The Rainmaker Companies named New Jersey-based Top 100 Firm WithumSmith+Brown its first-ever Innovative Firm of the Year — and recognized a number of individual accountants for excellence — at its annual SuperConference in Atlanta on Wednesday.
The award for Innovative Firm of the Year was presented to Withum partner Joseph Riccie, who noted that the timing was auspicious, since the firm had just inducted a new class of young employees into the innovation council that helps it stay on the leading edge of change.
“With all this talk about the move to advisory, it felt really appropriate to give this award this year,” said Rainmaker Companies executive vice president Adelaide Ness, who presented the honor.
Ness presented an award for Managing Partner of the Year to Peter Reilly of Councilor, Buchanan & Mitchell in Bethesda, Maryland, who she noted had merged in an impressive seven different firms in just five years.
“Managing partners have to do much more than just manage — you have to lead, you have to inspire and you have to empower the people around you to do the good work of your firm,” she said in honoring Reilly.
Rainmaker also recognized a number of other individual accountants for excellence in its strategic niche communities:
- David Wood, a partner at Atlanta-based firm Porter Keadle Moore, was named Banking CPAs Member of the Year;
- Helen Connolly, a principal at Maryland-based firm Weyrich, Cronin & Sorra, was named Health Care Advisors Association Member of the Year;
- Michael Lange, a senior manager at Atlanta-based Top 100 Firm Aprio, was named Manufacturing CPAs Member of the Year;
- Sam Lazzara, a shareholder with Tampa, Florida firm Rivero, Gordimer & Co., was named Nonprofit CPAs Member of the Year; and,
- Teri Samples, a partner at Mueller Prost in St. Louis, was named Real Estate & Construction CPAs Member of the Year.
