently the Director of the PCAOB’s Division of Registration and Inspections, which includes the Global Network Firm Inspection Program, the Non-Affiliate Firm Inspection Program, the Broker-Dealer Auditor Interim Inspection Program, and the registration program. He oversaw the registration and inspection of all domestic and foreign accounting firms that audit public companies whose securities trade in the U.S., as well as all broker-dealer audits. He previously served in various roles at the PCAOB, including as its Director of the Office of International Affairs, special advisor to former Chair James R. Doty, and Deputy Director of the Registration and Inspections Division. Earlier in his career, Mr. Botic was a senior manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

He was at PwC from September 1990 – August 2003 and has been at the PCAOB since, so from day one of its existence. He’s been Director of the Division of Registration and Inspections since 2018. Botic is replacing current Board member Duane DesParte, CPA whose second term ends October 24, 2023.

In their own news release about the blessed event, the PCAOB said Chair Erica Y. Williams applauded the appointment. Of course she did, she’s long been sick of auditors’ shit and George is just the guy to put the fear of God in them:

“George’s decades-long commitment to the PCAOB’s mission of protecting investors makes him a uniquely qualified addition to the Board. I applaud George’s appointment and look forward to working with him in his new role as we continue to pursue our shared goal of improving audit quality to protect investors,” said Chair Williams. “I want to thank Duane for his service to the PCAOB. I look forward to continuing our work together over the coming weeks and wish him well in his next chapter.”

As we’ve excessively pointed out before, the PCAOB isn’t playing around. All those years of comments about how useless and weak they are (Project On Government Oversight accused our dear audit regulator of “doing a feeble job” in this thorough 2019 deep dive into what the PCAOB has — and has not — been doing since it was born in 2002) must have finally got to them.

No wonder certain non-Big 4 firms are starting to wind down their audit practices completely, an already thankless job is only going to get more annoying going forward. Relevant GIF again.

The post Longtime PCAOB Veteran and Skepticism Enthusiast George Botic to Sit on the Actual Board appeared first on Going Concern.

As you can see from their snazzy graphic below, revenue by service line breaks down to:

• Assurance: $15.1 billion, 11% growth (2022: $14.4 billion)
• Consulting: $16.1 billion, 21.6% growth (2022: $13.9 billion)
• Strategy and Transactions: $6.1 billion, 8.4% growth ($5.9 billion)
• Tax: $12.1 billion, 12.2% growth (2022: $11.3 billion)

“I am very proud of EY growth this year,” said Carmine Di Sibio, EY Global Chairman and CEO. “Guided by a commitment to create long-term value for all stakeholders, the organization is seeing the result of investment in pivotal alliances, cutting-edge technologies, and, most profoundly, the continuous upskilling of EY people.”

Of those many billions of dollars, EY has been putting some of it back into the important stuff:

There has been EY investment of US$3.6b in FY23 across audit quality, innovation, technology and people, as part of a US$10b three-year commitment announced in FY21 of which US$1.4b has been specifically focused on AI and the launch of unifying platform EY.ai.

EY.ai combines EY capabilities, AI and curated ecosystems. EY has also announced a rollout of a large language model – EY.ai EYQ – the EY.ai Confidence Index and specialized AI training for all EY people. This follows the launch of numerous AI tools including the EY Tax Co-Pilot, augmenting the capabilities of EY tax professionals.

And:

In FY23 there were record EY investments of US$385m in training which delivered an all-time-high of 24m training hours, amounting to an average of 61 hours per employee.

The EY organization offers 227 learning accreditations – known as EY Badges – across a range of disciplines including AI, supply chain planning, Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness (DE&I) and sustainability, in addition to technical training in accounting and tax. More than 430 Badges are earned by EY people each day and to date more than 410,000 have been earned since the program’s inception in 2017.

In his introductory letter in the firm’s Value Realized Report, also released yesterday, Carmine says that while Everest did not come to fruition, it “unlocked innovation, identified strengths, and opened new and important conversations with EY clients and regulators.” The report also says 86% of EY people are proud to work at EY. The image below is supposed to be one of them, I guess.

Their graphic designers really like images of people climbing rocks don’t they.

It wouldn’t be an EY press release without the obligatory tagline: EY exists to build a better working world, helping create long-term value for clients, people and society and build trust in the capital markets.

PwC’s global revenue should be out soon followed by KPMG later in the year. Deloitte reported a record $64.9 billion in global revenue a week ago which means EY is sitting in second place for now.

EY reports record global revenue results of just under US$50b [EY]

The post EY Narrowly Missed Hitting $50 Billion in Revenue for the First Time appeared first on Going Concern.

In his first revenue release since he took the big chair as CEO of Deloitte Global last December, former Deloitte US CEO Joe Ucuzoglu said:

“In an environment of increasing complexity and an accelerated pace of technology-driven change around the globe, Deloitte’s unrivaled breadth of expertise within our multidisciplinary model continues to differentiate us in the marketplace. This is an environment that places increasing value on diversity of thought and interdisciplinary solutions, playing directly to our strengths. Amidst transformative advances in technology and a dynamic economic and geopolitical landscape, our people take great pride in upholding the public’s trust and helping clients and communities successfully navigate many of the most complex challenges of our time.”

