Professionals on the Move – June 16, 2016

Grant Thornton Announces New Hires
Grant Thornton LLP recently announced the appointment of Brian Pitera as principal and operations leader, Kenneth Yormark, CPA as managing director and several new hires. In his new role, Pitera will focus on performance improvement for mid-market companies having difficulty scaling and growing their business. He has more than 20 years of experience in the retail, automotive and consumer goods industries. Pitera graduated from Northwestern University with his bachelor’s degree in Economics.

In his new role, Yormark will oversee the firm’s Forensic and Valuation Services practice and support its fraud investigation and dispute services in New York and New England. He has more than 25 years of forensic and investigative services experience and has conducted numerous complex, high-profile securities fraud, anti-corruption, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Ponzi scheme investigations. Yormark received his bachelor’s degree from Queens College and completed his graduate studies at New York University.

Grant Thornton also announced the addition of Cooper Butler, Candace Lee, Philip Lee, Brett Tibbs, Corey Martin and Kristy Rogers.

Radius Announces New CEO and Chairman
Radius recently named Stephen Chipman as its CEO and John Connolly as chairman of its board of directors. Chipman, former CEO of Grant Thornton U.S., has 34 years of experience in leadership positions in Europe, North America and Asia. He has also helped to create a national Chinese firm with more than 2,500 people in 17 offices.

Connolly, former global chairman of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and CEO of the Deloitte UK Partnership, has held several leadership positions in the Middle East and UK.

Baker Tilly Announces New CEO and Chairman
Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP recently announced Alan Whitman as its new chairman and CEO, after serving as CEO-Elect. He will formally assume overall management and strategic direction of the firm, including overseeing and managing the client service program, leading the development of leadership and management platforms, and directing recruiting and retention efforts. Whitman will also promote Baker Tilly’s leadership platform that consists of three pillars: Collaboration, Celebrating Our People, and Revered Brand. Whitman received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Indiana University.

Rehmann Named Best Public Accounting Firm for Women for Fourth Consecutive Year
Rehmann has been named to the Accounting MOVE Project’s Top 10 Best CPA Firms for Women List for the fourth year in a row. The MOVE list recognizes firms nationally with high proportions of women partners and principals and the firms’ advancement of women to leadership positions, programs to retain and advance women, and their integration of the business case for advancing women.

Ryan Named a Best Employer in Ohio for 2016 for Sixth Consecutive Year    
Ryan was recently named as one of the 2016 Best Employers in Ohio for the sixth consecutive year by the Ohio Society for Human Resource Management. The list recognizes companies that benefit the state’s economy, workforce and businesses through a two-part survey process to determine the Best Employers in Ohio. The first part evaluated each nominated company’s workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems, and demographics. The second part measured the employee experience based on an anonymous survey of the companies’ associates.  

PKF Texas Manager Appointed to Local Board
Pannell Kerr Forster of Texas, P.C. recently announced that Sam Razmandi, CPA, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Houston Chapter of the American Marketing Association. In his role as treasurer, Razmandi will manage the financial processing, reporting and monitoring of the chapter, maintain the budget to reach financial goals, manage the collection of funds to the chapter and review all bookkeeper entries. He will also be responsible for tracking the chapter’s invoice payments.

PwC Hires New Partners
PwC recently announced the addition of two new partners to its Risk Assurance practice: Orlando Lopez and Chris Wardak. In his new role, Lopez will manage the firm’s Financial Crime portfolio and expand the service offerings within the Advanced Risk and Compliance Analytics Solutions practice. He has more than 20 years of analytics solutions experience. Lopez earned his bachelor of computer engineering degree from Rutgers University.

In his new role, Wardak will help expand PwC’s national SAP Enterprise Performance Management capabilities to grow the Enterprise Systems Solutions practice. He will also oversee the firm’s U.S. business development activities. Wardak has more than 20 years of enterprise solutions experience, supporting clients’ business operations, security, compliance and reporting activities and providing IT advisory and attestation services for Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404. He earned his bachelor of business administration in accounting from Dowling College.