Randy Crabtree creates Brainstorm Group

Randy Crabtree, a longtime accounting profession leader and conference speaker, announced the debut Wednesday of The Brainstorm Group, a consulting and advisory practice.

The new firm aims to help accounting firms and organizations that serve them build stronger cultures, develop more empathetic leaders and prepare their people for the future of the accounting profession.

The Brainstorm Group will provide leadership retreats, small-group training, strategic advisory, research and professional collaboration to help firms strengthen their cultures, develop and retain talent, embrace change and create environments in which both people and businesses can thrive.

Crabtree plans to help leaders create workplaces in which their people can perform at a high level, develop meaningful careers and succeed without accepting burnout as the cost of achievement. Brainstorm's work will connect employee well-being and career satisfaction to measurable organizational outcomes, including stronger retention, greater productivity and healthier long-term growth.

"The Brainstorm Group represents the next chapter of my career and the work I feel most called to do," said Crabtree, the firm's founder and president, in a statement. "With the accounting profession changing so quickly, we have an incredible opportunity to build something better. It requires us to think very differently about leadership, culture, technology and the experience we create for our people."

Crabtree has spent nearly 40 years advising firm leaders. He has been recognized as one of Accounting Today's Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting each year since 2023. He is the host of The Unique CPA Podcast, founder and host of the annual Bridging the Gap Conference, and co-author of the annual CPA Career Satisfaction Survey. He also contributes regularly to accounting industry publications and is a frequent presenter at conferences and professional education events nationwide.. 

Crabtree most recently served as partner and chief evangelist at Tri-Merit Specialty Tax Professionals, the firm he co-founded with Andrew Lane in 2007. During his tenure, Tri-Merit grew into one of the country's leading specialty tax firms and was named to the Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest-growing privately held companies for three consecutive years. 

"I am incredibly proud of what Andrew and I built at Tri-Merit and am grateful for the people who made that journey so meaningful," Crabtree said in a statement. "The Brainstorm Group gives me the opportunity to take everything I have learned about leadership, culture, innovation and mental health to help shape a better future for the accounting profession."

Crabtree said technological change may alter how work gets done, but leadership, trust and culture determine whether organizations and their people benefit from that change. "We need to embrace new tools and new ways of thinking while making sure we are building a profession in which people genuinely want to work," he added.

A central part of The Brainstorm Group is The Brain Trust, an invitation-only community of carefully selected organizations committed to moving the accounting profession forward. Composed primarily of fintech, staffing, growth financing and other professional service providers, The Brain Trust will promote collaboration, shared learning and long-term relationships between organizations working to advance the profession.

"Few people care as deeply about the future of the accounting profession and the people shaping it, as Randy does," said Accrual CEO Cosmin Nicolaescu, a member of the Brain Trust, in a statement. "As one of our earliest advisors, he believed in what we were building, challenged our thinking, and opened doors to opportunities we might otherwise have missed." 

"Randy's experience in the CPA industry is invaluable," Franklin Alliance co-founder Steve Shein, another member of the Brain Trust, in a statement. "Not only his tactical and operational insights, but his thoughtfulness on the human side. We are thankful to have him on the journey with us." 

"You meet a lot of people in this profession, but very few who make you feel like they're in your corner. Randy is the rare exception," said Cloud Accountant Staffing CEO Jordan Sublette, another Brain Trust member, in a statement. "Randy cares about people, culture, and doing right by the profession. You feel it in the first five minutes. That's exactly why we wanted to partner with him."