There’s a whole lot of bullshit in the press release after that, I mean A LOT. We get it, you guys navigated a difficult talent market, rising interest rates, cheap clients, and technological diSRupTiON. Calm down, everyone did.

Deloitte’s business success is underpinned by our commitment to embedding our purpose—to make an impact that matters—in everything we do. We also draw strength from our multidisciplinary model, which brings together the breadth and depth of experience and capabilities across our global organization to address both the near- and long-term forces reshaping business and society. This integrated approach enables us to bring our purpose to life and deliver significant impact for our stakeholders.

Note the above is a thinly veiled jab at EY.

The self-fellating gibberish keeps going in the revenue by service line breakdown.

Among Deloitte’s businesses, Consulting revenue grew fastest at 19.1% in local currency, followed by Risk Advisory, which grew 17.5%. Among the regions, the Americas grew the fastest at 17.5%, followed by EMEA at 12.6%.

Consistent with the critical importance to society of the work we do across our practices, we strive to execute with the highest ethics and integrity and set the standard for quality in everything we do.

Can you please stop.

Audit & Assurance continued its commitment to delivering high-quality audits with integrity and professionalism and upholding Deloitte’s vital role in the effective functioning of the capital markets. Our practitioners have supported organizations in navigating the changing landscape of stakeholder needs for more holistic reporting on their business model resilience and broader societal objectives. We delivered a broad range of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) services, including materiality and gap readiness assessment, disclosure preparation, and assurance. We have been recognized for our leading-edge technology and innovative culture, with Deloitte Omnia’s ESG capabilities receiving recognition as a data-fueled solution that helps us transform ESG information into insights for clients and deliver with greater quality, effectiveness, efficiency, and perspective. Audit & Assurance revenue grew 13.8% in local currency.

OK you know what, I’m not doing this. Here are the revenue growth numbers by service line without the sales pitch. As mentioned above, consulting continues to carry the team to a W.

• Consulting: 19.1%
• Risk Advisory: 17.5%
• Audit & Assurance: 13.8%
• Financial Advisory: 4.7%
• Tax and Legal: 9.1%

After a bunch more self-congratulatory fluff, Deloitte wraps the press release by noting its 2023 Global Impact Report will be released later this year. Here’s last year’s if you’re blocked up and need something to read. Oh and the workforce expanded to approximately 457,000 people globally, it was 411,951 at the end of FY22. That number would have been slightly higher but Deloitte US laid off 1,200 people in April.

PwC or EY should be next out of the gate with revenue results. Will Deloitte continue to take the crown as the biggest baller of the Big 4? Probably. EY’s definitely not coming for them.

The post Deloitte Global Smashed Revenue Records Again appeared first on Going Concern.

Marcum announced on Tuesday that 31 men and women are ascending to exalted partner status at the firm, 39% of whom are women.

This latest partner class would have beat 2021’s record of 29 freshly minted Marcum partners had the Friedman merger not injected several extra individuals into the class of 2022. Last year’s 37 partner promotions included professionals who joined the firm as part of Friedman’s merger into Marcum less than a week before the partner announcement.

As one would expect, there is a press release:

Marcum has announced that 31 people have been promoted to partner across the U.S. These promotions underscore Marcum’s focus on talent development, career progression, and a commitment to rewarding high performance.

“These new partners embody the essence of Marcum’s dedication to excellence, bringing together unique experience, unrivaled proficiency, and a drive to innovate,” said Jeffrey M. Weiner, Marcum’s chairman and chief executive officer. “The pace of change in our industry is swift, and these individuals have risen to the occasion, blending technical expertise with a deep understanding of our client’s needs. My sincere congratulations to them on behalf of the Executive Committee and the entire firm.”

Molly Crane, Marcum’s chief human resources officer, shared, “We’re excited to welcome our new partners, each enhancing Marcum with their experience, aptitude, and insight. They will be instrumental in leading Marcum into the future. With each promotion cycle, we hope to show Marcum’s position as the ideal springboard for professionals seeking a diverse and rewarding career journey.”

You need to wear knee-high boots just to read that.

The new Marcum partners and their service lines are:

• Rosanne Smith (Tax & Business Services) – Costa Mesa
• Jessica McCauley (Transaction Advisory Services) – New Haven
• Gary Smith (Assurance Services) – New Haven
• Marissa Turrell (Valuation, Forensics & Litigation Services) – Hartford
• Fiorella Belardi (Tax & Business Services) – Miami
• Mileny Kondorosi (Tax & Business Services) – Miami
• Shivanni Narain (Assurance Services) – Fort Lauderdale
• Derek Parks (Risk Advisory Services) – Tampa
• Jeremy Handlon (Assurance Services) – Portland
• Samuel Scherr (Tax & Business Services) – Rockville
• Joseph Mecagni (Business Enterprise Services – Tax) – Boston
• Marina Margarucci (Tax & Business Services) – East Hanover
• Robert Schumin (Tax & Business Services) – Marlton
• Blerina Demiri (Tax & Business Services) – New York
• Philip DiBartolomeo (Quality Control) – New York
• Matthew Giovine (Tax & Business Services) – New York
• Giuseppe Ienopoli (Assurance Services) – Melville
• Andrew Kantor (Business Enterprise Services – Tax) – New York
• Christopher Manzo (Tax & Business Services) – Melville
• Rashi Ray (Quality Control) – New York
• Benjamin Tenenbaum (Assurance Services) – New York
• Brian Trombley (AIG Assurance Services) – New York
• Marilea Campomizzi (Assurance Services) – Mayfield Village
• Nicholas Marazza (Tax & Business Services) – Fairlawn
• Nicholas Thomas (Tax & Business Services) – Philadelphia
• Matthew Weiler (Assurance Services) – Philadelphia
• Kyle Connors (Assurance Services) – Providence
• Jennifer Freitas (Assurance Services) – Providence
• Jeffrey Jackson (Tax & Business Services) – Nashville
• Husnain Siraj (Assurance Services) – Houston
• Karla Jimenez (Client Accounting & Advisory Services) – Washington, DC

In the same press release, Marcum says it also promoted 509 associates to new roles. Congrats to all!

