Grant Thornton Layoff Numbers Are In (UPDATE)
Ed. note: We’ve received some additional information about layoffs, see update at the bottom. The other day Grant Thornton sent out a firmwide email packed with words like “difficult but necessary decisions,” “values and culture,” and “continued investment in growth” to inform everyone that heads were soon to roll. While pointing out that “unlike peers,” […]
Layoff Watch ’23: If You Work at Grant Thornton, You Might Not By the End of the Week
Earlier this afternoon we received a tip: Grant Thornton to perform layoffs across the firm. Numbers unknown. Areas impacted unknown. Well then, that’s not very helpful is it. A quick search uncovered this Reddit thread from a few hours ago which along with many comments about how these hoes ain’t loyal contains what appears to […]
Grant Thornton Scores Coveted ‘Hot Garbage’ Audit (UPDATE)
Ed. note: Adani Group has said that a Grant Thornton audit is simply a “market rumor.” Video update at the bottom. Earlier this month, short seller Hindenburg Research dropped a report called Adani Group: How The World’s 3rd Richest Man Is Pulling The Largest Con In Corporate History (report here) full of bullet points outlining […]
Grant Thornton’s 2021 PCAOB Inspection Report Wasn’t Too Bad
Of the six 2021 PCAOB inspection reports released before the holidays, we’ve so far taken a look at five: PwC, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and BDO USA. The last of the bunch belongs to Grant Thornton. We didn’t save the best for last, but it’s not that bad either. From 2016 until its 2020 inspection report, […]
Guidehouse Laid Off a Bunch of Old Grant Thornton Partners After the Public Advisory Practice Merger (UPDATE)
Ed. note: a previous version of this article included “Rumor” in the headline. As it is considered confirmed, we’ve removed it. Update at the bottom. Back in August when it was announced that Guidehouse would be buying Grant Thornton’s public sector advisory practice, we wondered out loud if layoffs might be expected as they so […]
Grant Thornton and Five Other Firms Got Coal in Their Stockings From the PCAOB
The PCAOB added six audit firms—three international, including a KPMG affiliate, and three in the U.S., including Grant Thornton—to its 2022 naughty list on Dec. 22 for not making required disclosures on Form 3. If a PCAOB-registered accounting firm is a defendant or respondent in an administrative or disciplinary proceeding that was initiated by another […]
Grant Thornton’s Global Revenue Is On the Up and Up
Grant Thornton is the latest global accounting firm to announce “we made a shitload of money in 2022” when it released last week its revenue results for the most recent financial year: Grant Thornton International Ltd today [Dec. 14] announced its revenues grew to a record USD7.2 billion for the financial year ended 30 September […]
Grant Thornton is Trialing a “Nine-Day Fortnight” Schedule to Ease Burnout in Australia
In a profession already notorious for burnout, staffing crises continue to wreak havoc on the personal lives of accountants everywhere much to the detriment of firms that refuse to turn down work yet lack the warm bodies to get it done. Grant Thornton has a crazy idea to alleviate at least a little of that. […]
Grant Thornton Achieves Dynamic Revenue Growth of 17% in 2022
The petals on the Purple Rose of Chicago were in full, fragrant bloom in 2022 as Grant Thornton posted revenue for its fiscal year ending July 31 of $2.3 billion, a nearly 17% increase over the $1.97 billion the firm brought in last year. 2022 was clearly one of the best years GT has had […]
Young Accountant Narrowly Misses the Tragedy of Working For Grant Thornton
Someone on r/accounting posted this over the weekend and I thought it worth sharing because it reminds everyone of two very important facts when it comes to recruiting: 1) never bank on a verbal offer and 2) don’t work for Grant Thornton. Oops wait, I meant 2) if firms recruiting on campus engage in any […]
Promotion Watch ’22: Grant Thornton Admits 38 New Partners and Principals
Plenty of new promotion purple roses were handed out at Grant Thornton on Aug. 1, as the firm celebrated its largest class of new partners, principals, and managing directors in GT’s history. The 96 new PPMDs in the class of 2022 surpasses the 87 in last year’s class, which had been Grant Thornton’s largest ever. […]
Compensation Watch ’22: Did the Purple Rose Reek of Bad Raises at Grant Thornton?
