BRITISH COLUMBIA
The Institute of Internal Auditors will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year in the city where it was founded. The organization announced at the close of its international conference in Vancouver, B.C., that New York will hosts its 2016 International Conference as well as other events related to its diamond jubilee celebration.
CALIFORNIA
OUM & Co. made its first appearance on MOVE’s Best CPA Firms for Women. It was the firm’s first year participating in the project and its managing partner, Chris Millias, was also featured as part of it in May’s issue of Public Accounting Report. For the fourth year in a row, Haskell & White LLP has been named one of the “Best Places to Work” in Orange County, Calif. Organized by the Orange County Business Journal and Best Companies Group, this county-wide survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Orange County that benefit the county's economy, its workforce and businesses.
FLORIDA
Abacus Worldwide has added three new members to its Miami-based organization. The new member firms include, Tronconi Segarra & Associates LLP of Williamsville, NY, which has 12 partners, 84 total staff with expertise in: Manufacturing, IT, Medical/Legal, Retail/Wholesale, Not-for-Profits, and GSA industries; Fort Advocaten N.V. of Amsterdam, Netherlands, which has eight partners, 41 total staff with expertise in: Corporate Litigation, Insolvency and Restructuring, Real Estate, and Employment and Administrative Law; and Melot & Buchet Avocats of Paris, France, which has three partners, 15 total staff with expertise in: Tax Law, Litigation, and Mergers & Acquisitions
MISSOURI
MarksNelson is expanding its services with the addition of St. Louis economic development consulting firm, Community EDGE, LLC. The firm and its professionals have become a part of Kansas City-based MarksNelson, fulfilling a goal of offering more expansive services and to meet the growing client demand for location strategy services. The new MarksNelson Location Strategies Practice will encompass a wide variety of services, including business location, economic development and credits and incentives strategies. The new services are all designed to meet long-term client goals using a modern approach and collaborative effort from the MarksNelson team.
LONDON
The London office of Prager and Fenton LLP has changed its name to Prager Metis LLP. Prager and Fenton represented entertainment and media clients for nearly 50 years. Prager and Fenton merged with Metis Group LLC to form Prager Metis International.
MARYLAND
The International Society of Business Appraisers has awarded the Business Valuation Gold Seal of Trust to Gorfine, Schiller & Gardyn. ISBA's Business Valuation Gold Seal of Trust is awarded to firms that demonstrate the highest professional standards of business valuation. Dixon Hughes Goodman’s Human Resources team was announced as a top three finalist by the Human Resource Leadership Awards of Greater Washington in the category of Innovation.
MASSACHUSETTS
The Massachusetts Society of CPAs has launched its interactive job board, the MSCPA Career Center. With its focus on accounting industry companies, the MSCPA Career Center offers its members—and the accounting industry at large—an easy-to-use and highly targeted resource for online employment connections.
MICHIGAN
Thomson Reuters announced results of the 2014 UltraTax CS tax preparation software. The performance indicators reflect our commitment to providing the most complete, on-time, and e-file capable system available to tax practitioners today. 2014 UltraTax CS included new features that were based on both user insights and the changing needs of the profession, providing practitioners with streamlined installation and seamless updates to guarantee that they meet new state and IRS requirements.
MONTREAL
Bessner Gallay Kreisman LLP has changed its name to Crowe BGK LLP. The addition of "Crowe" to the firm’s name, and the change of the firm’s logo and visual branding, was prompted by the firm’s membership in Crowe Horwath International, a global network of advisory and accounting firms.
NEW YORK
The auditing landscape will experience more changes in the next five to 10 years than it has had in the past five decades, according to a recent EY report CFO Need to Know | The Future of Audit. Data analytics, new technology and access to detailed industry information will all combine to help auditors better understand the business, identify risks and issues and deliver additional insights. In the future, CFOs will be able to rely on a more comprehensive approach to identifying issues, which will allow them to provide better forward-looking perspectives to the CEO and board members. Some key takeaways in the report include: In order to get the most of the audit of the future, CFOs need to select auditors with the knowledge and ability to embed analytics in a way that deepens their understanding of the business and enables them to develop a more forward-thinking audit process that focuses on anticipating future risks. Data analytics will introduce changes to traditional auditing functions in such areas as potential fraud, transaction errors, anomalies in data and breakdown of controls/ineffective controls. The consumer products sector is one area that stands to benefit dramatically from the use of analytics in the audit. Revenue, inventory and suppliers management create a real-time data demand and CFOs in the sector need to adapt to succeed.
Shailen Amin joined BDO USA as a partner in the Transaction Advisory Services practice in the New York City office. Prior to joining BDO, Amin spent several years leading merger and acquisition investment activities of WPP Group in North American, EMEA and Asia Pacific and has been a TAS service provider to private equity funds and acquisitive corporations for over 20 years.
Syracuse is bringing accounting online. In partnership with 2U Inc., the school will begin its first cohort for its virtual Master of Science in Professional Accounting degree, Accounting@Syracuse. Classes begin July 18th and will allow for students to be a part of Syracuse’s esteemed Martin J. Whitman School of Management without relocating or leaving their careers. Whether students are in the beginning of their professional lives or pursuing this as a necessary credential to advance their careers, Professor Bill Walsh designed the curriculum so that it may be tailored to satisfy students’ unique goals.
Marks Paneth has selected the Thomson Reuters Checkpoint SMART Audit Suite to streamline and enhance its audit functions. The decision to implement the full Thomson Reuters Checkpoint SMART Audit Suite, along with the Checkpoint Learning Premier Plus CPE Package and Checkpoint Learning AuditWatch training solution, is based on the firm’s desire to transition to a strong risk-based audit approach, helping the firm maximize the efficiency of its audit engagements while also achieving high quality compliance in response to the profession’s changing regulations.
Following a marked decrease in the number of IPOs in the United States in Q1 2015, Q2 IPO activity continued to lag, dropping 20% over the same period in 2014, according to new research conducted by CohnReznick LLP. For the full report, visit CohnReznick’s
SPAIN
Andersen Global bolsters its presence in Spain with the addition of Global Abogados, a tax and law firm with offices in Barcelona and Madrid.
VIRGINIA
The Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants held the 8th Leaders’ Institute for Virginia’s brightest accounting students in mid-June at the University of Richmond. The VSCPA established the Leaders’ Institute in 2007 following a gift from accounting and consulting firm Baker Tilly. Specifically designed for the top college accounting students in the Commonwealth, the Leaders’ Institute provides a hands-on workshop program for young aspiring CPAs. The Institute is the only development program of its kind in Virginia and provides rising college juniors and seniors the opportunity for vital leadership training and real-life skills to successfully transition into the competitive marketplace.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
CBM was named “CPA Firm of the Year 2015” by Washington SmartCEO.
E-mail your firm announcements to Tamika.Cody@sourcemedia.com with "FIRM NEWS" in the subject line.
