BDO Will Have a New CEO Next Year

Posted on by Going Concern News Desk
chess piece with crown

It’s official, BDO USA national managing principal of tax Matthew K. Becker will be moving on up to the big chair effective July 1, 2026 when current CEO Wayne Berson vacates the seat after 14 years.

The press release is…something. We’ll spare you the excessive self-fellating paragraphs and stick to the small parts that directly reference Becker’s history at the firm:

As national managing principal of tax, Becker leads the strategy and operations of BDO USA’s tax practice, which has more than doubled in size since 2019. He joined BDO in 2002, became a tax partner in 2005, and assumed the role of national managing principal in 2019. He has held a series of progressive leadership positions throughout his career including five years as chair of BDO USA’s Board of Directors where he oversaw the firm’s governance and strategic direction. As a longstanding member of the executive leadership team, he has been a pivotal voice in the most consequential decisions impacting the firm’s future, from the establishment of BDO’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) to key expansions and strategic partnerships. Becker’s impressive accomplishments, holistic understanding of the firm and its opportunities, and unwavering character position him to sustain BDO’s culture and growth trajectory while managing the complexities of a rapidly changing industry.

According to his firm profile, when he’s not grinding for BDO’s tax practice Matt is part of various community organizations including roles on the Boards of Directors of John Ball Zoo, The Right Place, Junior Achievement of the Michigan Great Lakes, Literacy Center of West Michigan, and Indian Trails Camp.

Mr. Becker has had a few brief mentions on this website in recent years, the first we could find was from 2022 when an internal email explained how the firm would be “optimizing” tax and assurance regions and regional MPs for tax would be reporting to Becker.

Congrats to Mr. Becker and bonus congrats to Becker CPA Review for all the free name association advertising you’ll be getting for the next who knows how many years.

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Comp Watch ’11: What Do You Know, BDO?

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Comp adjustments are coming out this week/ next week can you start a thread?


As we’ve pointed out in the past, BDO is probably the quietest of the top tier firms. Rarely do we get news of hookers, out-of-control happy hours or milestone awards. Sure, we got under the skin of Jeremy Newman once but he has a blog. He was asking for it.

This omertà of sorts by the rank and file has been discussed amongst the GC team and we’ve come up with this: we’vegotnofuckingidea. Not that we haven’t had the opportunity to report on the consolidation of regions or $5 Starbucks cards but the tips are so few and far between that whenever something about BDO come in, it gets us all sort of excited.

But enough about us. If you’re at BDO and you’ve had your sit-down or you’re waiting and are hearing rumors of raise percentages OR you’re simply doubtful as to Jack Weisbaum’s status as most interesting accounting firm CEO in the world, please tell us below.

BDO Senior Manager Wants to Know How Best to Say ‘I Quit’

Welcome to the High Holiday edition of Accounting Career Emergencies. In today’s edition, a senior manager at BDO is ready to give notice but can’t decide if it’s best to keep things professional or to go out with a verbal assault the likes of which George Costanza has never seen.

Are you working in the Twilight Zone? Need some good ideas for celebrating the end of busy season? Feeling jealous about the sexy success<l us at advice@goingconcern.com and we’ll get you over your accountants-in-love envy.

Back to kicking off The Public Accounting Attrition Tour of 2011:

Going Concern,

I am still knee deep in busy season, with many engagements still open and pushing their April 30th deadlines. There is no real end in sight, since May and June look equally as busy with Q’s, EBP’s, 9/30 year ends and other projects the Partners engage us for that further contribute to my maxed out PTO accrual. So naturally, as most people do this time of year, I have been looking for open positions searching for that golden opportunity to finally break free of the social, physical and health suppression known as public accounting. That being said, is it wrong to lay down at night and dream of what you would say when giving your notice?

I have played out hundreds of scenarios in my head saying everything from the absolute extreme to the overly conservative. That makes me think – what is the best way to “leave” a public accounting firm? During my 11 year career, I have seen all kinds of people leave in a ball of fire, rather than just fade away. Those people think that the firm will collapse without them, or their leaving will cause a mass exodus or significant change to the firm. No way. It never happens. So really, what is the point of telling the Partners (and HR in the exit conference), what you really feel in your heart?

Dear Dreaming of Quitting,

There’s nothing at all wrong with dreaming of the most epic march in ever. I assume you’re referring to something similar to this:

As you mention, people who go out with a furious speech that features wild hand gestures and name-calling are typically those who think they are indispensable or are somehow the catalyst to the collapse of their firm. You’re right to say that this is NEVER the case. A team or an office may go through a rough patch (mileage of rough patch may vary) but eventually things calm down and return to relative normalcy.

So to answer your second question – the best way to leave your firm is: quietly. That doesn’t mean you don’t tell your colleagues, friends or others that you’re leaving (most probably know that you’re looking to leave anyway) but it should be a drama-free encounter. You meet with the appropriate people, tell them that your last day will be X and that should be it. If they pry about why you’re leaving or attempt to convince you otherwise, you can respectfully decline or entertain their queries and/or begging. That’s up to you. Even if you’ve been used and abused throughout the time at your firm, would it really make you feel better to tell that a partner that the experience of working with them was akin to a circle of Dante’s Inferno that he dared not scribe?

As for the motive behind these overtly dramatic “I quit!” speeches, I get the feeling that those who feel compelled to give them think they will get some satisfaction out of telling someone exactly how they feel; that giving everyone who deserves a piece of their mind will somehow make everything negative that happened in the past worth it. If you feel like expressing some honesty about your experience, that’s perfectly okay but for crissakes, have some tact. If you simply feel justified to spew verbal excrement, that only makes you look like a lunatic. A very unprofessional lunatic.

4 thoughts on “BDO Will Have a New CEO Next Year”

  1. My BDO friends love Becker as he doesn’t waste their time like many of the young bullshitters. My friends tell me that he’s bright and hard working.

  3. As a former employee, I have a hard time believing that anybody self-fellates as aggressively as BDO. But maybe I’m just naive.

    Also still drives me nuts (since I have so many firm linkedin connections and it was specifically mentioned in the release) how they act like they invented the ESOP.

  4. So what’s going on at BDO these days? Issues from Wayne doing all those acquisitions until 2020-ish?

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