The most DYNAMIC firm in all of public accounting recently had comp discussions, according to r/accounting. It was the final round of raises during the reign of CEO Brad Preber, who was put out to pasture on Aug. 1 when new Grant Thornton CEO Seth Siegel took over. We’ve heard some rumblings that some GTers […]
KPMG Poaches Someone From Grant Thornton and Issues a Press Release, Part IV
It‘s been awhile since we paid attention to people leaving Grant Thornton for KPMG and vice versa, but this news that was made public yesterday is a biggie: well-known Grant Thornton Chief Economist Diane Swonk turned in her purple rose after more than four years with the firm and has joined the House of Klynveld […]
If This Is How Grant Thornton Recruiters Talk No Wonder They Can’t Find People to Work For Them
Today’s Grant Thornton roasting comes not from the PCAOB (like usual) but from r/accounting, also known as the magic genie from whence a wealth of content is born. We didn’t have time to create a fake resume, apply to one of the many, many open positions at GT, and hope we get the same recruiter […]
Grant Thornton Drops Its Russian Affiliate Over Conflict In Ukraine
In a two-paragraph statement posted on its website yesterday, Grant Thornton International said that the firm’s affiliate in Russia, FBK Grant Thornton, is no longer a member of the exclusive GT club: In light of the conflict in Ukraine, FBK, the Grant Thornton member firm in Russia, is leaving the network with immediate effect. Like […]
Not Surprisingly, Grant Thornton Made Billions Across the Globe In 2021
Grant Thornton didn’t want to be left out of the billionaires club for 2021. GT joined Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG, BDO, and RSM by pulling in at least 10-digit global revenues this past fiscal year. Specifically, Grant Thornton racked up $6.6 billion in 2021, up from $5.8 billion in 2020. The press release Grant Thornton […]
Compensation Watch ’21: Grant Thornton Is Dragging Its Feet On Announcing Mid-Year Raises (NEW UPDATE)
[UPDATE on Dec. 23] Now that it’s been two weeks since we started to hear that Grant Thornton employees were getting mid-year salary adjustments, let’s take a look at the GT comp adjustment thread on Reddit to see what some GTers got: Associate 2 5% (audit) 5.7% (audit) Senior 1 9.5% (audit) Senior 2 7% […]
Grant Thornton Is Trying to Keep Heinies In Seats By Giving Raises Enhancing Benefits
Aw, better luck next time, GTers. Maybe some good news on Dec. 17? Anyway, here’s what Grant Thornton sent out on Dec. 1: Grant Thornton has further embraced the changing nature of benefits by taking its traditional benefits package — which includes items such as retirement plans and medical insurance — and layering on a […]
PCAOB Inspection Report Day Is No Longer An Embarrassment For Grant Thornton
Once the laughingstock of the firms annually inspected by the PCAOB (and of us at Going Concern HQ), Grant Thornton has recently shown it has really gotten the hang of this thing called auditing. It really is a surprising turnaround for a firm that had epically bad PCAOB inspection reports for 2011 (43% deficiency rate), […]
FRC Fines Grant Thornton UK For Something We’re All Used to Grant Thornton UK Doing
A little over a month after being fined more than £2.3 million by the Financial Reporting Council for that whole Patisserie Valerie mess, Grant Thornton got called to the principal’s office once again for audit failures—this time for its 2015, 2016, and 2017 audits of outsourcing company Interserve, which went into administration in 2019. GT […]
Despite a 2.6% Increase In 2021, Grant Thornton Couldn’t Catch BDO USA In the Midtier Firm Revenue Pissing Contest
This just in from the purple gang: Grant Thornton LLP, the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd., today announced record revenues of $1.97 billion for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2021. “In a changing and uncertain environment, we continue to remain agile and perform with excellence across our entire firm, including our […]
Grant Thornton Let Off the Hook Big Time By UK’s Audit Cops
Back in August 2018, Grant Thornton UK was given a £4 million fine by the Financial Reporting Council (reduced to £3 million after a settlement discount) for a then-partner’s conflict of interest in serving on the audit committees of two audit clients, in addition to “widespread and serious inadequacies in the control environment in Grant […]
The CEO Seat At Grant Thornton Will Soon Be Kept Warm By Seth Siegel
It seemed like yesterday that Brad Preber took over as interim CEO at Grant Thornton and right away had to deal with GTers freaking out after a whole bunch of people got pink slips, and now here we are talking about Preber’s upcoming retirement and who’s going to replace him as CEO. We found out […]
Compensation Watch ’21: Did Grant Thornton Give Employees Briefcases Full Of Money This Year?
