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Accounting

Professionals on the Move – June 19, 2023

Professionals on the Move is a round-up of recent hiring and promotion announcements from around the profession.

Mary Girsch-Bock

Jun. 19, 2023

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Professionals on the Move is a round-up of recent hiring and promotion announcements from around the profession.

Kern Roberts promoted to Managing Director, Global Accounting Practice Lead at Chatham Financial

Chatham Financial, a global leader in financial risk management advisory and technology solutions, recently announced the promotion of Kern Roberts to the role of Managing Director, Global Accounting Practice Lead. In this capacity, Kern will oversee the strategic direction and operational excellence of Chatham’s global hedge accounting team.

Kern brings over 15 years of experience in accounting and financial risk management to his new role. His deep expertise, strong leadership skills, and commitment to client success make him the ideal choice for this critical position and reflects Chatham’s ongoing dedication to delivering the highest quality service and expertise to its clients.

With a global presence and a client base spanning multiple industries, Chatham’s accounting team is widely recognized for its high degree of quality and expertise. The company collaborates frequently with accounting standards boards and audit firms on best practices and emerging regulations, ensuring the highest level of accuracy and compliance.

In the near decade since Kern joined Chatham, he’s served in several roles and functions in the practice, most recently leading Chatham’s European Hedge Accounting team. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Warwick in Politics and Sociology and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, recently appointed to the organization’s Corporate Reporting Faculty Board.

Sovos Names Kevin Akeroyd Chief Executive Officer

Global tax software provider Sovos recently announced the appointment of Kevin Akeroyd as Chief Executive Officer. Akeroyd joins Sovos from Magnit, where he served as CEO from July 2020, overseeing a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. Sovos has now reached a scale of offering value proposition to enterprise customers unique in the industry: eInvoice and tax compliance in any country from a single API connection.

Prior to joining Magnit, Akeroyd served as CEO at Cision, taking the company public on the NYSE. Previously, Akeroyd had been a general manager at both Oracle and Salesforce, running category leading business units in cloud software, services and data. 

The Bonadio Group Shares Highlights

The Bonadio Group recently shared highlights of the 45th Annual “The Bonadio Group & More Day.” This year’s celebration theme was “Catalyst for Greatness.” Highlights from the event include:

  • Over 850 associates enjoyed this year’s event at Turning Stone Resort & Casino – with many traveling in from all over the U.S. to attend in-person.
  • Danielle Fiorello, Senior Assurance Innovator, was honored with the 5th Annual Bonadio Cares Award. The firm will be donating $4,000 on their behalf from the Bonadio Foundation to her chosen charity, The Syracuse Chapter of the American Heart Association.
  • Top performers were recognized for their recognition within the firm’s PROMISE Connection, which honors associates that go above and beyond to help their colleagues.

Grant Thornton appoints new leaders to key roles

Grant Thornton LLP, one of America’s largest audit, tax and advisory firms, recently announced that it has appointed several new leaders who will help further advance the firm’s business strategy and accelerate its growth for the benefit of clients and team members. 

To help ensure the firm provides clients with industry solutions that are aligned with its geography teams and service lines, Grant Thornton has appointed national managing principal for Industry, Lisa Walkush, to its Senior Leadership Team. Walkush has a deep industry background and was recently honored by Consulting magazine for “Excellence in Leadership.”

In a companion move that will help Grant Thornton better orient its offerings for clients regionally, it has named several partners at the firm to fill leadership roles in a newly-designed regional structure. They include:

Nichole Jordan will continue to serve on the firm’s Senior Leadership Team and hold her current role as the national managing partner of Geography.

Additionally, Grant Thornton has named Greg Westfall as its national managing principal for Private Equity ― succeeding Carlos Ferreira as he moves into his new regional managing partner role for the Northeast (mentioned above).

In addition, Grant Thornton has hired Jeanna Shapiro as its new chief people and community officer — a position held by Michael Monahan since December 2019. Monahan helped steer the firm through the COVID 19 pandemic and will re-engage with the market as a client-service principal, tapping into his extensive experience providing human capital and workforce solutions to clients.

Shapiro brings to Grant Thornton nearly 25 years of experience in broad-based talent, human resources and operational leadership within professional-services firms such as Oliver Wyman and Booz Allen Hamilton.

The firm has also promoted Omri Avdi to the position of chief sales officer, succeeding Karen Hudson, who is retiring in August after six highly successful years fueling growth at the firm. Avdi joined Grant Thornton just over nine years ago and most recently served as a managing director and business development executive in the Los Angeles area.

Further, Greg Wallig ― who currently serves as Grant Thornton’s market managing principal for Washington, D.C. ― will take on added responsibilities as the head of Public Policy. In the role, he will serve as the firm’s primary liaison with members of Congress, while also representing policy positions with standard-setters, regulators and other policymakers.

Finally, David Hazels will assume the role of managing partner for Grant Thornton’s shared-services center in Bangalore, India. He assumes the role from Verne Bragg, a longstanding Grant Thornton leader who is rotating back to U.S.-based responsibilities.