The post Promotion Watch ’23: Marcum’s 31 New Partners Would Be a Record Were It Not For Last Year’s Freidmans appeared first on Going Concern.

The lucky winners are (folks with asterisks are affiliated entity members not included in the partner number):

Chris Abi-Raji, tax, Southfield
Mark Barrott, strategy & operations, Southfield
William Bean, Plante Moran Financial Advisors, Auburn Hills
Andy Brahm, tax, Denver Tech Center
Amy Ciminello, tax, Columbus
Phil Clark, Plante Moran Financial Advisors, Southfield
Jason Collier, assurance, Cleveland
David DeCew, state & local tax, Detroit
Phil Flowers, tax, Detroit
Makoto Fujimoto, assurance, Detroit
Alexandria Gaynier, assurance, Ann Arbor
Chris Geck, assurance, Macomb
Steve Gibson*, Plante Moran Insurance Agency, Chicago
Brian Greko, assurance, Grand Rapids
Ali Hijazi, assurance, Macomb
Greg Hornung, tax, Denver Tech Center
Sandor Jacobson, strategy & operations, Chicago
Bryan Johnson, assurance, Columbus
Jennifer Kalina, assurance, Chicago
Dan Kapala, forensic & valuation services, Southfield
Derek Kaulfuss, transaction advisory services, Southfield
Hiro Kishinaka, tax, Columbus
Donny Lucaj, tax solutions group, Southfield
Brendan MacKinnon, assurance, Chicago
Nick Maeder, assurance, Traverse City
Tori Manix*, Real Estate Investment Advisors, Southfield
Alejandro Rodriguez, global services, Monterrey
Lisa Roelofs, international tax, Auburn Hills
Brad Rummel, risk & accounting advisory services, Southfield
Dawn Sayn, community tax practice, Ann Arbor
Mark Scovera, risk & accounting advisory services, Southfield
Kari Shea, assurance, Southfield
Ken Stevens, risk & accounting advisory services, Chicago
Jon Strycharz, state & local tax, Southfield
Jamie Timoteo*, Plante Moran Living Forward, Chicago
Sharon Ulep, healthcare consulting, Southfield
Corey VanDyke, assurance, Kalamazoo
Joe Vloedman, assurance, Grand Rapids

Earlier this year Plante Moran celebrated an impressive 25 years straight on Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” at which time Managing Partner Jim Proppe said: “We have a few mottos here at the firm, including ‘The whole person comes to work,’ ‘There’s no right way to do the wrong thing,’ and ‘We care.’ These mottos aren’t just phrases, they drive the work we do, our commitment to client service, the relationships we build and the communities we foster.” Normally we call BS on statements like these but in Plante’s case we really do rarely hear complaints from staff and Jim is cool.

Anyway, congrats to all. YOU MADE IT!

The post Promotion Watch ’23: Plante Moran Outdoes Itself With Partner Promotions Again appeared first on Going Concern.

Everyone, meet Team Deloitte. These 25 elite athletes – among them 19 Deloitte professionals along with a few Deloitte alumni and sponsored athletes — are training to qualify for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024. What an incredibly creative and difficult way to get out of busy season.

I do have something negative to say about Deloitte’s announcement and that is “oh my God give me a break.”

Many retired Olympians and Paralympians have come to Deloitte for their post-competitive careers and are using the qualities and skills it takes to be an elite athlete performing at the highest levels to thrive at Deloitte.

The IOC announcement has the athletes’ photos and their roles at Deloitte, lots of analysts and consultants in here. Deloitte also has the full roster.

Tiffany Leung, Paris 2024 hopeful in Breaking and Senior Consultant at Deloitte Canada says Breaking and Deloitte actually vibe well. “I always thought that Breaking and Deloitte were two completely different worlds, and that I would have to choose one to excel and advance in. I almost considered giving up my Olympic ambitions but decided to reach out to Deloitte for potential support. Now with Deloitte’s support, I can continue to advance my career while pursuing my dreams outside of work. Deloitte and Breaking share a lot of synergies and the skills that I learned in the professional world are transferrable to Breaking. They both require the same level of excellence, perseverance, dedication, and passion,” she said. Breakdancing (“Breaking”) was added to the 2018 Youth Olympics and is making its Olympic Games debut at Paris 2024.

Here’s what IOC has to say about Team Deloitte:

Featuring an exciting blend of seasoned stars and promising newcomers, the Team Deloitte roster includes 12 Olympians and four Paralympians, as well as a host of athletes who are vying for their first appearances at the Olympic or Paralympic Games. The diverse line-up features athletes from across the world, representing 14 countries in 15 different sports – from rowing, para canoeing, hockey and sailing to the new Olympic sport of breaking.

