Jim Peko, the CEO of Grant Thornton Advisors LLC, says it was only by abandoning a vision of incremental change that the Top 10 Firm was able to achieve the rapid growth they've experienced over the past few years.
Speaking at the Intapp Amplify conference on Wednesday, Peko discussed how enacting major changes in the firm's governance structure, embracing private equity and investing in technology have worked together to dramatically increase revenue and expand its global footprint. Overall, he said, while the firm was certainly successful by any measure, he said it was "playing it safe" and "got a bit comfortable."
Much of this was due to the firm's traditional partnership model, which he said prevented GT from moving more aggressively. Further, due to the way the network was structured, there was no single operating model or consistent view of the client, which made it difficult to coordinate. GT would often get caught up in negotiating things like how fees would be split or who would do what work.
"The old governance model — it really slowed decision-making, and it focused on seniority versus performance, and we were very risk-averse. Our clients were expanding globally at a rapid pace, and sometimes, frankly, faster than us," said Peko.
Because of this, the way the firm tended to operate was through incremental change. It would add a system here, adjust a policy there, and rely on workarounds. Peko said he eventually came to understand this not as a quirk of firm culture but as a long-term risk. Grant Thornton was over 100 years old, and he wondered whether it would be able to make it another century the way things were going.
"As we approached our 100th year, I kept asking myself the same question, which was, if we keep doing things the way we have over the last 100 years, are we really building for the next 100 or are we protecting what we had already been doing over the last 100? ... So we made some bold decisions," he said.
One was divesting the firm's public sector practice. While he said the business was a "solid performer," it was not a strategic fit for GT's future plans. This change led the firm to then make changes to its governance and capital structure, leading to more alignment via shared standards, engagement structure, accountability and strategic vision. This, in turn, led to private equity investment. Peko conceded there were skeptics who felt it would change who the firm was. He believes this has not happened — it has instead fueled the firm's ability to seize the opportunities it always wanted.
"That's when things really began to accelerate. In 2025 alone, we closed 15 transactions; prior to that, we'd completed one acquisition in the previous six years. We started the year with more than $2 billion in revenue. We ended the year with a $4 billion platform, and we did this all in just one year. We now have 24,000 people working across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific regions. In 2026 we've already closed one acquisition, and there are several others on the way," he said.
The investment, combined with the new governance model, he said, gave GT the ability to act faster and scale its business more decisively. Peko said, at this point, speed has become a differentiating factor for Grant Thornton. He noted a recent example where it was competing against several bigger firms for a major client; GT was quickly able to bring together a multidisciplinary team spanning several service lines and geographies. "And yes, I wouldn't be telling the story if we didn't win," Peko added.
"We can make decisions faster than our competitors who don't have the same model, and we've created a truly differentiated platform that's more aligned and can act with speed that can't be matched," he said.
The final piece of the puzzle was technology. Similar to how the firm wanted to unify its standards and procedures, it also wanted to unify its data environment, which serves to enhance automation efforts, particularly with regard to artificial intelligence. While much is made of technology, he said that a sound data strategy is essential to get the most from that technology. It is only through a combination of the two that a firm will be able to drive differentiated value for clients.
"This marriage of tech and data is what gives us our edge, and you can't have one without the other. If your data is fragmented, your client experience is going to be fragmented. If your systems don't talk to one another, your teams can't move as one, manual processes don't scale. Disconnected systems don't scale, and integration without technology eventually breaks," said Peko.
Having such a strategy has allowed the firm to also make significant strides in AI. Peko noted that the firm is now working with clients in a new vertical on AI assessments, AI strategy and AI governance. This would not have been possible without the right technology. And, of course, the right people.
"Let me be clear about AI and our people — it's not about replacing people," said Peko. "It's about elevating them so they have greater opportunities to add value while using judgment and solving complex problems."
