CohnReznick Names CEO-Elect

Top 20 accounting firm CohnReznick LLP has elected Frank Longobardi its next chief executive officer, effective October 1, when current co-CEOs Ken Baggett and Tom Marino will step down.

Baggett and Marino will remain members of the firm’s Executive Board. They have led the firm jointly since its creation through the 2012 merger of J.H. Cohn and Reznick Group.

Longobardi is currently regional managing partner for New England and a member of the Executive Board. He previously served as a member of the firm’s Go-to Market Committee, which oversaw the strategic planning for industry and service specialization.

“I am deeply honored to be chosen to lead CohnReznick and look forward to working with our people to achieve new goals in serving our clients and communities, shaping discussions around the issues that impact today’s businesses, and developing the future leaders of this Firm,” Longobardi said in a statement. “Under Ken and Tom’s visionary leadership over the past three years, CohnReznick has grown substantially and is better positioned for success than ever before.”

“Frank is a passionate, firm-first type of leader,” said Baggett in a statement. “In addition to leading our New England region for the past three years and serving on several national committees, Frank has always looked for ways to innovate and improve the quality of our client service across all areas of the firm.”

Allan Koltin, CEO of Koltin Consulting Group, who has consulted with CohnReznick for many years, commented, “Filling the shoes of legendary leaders such as Tom Marino and Ken Baggett is almost an impossible task, but I could think of no one better than Frank to be CohnReznick’s next CEO. He is an inspirational leader with great vision and communication skills.  Also, the fact that he joined the firm as a merged-in firm will show other potential merger candidates and lateral recruits that ‘outsiders’ can thrive at CohnReznick.”

Longobardi joined J.H. Cohn in 2007 through a merger with his own firm, Haggett Longobardi, and until the 2012 merger with Reznick Group, he was responsible for all of J.H. Cohn’s industry groups, bringing standardization to the marketing, leadership development, and continuing education efforts of each practice.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut and is a board member of the UConn Foundation. He is a past chairman and currently serves on the Arthritis Foundation’s National Board of Directors and chairs its audit committee. He is also chair of the Board of Directors of the National Conference for Community and Justice and a board member of the St. Francis Hospital Foundation.

He and his wife will relocate to New York, where CohnReznick’s national headquarters is located, this fall.

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