On the move: Brown Edwards names next CEO

January 19, 2024 9:00 AM

PKF O'Connor Davies adds 19 to partnership; Schneider Downs expands advisory practice; and more news from across the profession.

ALABAMA

Brad Brown

Brad Brown, senior manager in the tax department, and Brian Jackson, president and COO of Abacus, were promoted to members at BMSS Advisors & CPAs, Birmingham.

BRAZIL

Orplan Auditores Independentes, Belo Horizonte, joined MGI Worldwide.

ILLINOIS

Claudia Douglass

Claudia Douglass was hired as a principal and health care industry growth leader at Grant Thornton. In other firm news, Grant Thornton released its fifth annual Environmental, Social and Governance ESG Report, highlighting the firm's progress toward achieving milestones in its sustainability goals and diversity, equity and inclusion. Additionally, Grant Thornton was recognized by Glassdoor as one of the Best Places to Work in 2024 as part of Glassdoor's 16th annual Employees' Choice Awards.

KENTUCKY

The Association for Accounting Marketing, Lexington, is now accepting nominations for the 2024 Marketer of the Year award until Feb. 15. More information is available here.

MAINE

Andrew Smith was appointed director of tax services at Baker Newman Noyes, Portland, where he has worked since 1998, and will succeed Mike Stillings, who has served as director since 2008.

MICHIGAN

UHY, Detroit, appointed to managing director: Michael Antovski, chief operating officer of UHY Advisors; Andrew Borsuk, UHY Consulting; Charles Bruno and Jie Chen in the Northeast region; Kevin Burns, Kyle Percin, Bart Reddy, Larry Stoklosa and Amber Sutter in the Great Lakes region; Nick Chambers in the Midwest region; Todd Sutherland in the national tax practice; and Barry Thomas in the Mid-Atlantic region.

NEW JERSEY

Nisivoccia, Mount Arlington, promoted: David Benson, Michelle Shapiro and Harlene Stevens to director of tax; Brian Gibbons to manager; Brian Ko, Vicki Kosuda and Caitlin Orton to principal; and Matt Sylvester to supervising senior.

NEW YORK

Mallory Conway

The Bonadio Group, Rochester, promoted 11 to partner; in the capital region: Mallory Conway, executive vice president, advisory and consulting; in central New York: Jay Jerose in advisory and consulting, and Tim Hammond in assurance; in Rochester: Heidi Bresler, Michael Vollmer and Terry Burns in assurance; Matt Jensen in advisory and consulting; Chelsea Murray, executive vice president, advisory and consulting; and Theresa Raponi in tax; and in western New York: Scott Donnelly in assurance and Joe Wutz in tax.

PKF O'Connor Davies, New York, promoted 19 employees to partner: Sumeet Agarwal, Jesse Allen, Darren Bushey, Benjamin Garcia, Christina Gray, Sarah Guilmette, Thomas Kelly, Michael Kettell, Jon Klerowski, Michael Koenecke, Jaron Lariviere, Roman Matatov, Ravi Melwani, Melissa Modelson, Joseph Parmegiani, Jackie Reinhard, Nicholas Rochedieu, Patrick Trask and Ioanna Vavasis.

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board appointed five new members to the Public Interest Oversight Board: Sami Alshorafa, deputy for supervision, Capital Market Authority Saudi Arabia; Hernán Casinelli, chair of the Accounting and Assurance Standards Board of Argentina; Vishal Doshi, council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India; Robert Koethner, retired vice president, chief accounting officer, Mercedes-Benz Group; and Chrystelle Richard, associate professor in accounting, ESSEC Business School. The IAASB also reappointed to the PIOB: Edo Kienhuis, PwC's global standards leader and a partner in the audit and assurance practice in Amsterdam; and Wendy Stevens, national practice leader for quality and risk management at Mazars in the U.S.

Charles Abraham, financial services practice leader, was elected to the executive board at Mazars, New York, replacing Shahab Moreh, whose term expired at the end of 2023.