With 19 of the company’s professionals represented, the selection of Team Deloitte for Paris 2024 marks the first time that a Worldwide Olympic Partner has been able to support so many of its own employees on their journey to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Over the years, thirty-seven Deloitte professionals have participated in a combined seven summer and three winter editions of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, from Atlanta 1996 to Tokyo 2020. 16 medals — ten gold, four silver, and two bronze — have been earned by these professionals.

“As we look toward Paris 2024, we’re thrilled to introduce Team Deloitte, an extraordinary group of dual-career Deloitte professionals and elite athletes who exemplify the unique qualities required to succeed in both sport and business,” said Deloitte Global CEO Joe U. “.We are excited to support and celebrate their journey to qualify for Paris 2024.”

The post Team Deloitte is Ready to Kick Some Ass at the 2024 Olympics appeared first on Going Concern.

• 2023: 43
• 2022: 38
• 2021: 46
• 2020: 30
• 2019: 42
• 2018: 32
• 2017: 39
• 2016: 47
• 2015: 50
• 2014: 32
• 2013: 30
• 2012: 27
• 2011: 26
• 2010: 22

Unfortunately, GT CEO Seth Siegel did not use the word DYNAMIC a single time in the press release. Booooo.

Audit took the biggest piece of the pie for this year’s promotion class at 40% followed by 28% in Tax, 28% in Advisory, and 4% in Internal Services. The lucky winners are:

*Promoted earlier in 2023 with approval from Grant Thornton leadership.

Congrats to all. Just pretend Sasha Velour’s RPDR finale lip sync featured purple roses and that’ll be celebration enough.

Grant Thornton names 75 new partners, principals and managing directors [GT]

The post Promotion Watch ’23: Grant Thornton Elevates 75 New PPMDs appeared first on Going Concern.

Per the obligatory press release, these new appointments reflect the firm’s increased investment in its sectors, service lines and regional business, in areas such as Audit, Financial Services, Technology Consulting, EY Parthenon, Private Equity, and the Energy sector. 42% (112) of the new appointments are Equity Partners and around a quarter (62) of all the new Partner appointments are based outside of London.

“We are on track for our third year of double-digit growth in the UK and are making significant investments to meet client demand,” said EY UK Chair Hywel Ball in recycled press release comments. “These new appointments increase the size of our UK Partnership by 10% and put us in a great position to continue our outstanding growth in the years ahead.”

“The new appointments span all parts of our business, across all parts of the UK, with notable investments in areas such as audit, financial services, technology consulting, Private Equity and EY Parthenon,” he said. Yeah the press release already said that, my guy.

“I’m also particularly proud that 60% of this year’s Partner appointments are internal promotions and mark our commitment to developing top talent. We want EY to be a place where everyone is able to achieve their potential and we’re focussed [Brit spelling] on building a pipeline of talent across all parts of the firm.”

Project Everest, the ambitious plan to split audit and consulting in order to bypass current independence requirements, made things tough for the firm ever since the idea was announced in May 2022. Belts were tightened, travel was frozen, hiring slowed to a crawl in some areas, and at the end of it all the split’s failure left a $600 million hole in the global organization’s pocket. EY US and EY UK are taking the biggest reputational hits as they were Everest’s biggest cheerleaders, though to be entirely honest the US arm was not only cheerleader but the fat bald guy driving the bus to every cheer competition. So it’s nice to see

In April, a few months before EY’s fiscal year end in June, Financial Times reported that EY UK was planning cost cuts as a direct result of Everest’s failure. “We have inefficiencies in our business, which we can start to address now so we are already working on reducing our costs,” said Anna Anthony, UK managing partner for financial services, in a call with partners.

Mr. Ball was on that call as well and told partners to get ready for “a bit of a tough period” but softened the blow by assuring partners the firm was on course for a third consecutive year of “strong double-digit growth.” EY Global revenue for 2022 shook out at $45.4 billion, we’ll know in September just how strong any growth was given the distraction of Everest for most of the year.

Last year’s partner cohort of 75 internal promotions and 45 external hires was, at the time, EY’s largest ever number of new equity partner appointments in the UK.

The post EY UK Appoints 267 New Partners appeared first on Going Concern.

The obligatory press release makes sure to mention that these promotions reflect continued growth and strong business performance by the organization. In case we didn’t get it the first time, it also adds this: “The significant number of partner promotions demonstrates the EY commitment to offering exceptional opportunities for career progression, diverse career opportunities across all business areas and geographies, and rewards for high performance.”

Although a greater percent of women were promoted to partner this year compared to last year (34% vs. 32%), because last year’s cohort was larger the number of women promoted was about the same (329 this year vs. 330-ish last year).

EY member firms in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA) had the largest proportion of new partners, with 395 promotions (41%) followed by the Americas with 322 promotions (33%). New partners in EY member firms in the Asia-Pacific area totaled 216 (22%).

The largest proportion of partner promotions came from Assurance with 304 (31%). Totals across the service lines are as follows:

• Assurance: 304 (31%)
• Tax: 268 (28%)
• Consulting: 262 (27%)
• Strategy and Transactions: 111 (11%)

The remaining new partners are 21 folks in business support (2%).

