Grant Thornton LLP, one of America’s largest audit, tax and advisory firms, has appointed two new leaders to the firm’s Audit Quality & Risk practice.

Kendra Decker will serve as the national managing partner of the firm’s Professional Practice, effective immediately. In this role, Decker will be responsible for leading the firm’s various professional practices, including Accounting Principles, Independence, SEC Regulatory Matters and the Professional Practice Director group. Decker assumes her new role from Mary Ropes, an Audit partner at Grant Thornton, who retires after more than 35 years of service at the firm.

Additionally, Graham Dyer will serve as Grant Thornton’s chief accountant and partner-in-charge of the firm’s Accounting Principles Group, effective immediately. In his new role, Dyer will be responsible for ensuring Grant Thornton’s engagement teams and clients continue to have access to industry-leading acumen, thought leadership and training on technical accounting standards. Dyer assumes his new role from Lynne Triplett, an Audit partner at Grant Thornton, who retires after more than 17 years of service at the firm.

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Jeff Hughes, Grant Thornton’s national managing partner of Audit Quality and Risk, says the two leaders are positioned to advance the firm’s commitment to quality.

“High-quality financial reporting is critical to our clients and the public, especially in the face of complex and evolving pressures,” says Hughes. “Kendra and Graham are ideally suited to drive audit quality for the good of all stakeholders; both leaders have spent their careers focused on audit quality and have already made an incredible impact during their time at Grant Thornton.”

“Our commitment to audit quality is at the foundation of all we do,” adds Janet Malzone, national managing partner of Audit and Assurance Services at Grant Thornton. “We’re dedicated to continuously enhancing our quality-related initiatives, and Kendra and Graham are the perfect leaders to help us do this. I’d also like to thank Mary and Lynne for the tremendous impact they made throughout their time at Grant Thornton. Thank you for your leadership.”

Having joined Grant Thornton in 1997, Decker has more than 25 years of financial reporting, accounting and auditing experience. She has held various leadership roles within the firm, including partner-in-charge of SEC Regulatory Matters.

Decker has served a wide array of public and private companies — primarily in the financial services and technology industries — and she has extensive experience with SEC regulations, financial reporting and compliance issues. Earlier in her career, she focused on developing audit plans, analyzing internal controls and policies, preparing audit reports and providing recommendations for improved operations.

She is a certified public accountant (CPA) in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Decker received a bachelor’s degree in accounting and business management from Salisbury University. She also currently sits on the Center for Audit Quality’s SEC Regulations Committee.

Dyer, who joined the firm in 2005, has nearly 20 years of technical accounting and auditing experience. He has extensive practice working on complex accounting transactions, particularly with regard to consolidation and variable interest entities; financial instruments, including losses; business combinations; and fair value. Earlier in his career, Dyer focused on commercial banking within the financial services industry.

Dyer previously served as a partner in Grant Thornton’s Accounting Principles Group after returning from a fellowship in the Office of the Chief Accountant for the Office of the Comptroller of Currency. Prior to his fellowship, Dyer served as an assistant national Professional Practice director in Grant Thornton’s Central region.

He is a CPA in Texas and a member of the AICPA. He received a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Texas at Austin. Dyer is also a member of the AICPA’s Depository Institution Expert Panel. He previously served as a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Current Expected Credit Losses Transition Resource Group and the International Accounting Standards Board’s International Financial Reporting Standards 9 Impairment Transition Group.