Top 50 Firm Ascend added two more firms: BGW in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Tronconi Segarra & Associates in Williamsville, New York, effective July 1.
Ascend was created in January 2023 by private equity firm Alpine Investors, and it has added nearly 20 regional firms with between $15 and $50 million in revenue to its platform. Most recently, it
Yesterday's announcement expands Ascend's geographic presence on the East Coast. As is common with these kinds of private equity deals, the two firms will adopt alternative practice structures, separating attest and non-attest services into separate businesses. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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"Our mission is to help build better businesses, for our clients as well as for ourselves," Stephanie Taylor, a BGW partner and the firm's accounting solutions leader, said in a statement. "In considering the best future-forward path, we wanted a partner who would help us grow while letting us stay us. Ascend gives us support without bureaucracy, tools without takeover, and shared values that don't require a decoder ring."
"Our clients will have the same BGW team and direct access they've always had," she continued. "Our team will have tools, training and growth opportunities we couldn't offer without uprooting their lives or changing our culture. If you're building a career here, the runway just got a whole lot longer."
BGW was founded in 1983 and has seven partners and 75 employees. It provides business advisory and public accounting services to private businesses.
"When you're assembling a community predicated on independence and, therefore, diversity of thought, you look for people, systems and culture that make you pause and think, offering the possibility that they will make others do the same," Ascend's president Nishaad Ruparel said in a statement. "We are fortunate to have many such firms, but that 'stop and think' quality shines bright in what CEO Adam Boatsman and the team have created at BGW. The firm's tagline is 'Anything but Typical,' and it is a perfect encapsulation of their insistence on creating a firm from first principles and being willing to share their thinking with those who are curious. They have already captured the attention of our other partner firms with their innovative model."
TSA, founded in 1985, is a full-service and advisory firm based in the Buffalo, New York region. It has over 150 partners and associates.
"We believe Ascend represents the future for any firm that wants to be competitive and thrive," TSA CEO James Segarra said in a statement. "Their resources and robust suite of services are a cut above any other option for CPA firms wanting to stay ahead of the curve and remain relevant. The rapid pace of change in the accounting industry makes this the right time for Tronconi Segarra & Associates to leverage this opportunity for the benefit of our clients and associates."
Ruparel added, "Jim Segarra and Pat Tronconi made a bold decision a year-and-a-half ago to redesign their executive committee around a generation of partners that has several decades left in public accounting. Ultimately, that decision proved perceptive — the firm emerged more cohesive and nimbler, as the market conditions for accounting firms changed rapidly in Western New York. TSA's desire for entrepreneurship runs core to this partnership, and we are proud to work with Jim, Pat and the firm's rising leaders on fulfilling their vision, with the backing of the resources and community that makes Ascend what it is."