Last year’s breakdown went Assurance with 344 (33%), Consulting with 265 (26%), Tax with 235 (23%), and Strategy and Transactions with 171 (16%) plus 18 business support partners (2%).

And here come the quotes!

“As we prepare EY to continue to thrive this year and beyond, I am delighted to congratulate our new class of EY partners on this impressive milestone as we celebrate the career progression of our new partner promotes. They are fantastic stewards of the EY brand and their promotions are the result of their continuous commitment to the EY purpose of building a better working world,” said Carmine Di Sibio or whoever writes his quotes to make sure he gets “better working world” in there.

“It’s an honor to introduce this new member firm partner class, with an impressive diversity of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. These dedicated individuals will be instrumental in helping us shape the future of the organization, and truly illustrate that EY is a place where people can explore flexible, diverse career paths as they gain the skills and experiences they need to achieve their unique career ambitions,” added Trent Henry, EY Global Vice Chair – Talent.

Jokes about canned PR quotes aside, congrats to all! You made it!

The post Promotion Watch ’23: EY Promotes 966 to Partner, Missing Last Year’s Record of 1033 appeared first on Going Concern.

“Our incoming partners inspire our team members with their passion for our profession and deep commitment to our mission,” said Baker Tilly CEO Jeffrey Ferro. “With their leadership, I look forward to our continued journey creating the advisory CPA firm of the future, today.”

In alphabetical order, Baker Tilly’s newest partners are:

• Marsha S. Ackerman, CPA Assurance – Real Estate and Construction (Washington, D.C.)
• Nirav H. Badani, CPA Assurance – Financial Services (Irvine, California)
• Ashley R. Barber, CPA Tax – Commercial (Iselin, New Jersey)
• Jason M. Carter, JD Tax – Manufacturing and Distribution (Chicago, Illinois)
• Lindsay N. Coffey, CPA Consulting – Client Accounting Services (Dallas, Texas)
• Kevin Coonan, MBA Consulting – Healthcare Solutions (Chicago, Illinois)
• Matthew J. Damone, JD Tax – Transfer Pricing (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
• Bishesh Devkota, Consulting – Baker Tilly Digital (Washington, D.C.)
• Jonathan K. Drysdale, CPA Tax – Private Client Services (Dallas, Texas)
• Heather M. Dwyer, CPA Tax – Private Wealth (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
• Victor Geagla, CPA Assurance – Commercial (Washington, D.C.)
• Laura K. Groppoli, CPA Assurance (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
• Sheanne M. Hediger, CPA Assurance – Public Sector (Eau Clare, Wisconsin)
• Caroline H. Hipple, CPA Assurance – Higher Education and Not-for-Profit (Iselin, New Jersey)
• Kirk J. Jirak, CPA Tax – Commercial (Tampa, Florida)
• Christopher M. Kassay, CPA Assurance – Real Estate and Construction (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
• Trenton J. Kleist, CPA Assurance – Real Estate and Construction (Madison, Wisconsin)
• Andrew J. Koelbl, Consulting – Real Estate Advisory (Madison, Wisconsin)
• Katie E. Kral, MSA Consulting – Client Accounting Services (Chicago, Illinois)
• Meghan C. Loomis, PHR Consulting – Baker Tilly Digital (Chicago, Illinois)
• Michael T. Maguire, JD, CPA Tax (Tampa, Florida)
• Shabinaaz F. Mahdi, CPA Tax – Professional Services (Washington, D.C.)
• Carla M. Mattsson, CPA Tax – Commercial (Boston, Massachusetts)
• Andy P. McCarty, CPA Tax – Baker Tilly Advantage (Appleton, Wisconsin)
• Andrew J. McCauley, CPA, CISA Consulting – Risk Advisory (Dallas, Texas)
• Randal S. Nachenberg, CPA Tax (Encino, California)
• Joseph C. Pellerite, CPA Consulting – Client Accounting Services (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
• Brad J. Polizzano, JD, LLM Tax – Commercial (Manhattan, New York)
• Claire E. Pugh, CPA, MBA Assurance – Real Estate and Construction (Dallas, Texas)
• Sara A. Rebman, CPA, MSA Tax (Detroit, Michigan)
• Raluca G. Romonti, CPA Tax – Commercial (Tampa, Florida)
• Bill Ruscitti, CPA, MAS Assurance – Real Estate and Construction (Chicago, Illinois)
• Michael A. Schmittlein Jr., CPA Tax – Real Estate and Construction (Washington, D.C.)
• Sherry Sedighi, CPA Assurance (Los Angeles, California)
• Deana L. Serracino, CPA Tax – (Dallas, Texas)
• Russell J. Sommers, CPA, CISA Consulting – Risk Advisory (Iselin, New Jersey)
• Michael W. Sullivan, CPA, MBA Consulting – Client Accounting Services (Boston, Massachusetts)
• Richard J. Thompson, CPA Assurance – Commercial (Washington, D.C.)
• Jack K. Torpey, FCA Consulting – Forensics, Litigation and Valuation Services (London, United Kingdom)
• Nuwandi G. Trahan, CPA Consulting – Real Estate Advisory (Austin, Texas)
• Michael W. Wascura, CPA Assurance – Higher Education and Not-for-Profit (Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania)
• Brooke M. Weitzer, CPA Tax – Commercial (Madison, Wisconsin)
• Kevin M. Welch, CPA Assurance – Manufacturing and Distribution (Detroit, Michigan)
• Jason C. Winterburn, CPA Consulting – Transactions and Financial Advisory (Washington, D.C.)

