Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Promotion Watch ’22: BDO USA Gives 69 People Fancy New Titles

Posted on by Going Concern News Desk

People who know, know BDO USA recently promoted 49 people to partner and 20 people to principal for fiscal year 2023.

The class of FY 2023 is the same size as the class of FY 2022—and one of the largest in the firm’s history. Among the 69 new partners and principals:

  • 22: The number of new partners and principals who are women, or 32% of the class.
  • 19: The number of new partners and principals who work in either assurance or tax, the most of any service line at BDO.
  • 8: The number of new partners and principals who work in Chicago, the most of any office, followed by seven in Boston and five in Houston.

Here are the newest leaders in Wayne’s World:

Partners

  • Nori Akahira, Assurance, Los Angeles
  • Scott Ashworth, Tax, Atlanta
  • James Backes, Tax, St. Louis
  • Matt Bartholomew, Transaction Advisory Services, Salt Lake City
  • Rivka Bier, Tax, Baltimore
  • Emily Buckles, Tax, Detroit
  • Heidi Boos Chambers, Assurance, Chicago
  • Jane Cheung, Tax, Houston
  • Meghan Depp, Professional Practice, Detroit
  • Steve DiPardo, Tax, Stamford, CT
  • Dean Drummond, Assurance, Boston
  • Mary Espinosa, Assurance, Orange County, CA
  • Sara Ficken, Professional Practice, Atlanta
  • Barbara Finke, Assurance, Jacksonville, FL
  • Maggie Gilmore, Tax, Columbus, OH
  • Roscelle Gonzales, Professional Practice, Chicago
  • Michael Hansen, Assurance, Detroit
  • Jeff Hatch, Assurance, Salt Lake City
  • Cory Hill, Tax, Chicago
  • Chris Huber, Assurance, Pittsburgh
  • Ryan Jones, Assurance, Raleigh, NC
  • Asim Khan, Assurance, Dallas
  • Scott Klein, International Tax Services, Miami
  • Lashaun King, Assurance, Raleigh, NC
  • Michael Krivak, Third Party Attestation, Minneapolis
  • Jon Lee, Tax, Jacksonville, FL
  • Jason Lipschultz, Third Party Attestation, Chicago
  • Michael Masciangelo, National Tax Office, Houston
  • Kevin McIntyre, Assurance, Chicago
  • Michelle Melnar, Tax, Houston
  • Larry Miao, National Tax Office, New York City
  • Kasra Mojtahedi, Industry Specialty Services, Washington, DC
  • Joseph Pancamo, Global Employer Services Market Leader, Dallas
  • Bethany Pashel, Assurance, Spokane, WA
  • Tara Pendleton, Professional Practice, Spokane, WA
  • Veena Raja, Assurance, Houston
  • Roland Reimink, Chief Accounting Officer, Grand Rapids, MI
  • Alex Rodriguez, Transaction Advisory Services, Orange County, CA
  • Tim Schram, State and Local Tax Services, Chicago
  • Kyle Sewell, National Assurance Professional Practice, Atlanta
  • Ripal Shah, Assurance, Houston
  • Katie Spiegler, Assurance, Cleveland
  • Patrick Stone, Transaction Advisory Services, Boston
  • Brendan Sullivan, Transaction Advisory Services, Denver
  • Peter Terilli, Global Value Chain and International Tax, Dallas
  • Ronald Totoli, Assurance, Miami
  • Greg Turner, Professional Practice, Boston
  • Tom Wang, Business Restructuring and Turnaround Services, New York City
  • Jam Yap, Assurance, Orange County, CA

Principals

  • Geoff Aldridge, Tax, Chicago
  • Mark Antalik, Governance, Risk & Compliance, Boston
  • Michael Bauer, National Tax Office, Pittsburgh
  • Mandy Carroll, Risk Advisory Services, Boston
  • Ian Cooper, Management Advisory Services, Atlanta
  • Jared Crafton, Fraud Investigations and Litigation, Boston
  • Steven Gin, Risk Advisory Services, Los Angeles
  • Steven Kurtz, Valuation and Capital Markets Analysis, New York City
  • Ilya Lipin, State and Local Tax Services, Philadelphia
  • Cathryn McAleavey, BDO FMA, Long Island, NY
  • Vincent Mercader, Transaction Advisory Services, Detroit
  • Geoff Merritt, Industry Specialty Services, Boston
  • Mark Millard, Forensic Risk Insurance, Woodbridge, NJ
  • Chrissa Qiu, Valuation and Capital Market Analysis, San Francisco
  • Ronii Rizzo, Global Employer Services, Charlotte, NC
  • Wally Seliga, Cloud, Security and Infrastructure Practice Leader, Chicago
  • Thomas Stringer, Management Advisory Services and Site Selections and Incentives Practice Leader, Long Island, NY
  • Michael Tepper, Third Party Attestation, New York City
  • Robby Vanrijkel, Industry Specialty Services, Washington, DC
  • Polina Vesna, Global Tax Outsourcing Practice Leader, Stamford, CT