CohnReznick, New York, promoted in its commercial real estate practice: Emily Butler, partner, to lead the Mid-Atlantic region; Paul Jhung, partner, to lead the Northeast region; and Wesley Prato, partner, to lead the South/West region.

Stacey Schell was hired as an assurance partner in the financial sponsors and financial services practice at CohnReznick, New York.

KPMG announced the premiere of a new sports documentary, "Driven by Data: Stacy Lewis' 2023 Solheim Cup Captaincy" on the Golf Channel Jan. 16.

OHIO

Tom Lyons

Bober Markey Fedorovich, Akron, promoted, to manager: Tom Lyons, transaction advisory services, and Devon LaRiccia, tax services; to controller: Sarah Boughton, firm operations; and in client accounting services: Kelly McCaffrey to supervisor; and hired, in assurance and advisory services: Justine Baker and Kerah Gross as staff accountants and Sarah Werner as a supervisor; in client accounting and tax services: Katlun McManus as a senior accountant; and Arielle Clark as a human resources manager; and Ericka Schempp and Connie Ulich as administrative assistants.

OREGON

Geffen Meser, Portland, promoted to shareholder: Anne Tankersley, who joined the firm in 2008; Paige Lukens, who also joined in 2008; and Rachel Henrichs, who has been with the firm since 2016.

PENNSYLVANIA

Janelle Merlo

Jen Worley

Schneider Downs & Co. expanded its tax advisory practice by hiring: Janelle Merlo, tax director; Caché Heidel, tax senior manager; and Hailey Adams and Maxwell Kubas, tax managers.

Brown Plus promoted: Abbigail Cawood and Karen MacDonald to outsourced accounting senior manager; Ryan Grigg, Jack McCracken and Kim Yordy to audit senior manager; Alexander Craver and Monica Martin to audit manager; Courtney Catlin and Natalie Ciepiela to tax supervisor; Erik Peachey to audit supervisor; Nathan Bashore, Andrew Kimbrell and Amber Miller to audit senior associate; and Aspen Longhurst to tax senior associate.

SINGAPORE

Mazars announced that four local partners from Mazars in Singapore — Cheryl Koh, Joanne Chong, Mark Chew and Zhang Liang — were appointed as part of the Cooperative à Responsabilité Limité partnership to help shape the strategic objectives of the Mazars Group globally.

TENNESSEE

ATA added as partners: Miles Anderson, who focuses on ERISA audits and tax services for individuals and businesses and will help lead the Milan location; and Diane Sparks, who will help lead the assurance practice in the Memphis office.

VIRGINIA

Laura Sprouse

Laura Sprouse, current chief operating officer, was announced as the next CEO of Brown Edwards, Roanoke, succeeding Jason Hartman, who will be retiring after 38 years at the firm and leading the firm for seven. Sprouse has been with BE for 25 years and led the firm's accounting information systems group before becoming COO.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

The Internal Revenue Service appointed 12 new members to the IRS Advisory Council: Robert Barr, vice president of business engineering, CGI Federal; Andrew Bloom, head of tax strategy, Golub Capital; Elizabeth Boonin, managing member, Sound Accounting; Beatriz Castaneda, director of tax information reporting, Coinbase; Steven Grieb, senior compliance counsel, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.; Lawrence Sannicandro, partner, McCarter & English; Peter Smith, senior manager, Artisan Partners; Cory Steinmetz, IRS compliance officer and principal assistant attorney general, Office of the Ohio Attorney General; Hussein Tarraf, president, Tarraf & Associates; Lucinda Weigel, owner, Weigel Tax & Accounting Services; Thomas Wheadon, head of international tax and transfer pricing, MAHLE Industries; Nicholas Yannaci, director in group tax, UBS; and the 2024 IRSAC chair is Annette Nellen, professor of accounting and taxation and Master of Science in Taxation program director at San Jose State University.