If you’re playing along at home, that’s 35 CPAs, or a hair under 80% of the total incoming partner class. Tax saw the most partners at 16, followed by 15 in Assurance and 13 in Consulting.

Congratulations to all, you made it!

The post Promotion Watch ’23: The Baker Tilly Partner Bench Is Now 44 People Deeper appeared first on Going Concern.

Ranked #259 on the INSIDE Public Accounting Top 500 with revenue of $16,392,083, Clayton & McKervey has partnered with U.S. News & World Report “Most Innovative School” in the Midwest Adrian College to offer matching scholarships that cut the cost of a master’s by half.

As you’ll see from the press release below, both the school and the firm hope that this perk will entice new recruits in an increasingly strained talent market:

Adrian College’s Dean of Graduate Studies and Institutional Effectiveness, Christine Knaggs, Ph.D., said when Clayton & McKervey hires an accountant who has yet to pass their Certified Public Accountant Examination, and possibly needs additional credits, they will offer the employee a scholarship incentive to attend Adrian College and get the qualifications and knowledge needed to pass the exam through its MS program.

“This has been a model that we have wanted to implement for a while now,” Knaggs said. “What we essentially offer is matching scholarships. They offer a scholarship, we offer a scholarship, which significantly reduces overall the cost of the entire program for staff accountants who are hired by Clayton & McKervey.”

With the combined scholarships, students see a savings of approximately 50% of the total cost of the MS degree.

Knaggs believes this specific partnership program will add two to five new students a year to Adrian College’s overall enrollment, but expects those numbers will grow in the future with more accounting firms wanting to join in to help educate and advance their employees to CPA status.

“It’s small numbers right now because this is a relatively small firm, but this is a great model we hope to bring to other accounting firms to say, ‘look, we do this, it works, would you like to do something similar?’” Knaggs said, adding that accountants are in high demand right now.

“Some of our students are getting offers before they get their undergraduate degree,” she said. “So, small firms like this are looking for any opportunity to incentivize. If they can say, ‘come to us, you can get your master’s degree, we’re going to discount it a great amount, and we’re also going to prepare you for your CPA exam,’ it’s a package they can use to recruit staff accountants potentially from a larger firm.”

“To me, when you’re coming into public accounting, what you should do is look for how well you’re being trained, how well you’re being coached,” Jim Biehl, Clayton & McKervey CPA, MST, Shareholder said in a web presentation. “That’s the currency that you need to look for when you’re looking for a job. It’s not how much money you make. [Ed. note: LOL] It’s how much you’re learning, because five years in, if you’ve learned what you should have learned, you’re very marketable and you can go anywhere you want to go.”

Knaggs explained that Adrian College’s MS program is a fully online degree designed for students working full-time in a firm, and wanting CPA credentials. Most of the program’s students are self-paced, but a majority complete the degree in one year. All of the classes are led by Adrian College professors.

“Because it’s fully online, we can partner with firms all over the state, all over the country, potentially,” Knaggs said.

“The classes are completely taught by our faculty, Donna Baker and Laura Bearden, the two who essentially created the program, and a wonderful collection of adjunct instructors as well that supplement and teach some of the other courses,” Knaggs said. “We have some of the best CPA passage rates in the state.” [Fact check: 64.7% of Adrian College MS Accountancy students pass the CPA exam (self-reported figure). This rate is 11% higher than the MI average and 14% higher than the national average]

Accounting firm partners with Adrian College to offer employees major discount in MSA program [Adrian College]
Adrian College [U.S. News & World Report]

The post The 259th Largest Accounting Firm Is Paying For Unlicensed Staff to Pursue a Master’s at the 87th Best Online Business School appeared first on Going Concern.

Deloitte US announced this morning that Jason Girzadas has been selected as chief executive officer and Lara Abrash has been selected as the chair of the board, beginning June 4, 2023, subject to a partner ratification vote. Jason succeeds outgoing CEO Joe Ucuzoglu who was chosen as Deloitte Global CEO last year, Lara will be replacing Chair Janey Foutty.

There is of course the obligatory fluffing in the press release:

“Jason’s business leadership and commitment to serving our clients and alliance partners has delivered tremendous impact for Deloitte, our clients, and the overall professional services profession. His experience and ability to drive an innovation culture and technology-driven transformation positions him to lead our firm through the complexities and opportunities of the future. Lara’s distinguished career, including her deep regulatory and governance experience and passion for the partnership, has prepared her to lead our board forward with distinction,” said Foutty. “Jason and Lara are visionary leaders with proven track records who bring complementary experiences representing the breadth of our firm, which will make for a strong partnership to skillfully lead our firm over the next four years.”

“I have had the pleasure of working closely with Jason and Lara over many years, most recently as members of the US Executive Committee,” said Ucuzoglu, who was recently elected Deloitte Global CEO. “I am thrilled by their selection, and I am confident that our clients, people, communities and capital markets will benefit from their joint leadership over the next four years.”

Ucuzoglu added, “Further, I speak on behalf of our entire organization in expressing our utmost appreciation for Janet’s leadership as the chair of the board during this period of unprecedented success, and personally, I can’t thank her enough for her collaboration. While she decided not to seek a second term, Janet’s extraordinary impact and her commitment to our clients, our people, and innovation have positioned us strongly as we move into the future.”

