Grant Thornton picks new CEO-elect

Grant Thornton’s partnership board chose Seth Siegel as the firm’s next CEO, succeeding Brad Preber on Aug. 1, 2022.

Siegel is currently the Top Eight Firm's managing partner for South Florida, which includes offices in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. He also sits on the partnership board. He joined GT in 1996 and became a partner in 2006, briefly leaving the firm in the late 1990s to work as a controller and a registered representative in the financial-services sector. He was Grant Thornton’s Florida audit practice leader from 2012 to 2019, and previously led its Florida real estate, construction and hospitality industry group. Siegel also sat on the firm’s Audit Quality Advisory Council and the Grant Thornton Experience Leadership Council.

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Grant Thornton CEO-elect Seth Siegel

He plans to help the firm’s clients navigate an uncertain future during the pandemic. “At Grant Thornton, we believe in making business more personal and building trust into every result,” Siegel said in a statement Wednesday. “I intend to do just that as CEO, focusing in equal parts on how we serve clients and the value we deliver to them. My goal is to lead our team in helping our clients solve the issues of today while preempting the business challenges of tomorrow.”

Siegel is a member of the Florida Atlantic University School of Accounting Advisory Board and previously served as the board’s president. He is currently on the board of directors and a member of the audit committee for the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Memorial Hospital Foundation.

He will be succeeding Preber, who has helmed the firm since 2019 and has needed to steer GT through the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges of operating mostly remotely, the firm experienced record-breaking business performance and profitability. Preber also led the firm to meet several organizational and growth milestones, while accelerating the firm’s efforts on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and building the firm’s environment, sustainability and governance framework.

“My passion has always been for servant leadership,” Preber said in a statement. “I have strived to serve our clients, our people and our communities throughout my career at the firm, including my time as CEO. I know Seth shares my stalwart commitment to the firm, and I look forward to watching him bring his exceptional talents to the CEO post.”

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