Ex-RSM CEO joins Grant Thornton
Thomas G. Rotherham, the former chief executive and president of RSM McGladrey Inc., has returned to the accounting world, joining Grant Thornton LLP as the firm's new U.S. managing partner of client service.
Rotherham will be responsible for implementing the "Grant Thornton Experience for Clients" - the firm's promise to deliver unparalleled professional excellence to its clients. He will also work on expanding the firm's services and relationships with private equity firms.
Mostly recently, Rotherham was a senior vice president at Des Moines, Iowa-based West Wind Partners LLC, a private equity fund focusing on small and midsized companies.
Rotherham will be based out of the firm's Chicago office, reporting to Shelley Stein, the firm's chief operating officer. He stepped down from his position as president and chief executive at tax and consulting firm RSM McGladrey in August 2003. He originally joined McGladrey & Pullen in 1970 and, six years later, was named partner, rising to managing partner and serving as one of the architects of the firm's 1999 merger with H&R Block.
Tyco to settle charges for $50M
Tyco International Ltd. will pay $50 million to settle allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission that the company inflated its earnings by more than $1 billion between 1996 and 2002.
The improper accounting occurred during the tenure of infamous former chief executive Dennis Kozlowski, who is serving jail time for looting Tyco's Bermuda-based conglomerate. Kozlowski was removed from the company in June 2002.
Tyco, the world's largest manufacturer of electronic connectors, security systems and industrial valves, had already set aside reserves of $50 million in May 2005 to cover the cost of the anticipated settlement.
Tyco's new management team has made a variety of changes to improve the company's accountability structure and to enhance its transparency, including replacing the entire senior management team and board of directors; doubling the audit staff; meeting the internal controls provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley; disclosing the company's methods for determining executive pay, as well as the actual compensation figures; and training all staff on a new set of ethics guidelines.
IRS OPR head returns to old gig
After two years as director of the Internal Revenue Service Office of Professional Responsibility, Cono R. Namorato returned to Washington-based law firm Caplin & Drysdale as a partner. Namorato was appointed to the IRS job in December 2003, as part of an effort to strengthen professional standards and build faith in the tax system. The Office of Professional Responsibility investigates allegations of misconduct or negligence brought against tax practitioners, and licenses enrolled agents.
Just before Namorato joined the agency, Commissioner Mark Everson took several steps to make it more powerful - doubling staff and creating a place for the office director on the IRS Enforcement Committee, a panel of senior executives who meet to develop strategies on top compliance problems.
Prior to holding the director slot, Namorato represented and advised clients on criminal and civil tax matters at Caplin & Drysdale for 25 years. He began his career as an IRS special agent in Brooklyn from 1963 to 1968, and then spent a decade in the Justice Department's Tax Division, rising to the position of deputy assistant attorney general in 1977.
The IRS has not yet announced Namorato's replacement.