Going Concern was provided with a copy of the email that went out to Deloitters announcing the selections, we’ve included it in its entirety below for your reading pleasure.

Colleagues,

As you know, our elected leader succession process, which takes place every four years, began in the fall. I am pleased to share that the US Board has selected Jason Girzadas as our nominee for US CEO and Lara Abrash as our nominee for US Chair. Each of these exceptional leaders have, throughout their careers, demonstrated a deep caring for our partnership, our clients, and our teams. I am immensely grateful for their commitment to serve.

Jason is currently the managing principal of Businesses, Global, and Strategic Services (BGS), where he is responsible for driving integration and strategic advancement across Deloitte’s four businesses. He also is a member of the US Executive Committee. Jason previously served as the Deloitte Global managing principal of Consulting. He also served as a member of Deloitte’s Global Board of Directors.

Lara is currently the chair and chief executive officer of Deloitte & Touche LLP, where she leads the US Audit & Assurance practice. She has served in a variety of leadership roles during her Deloitte career, including as a global lead client service partner on large multinational clients and as a member of Deloitte’s US Board. Lara is a member of the US Executive Committee.

Please join me in congratulating Jason and Lara, who will assume their new roles on June 4, 2023, pending ratification by our US Partners and Principals. As is our customary process, the Board will work with Jason and Lara on any key leadership decisions (including their successors) stemming from their selection, and we will update you as soon as that succession process is completed.

With Joe Ucuzoglu taking on the Global CEO role effective December 31, 2022, the Board asked Pete Shimer to serve as Interim US CEO on that date. Pete will continue to lead us forward in the months ahead. I too will continue to serve as US Chair until our new leaders assume their roles.

As some of you may know, I decided this past summer to not seek a second term or any other elected leader role in the partnership. I have absolutely loved chairing our wonderful Board, and the decision was not an easy one. I will keep you posted on my next chapter, but for the time being, my absolute focus in the months ahead will be on governing our amazing firm, supporting our leaders in the market, and being with our people.

This is a special time for our firm as we prepare to welcome new elected leaders—colleagues who love this organization deeply and are committed to our shared purpose and success. Together, I have no doubt we will continue to do truly amazing things.

Warmly,
Janet

Deloitte US Selects Jason Girzadas CEO; Lara Abrash Chair of the Board [PR Newswire]

The post Deloitte US Picked a New CEO and Chair, Sent Out an Email appeared first on Going Concern.

Now we have learned that EY has a consulting CFO all picked out and ready to go. Reports Wall Street Journal:

Ernst & Young recruited Jamie Miller, the departing chief financial officer of Cargill Inc., to lead the finances of its consulting arm, which the Big Four accounting firm is spinning off.

EY on Tuesday said Ms. Miller would serve as its global chief financial officer and eventually as CFO of the consulting division that is set to be hived off as a stand-alone, publicly traded entity, leaving behind a business focused on audits. EY executives devised the separation more than a year ago as regulators increase their scrutiny of potential conflicts of interest in the audit profession.

Cargill announced on Monday that Ms. Miller will step down as Chief Financial Officer “to accept an opportunity outside the company,” Friday will be her last day. The press release says very little else about her and focuses instead of the company’s acting CFO who will be replacing her.

Miller spent 15 years at PwC according to LinkedIn, joining in 1990 and leaving briefly in 2003 to serve as Vice President, Controller, and Chief Accounting Officer for Genworth Financial before returning in 2005 to put in another two years.

The split vote was supposed to take place late last year, EY continues to hold off as it hammers out the fine details. For now, the vote is supposed to take place at the end of this quarter.

EY Hires Cargill CFO to Manage Finances of Consulting Spinoff [Wall Street Journal]

The post Woman Quits Her Job to Be CFO For Big 4 Business That Doesn’t Exist Yet appeared first on Going Concern.

The Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (Deloitte Global) Board today announced the selection of Joe Ucuzoglu as Deloitte Global CEO, subject to a ratification vote by Deloitte member firm partners. Ucuzoglu has been the CEO of Deloitte US since 2019. Deloitte operates in 150 countries with more than 415,000 professionals and revenue in our latest fiscal year of $59.3 billion.

Ucuzoglu will succeed Punit Renjen, who has served as the Deloitte Global CEO since 2015. Upon retirement, Renjen will become Global CEO Emeritus. As Deloitte Global CEO, Renjen developed and executed a global strategy that resulted in Deloitte revenue growing from $35 billion to more than $59 billion in just seven years. Today, Deloitte is the leading professional services organization in the world, recognized as the strongest and most valuable commercial services brand, a leader in audit quality, and one of the world’s best places to work.

You know, normally when firms say they are the “leading professional services organization” they are taking some liberty with the definition of the word “leading” but in this case Deloitte does sit at the top of the Big 4 pile, at least when it comes to revenue. Deloitte pulled in a record $59.3 billion in revenue for the financial year ending May 31, an 18.1% increase over 2021’s haul of $50.2 billion.

