RubinBrown Chairman Jim Castellano to Step Down

Top 100 firm RubinBrown announced several leadership changes Tuesday, with Jim Castellano stepping down as chairman when his term expires on May 31 and managing partner John Herber succeeding him as chairman.

Castellano will continue as a partner in a senior advisory role to the board and to clients, but he plans to retire from the firm next year, effective May 31, 2017.

Fred Kostecki, the head of the firm’s assurance services group since 2004, will become managing partner of the St. Louis office. Felicia Malter, a partner at the firm, will succeed Kostecki as partner-in-charge of assurance services.

Castellano has served as chairman of RubinBrown since 2004, when Herber succeeded him as the firm’s managing partner. Prior to that, Castellano had been managing partner since 1989, when he took the reins from the late Mahlon Rubin, who had led the firm since its founding in 1952.

In addition to his leadership roles at RubinBrown, Castellano will continue as chairman of Baker Tilly International, the world’s eighth largest network of independent accounting firms. Castellano also served as chairman of the American Institute of CPAs in 2002, restoring public confidence during the accounting profession’s fallout from the Enron scandal.

“RubinBrown has enjoyed remarkable, consistent growth, and we are blessed to have outstanding leaders at all levels of our firm,” he said in a statement. “I have utmost confidence in this leadership team’s ability to continue our track record, focused on totally satisfied clients and inspired team members.”

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