Congrats to all!

Related Posts

Let’s Give a Big Hand to BDO For Not Having the Worst 2017 PCAOB Inspection Report

The PCAOB released the 2017 inspection report for BDO USA at the end of June, […]

BDO Wins New Life as Florida Appeals Court Orders New Trial

In what amounts to a HUGE win for BDO, the Florida 3rd District Court of Appeal in Miami has ordered a new trial in the case between BDO and Banco Espirito Santo:

A Florida appeals court has thrown out a $521 million jury verdict and ordered a new trial in a dispute over audits between accounting firm BDO Seidman and a major Portuguese bank.

The Third District Court of Appeal in Miami ruled Wednesday that the 2007 trial was wrongly divided into three phases.

That meant jurors decided BDO Seidman should pay punitive damages too early in the case.

BDO Seidman was sued by Portugal’s Banco Espirito Santmed on a Miami company later exposed as a huge fraud. The bank claimed BDO Seidman was negligent for not detecting the fraud, costing the bank $170 million in losses.

Jurors awarded the bank $170 million in losses plus $351 million in punitive damages.

We reached out to the Steven Thomas, lead counsel for the Banco Espirito for his reaction:

This case has been sent back for another trial because of the procedural ‘bifurcation’ issue. We are pleased that the effort and hard work the jury put into this case was recognized by the appellate court, and we specifically note that the Court did not dispute BDO unethical conflicts of interest or its negligence. The evidence of BDO Seidman’s failures of even the most basic auditing procedures is so overwhelming that we expect a new jury will reach the same conclusion as the original jury. We look forward to trying this case and reminding everyone of BDO Seidman’s neglect of its public duty and the enormous conflict of interest they had.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, undisputed negligence cited by Mr Thomas, the mood inside BDO is one of vindication. From the firm’s press release not yet posted on the firm’s website:

The firm is pleased to announce that the Third District Court of Appeal of the state of Florida has unanimously overturned a 2007 jury verdict against the firm and ordered that the Bankest case be retried in the 11th Circuit Court. The Court of Appeal concluded that:

• The Trial Court erred in its original decision to trifurcate the trial, ruling that it was prejudicial to have allowed the case to be presented in three phases. This made it possible for the jury to find BDO grossly negligent without, at the same time, considering the conduct of other actors, including representatives of Banco Espirito Santo.

• The Appellate Court further concluded that the evidence of reliance on BDO’s audit opinions was insufficient to sustain the claims of the Bankest investors, save for the one individual who testified at trial.

• The Trial Court improperly allowed into evidence prejudicial hearsay testimony and documents that further served to deprive BDO of a fair trial.

The Appellate Court concluded, “We have carefully considered every substantive and procedural authority that might be applied to preserve at least some of the jury’s findings. In this case, no such balm is found.”

“We are very pleased that the Appeals court has reversed the lower court verdict. We have consistently stated that we were confident that the jury’s erroneous verdict in this case would be reversed on appeal. The addition of punitive damages at the time only served to emphasize the injustice that took place at the trial court,” said CEO Jack Weisbaum. “A new trial will be in accordance with the Court of Appeal’s decision and we will prove that BDO acted at all times consistent with its professional obligations and that its audit opinions were based on the proper application of generally accepted auditing standards.”

So we’ve got a new trial with a re-energized BDO and a tenacious plaintiff. It sounds like BDO will stick with its defense strategy of “we did no wrong,” so this should be fun.

Florida Third District Court of Appeal Decision [PDF]

(UPDATE) BDO Associate Eager for Work Picks Up Assignments, In ‘N’ Out Delivery Request All Along the West Coast

Undoubtedly, many of the seasoned public accounting hacks out there have received some variation of […]