The press release goes on to talk about some stuff Deloitte has done under Renjen’s leadership — namely launching WorldClass and WorldClimate, two initiatives we will not bother describing in detail for the sake of brevity, look them up if you want — and then you get the obligatory quotes about how kick ass Punit was. Back to Joe:

Speaking of his successor, Renjen said, “Joe is an exceptional leader. We have worked together side by side for many years, and I believe he is an excellent choice to serve as the next Deloitte Global CEO. He has been a member of the Deloitte Global Executive team for the last several years, and I am confident that, under his leadership, Deloitte will continue to deliver outstanding results for our people, clients, and the communities in which we live and work.”

In response to his nomination, Joe Ucuzoglu, Deloitte US CEO and the next Deloitte Global CEO said, “It is my great honor to be chosen to lead this extraordinary organization. I believe deeply in Deloitte’s responsibility to lead through the unprecedented pace of change the world is experiencing, and to meet the rapidly expanding needs of our stakeholders. I want to thank Punit for his excellent leadership of Deloitte.”

Deloitte is leading something alright.

The member firm partner vote to ratify Ucuzoglu will take place throughout the month of November, and he will assume the Deloitte Global CEO role upon Renjen’s retirement on December 31, 2022. No word on who will take his place at the helm of Deloitte US.

‘Grats, Joe. Maybe this time around people will care about your spectacular achievement.

The post Joe Ucuzoglu Ascends the Throne of Deloitte Global, Maybe Someone Will Care This Time appeared first on Going Concern.

PwC is shutting down the firm between Christmas and the new year. Our gift of guilt-free downtime is more than a great perk—it’s a recognition of the hard work by our partners and staff. Giving our people the chance to relax and recharge helps them deliver at a high level in the new year. Read how Bob, our partners and staff will be spending their time off during the holidays and then share what you’ll be doing with yours. #pwctakesabreak

While you may be picturing shuttered-up PwC offices around the country, with Tiny Tim cuddled up to his PwC Manager dad sans firm-owned device in his hand on Christmas morning, it would be silly to think everyone gets the time off. Who is going to do those necessary December 31st inventory counts?

Bob Moritz writes on LinkedIn:

Of course, we are a client service business, and that's something we take very seriously. To make this break happen, we give our people advance notice so that they can plan ahead for the personal things they want to do and our service teams can address client needs. Because of certain client deadlines and commitments, there are some teams who need to work through the holidays—and we make sure those teams get to take time later in the year. Interestingly though, we've learned in the process that many of our clients also take time off during the holidays, and many of them have expressed their support for our firmwide break.

Let's face it, the only people who don't get to take a break at the holidays are the poor saps who have to ring up your Christmas candy and tinsel at Target. The shocking thing here in this press release would be if the firm announced it would be all hands on deck for that all important year-end.

What do PwCers plan to do with all this unfamiliar free time? Emails are off the table.

Last commute of 2014, thanks to the holiday shut down at @PwC_LLP. Gotta love the resulting email no-fly zone. #pwctakesabreak

— Jack Teuber (@jack2ber) December 23, 2014

There will be naps. Lots of naps.

It's the most wonderful time of the year #PwCTakesABreak Naps. I'm most looking forward to the naps.

— Jo Anne McCusker (@JoAnneMcCusker) December 22, 2014

As for BoMo, he'll also be napping. And eating. And finally getting around to setting the time correctly on his oven.

My own plans for the holidays include sharing meals with friends and family, eating and sleeping (especially the sleeping part!), spending time with my family and friends, more eating and sleeping, and then driving the kids back to college. Mundane activities, perhaps — but priceless to me!

So put down the spreadsheet, give your mother a call, put on an ugly Christmas sweater, and enjoy yourselves, kids. It's back to the grind first thing 2015!

The post PwC Is Taking a Break appeared first on Going Concern.

Ventas sent out a press release on the situation with its former chief accounting officer and controller hooking up with a partner at its former audit firm EY:

Ventas, Inc. (NYSE: VTR) (“Ventas” or the “Company”) today announced that the Company has dismissed Ernst & Young (“E&Y”) as its public accounting firm, effective July 5, 2014, due to E&Y’s determination that it was not independent solely as a result of an inappropriate personal relationship between an E&Y partner and Ventas’s former Chief Accounting Officer and Controller. Ventas also announced that, following such dismissal, its Audit Committee has engaged KPMG LLP (“KPMG”) as the Company’s independent public accounting firm.

E&Y has advised the Company that, solely due to the inappropriate personal relationship, it determined that it was not independent of the Company during the periods in question. As a result of such determination, E&Y stated that it was obligated under applicable law and professional standards to withdraw (and it has withdrawn) its audit reports on the Company’s financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2013, and its review of the Company’s results for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. E&Y’s decision to withdraw such audit reports and review was made exclusively due to the personal relationship in question, and not for any reason related to Ventas’s financial statements, its accounting practices, the integrity of Ventas’s controls or for any other reason.

The crony in question, one Robert J. Brehl, has “separated himself” from his duties as Chief Accounting Officer and Controller.

“Ventas stands for integrity, reliability and transparency with investors, lenders, employees and other stakeholders,” stated Ventas Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Debra A. Cafaro. “When we learned of this isolated situation, we investigated the facts immediately, notified E&Y promptly and took swift and decisive action.

Ventas stands by its 2012 and 2013 financial statements but because of this situation with Rob and whoever he “knew” (carnally) over at EY, they need to be reaudited. WAY TO GO, GUYS.

The post Ventas Fires EY as Auditor Over Independence Violation appeared first on Going Concern.