Grant Thornton was another firm last year that decided it would be financially irresponsible to give its hardworking employees raises during the height of the pandemic, even though GT’s revenue in fiscal year 2020 hit a record of $1.92 billion. But that was then, this is now. We still don’t know Grant Thornton’s revenue results […]
Promotion Watch ’21: Grant Thornton Admits 46 New Partners and Principals
Well, well, well … look what we have here — a big promotion day at Grant Thornton. The Purple Rose of Chicago this morning announced a larger-than-usual class of 87 new partners, principals, and managing directors. The breakdown: 41 new managing directors 35 new partners 11 new principals While Grant Thornton notes in the press […]
Grant Thornton Is Not a Bottom of the Barrel Firm, Says Grant Thornton
“The principle of shared audits is very attractive to challengers as long as the share of the audit is meaningful and brings incremental experience to teams. If the challenger firm is just going to get what’s left at the bottom of the barrel, that’s not interesting and doesn’t help.” — Fiona Baldwin, head of audit […]
Promotion Watch ’21: Grant Thornton Canada Adds 53 New Partners and Principals
Grant Thornton in America’s hat recently admitted 35 new partners and 18 new principals into the purple kingdom. Alberta Chris Cameron, Partner, Edmonton Ken Hankinson, Partner, Edmonton Stephen Latimer, Partner, Wetaskiwin Jenny Pon, Partner, Edmonton Freida Richer, Partner, Edmonton British Columbia Shawn Birkenhead, Principal, Kamloops Sandra Blair, Principal, Kamloops Michelle Coates, Principal, Nelson Kevin Cooper, […]
Number of the Day: 88%
This is the percentage of the 4,500 or so employees of the Queen’s Grant Thornton who want to continue to spend the majority of their time working from home post-pandemic, an in-house employee survey revealed. According to the Financial Times, GT U.K. CEO David Dunckley said the pro-WFH crowd was the same regardless of age, […]
Grant Thornton Auditors Are Just Showing Off Now
It’s fair to say Grant Thornton auditors are no longer on the struggle bus. From 2010 to 2015, the Purple Rose of Chicago had an average audit failure rate of 44% in its PCAOB inspection reports during that time frame, including a whopping 65% worth of screw-ups in the firm’s 2012 report, which gave GT […]
Grant Thornton Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part II
With Mark Andrus retiring later this summer, Grant Thornton needed to find someone to succeed him as leader of the firm’s R&D Tax Credit Services practice. GT did, and he has Big 4 chops: Keith Nickels has joined Grant Thornton LLP as a Tax partner and national leader of the firm’s Research and Development (R&D) […]
KPMG Poaches Someone From Grant Thornton and Issues a Press Release, Part III
There probably aren’t too many accountants who can say they’ve worked as head of tax at both Grant Thornton and KPMG in Scotland, but if such a club exists, Vishal Chopra is its newest member. Several news outlets in the U.K. have reported on Chopra’s recent move from GT to the House of Klynveld, including […]
Patisserie Valerie Liquidators Say Grant Thornton Doesn’t Deserve Cake
It was only a matter of time before Grant Thornton U.K. faced some sort of legal action for being the auditors of cake shop Patisserie Valerie while a massive accounting fraud was being committed right under their noses. According to the Financial Times on Jan. 8: The liquidators of Patisserie Valerie are suing Grant Thornton […]
0.7% Is How Much Grant Thornton’s Global Revenue Grew In 2020
Any kind of financial growth during a global pandemic, the likes of which we’ve never seen, should be touted as a win. So it’s no surprise that Grant Thornton’s global PR team really hyped up the fact that GT’s revenue (barely) went in the plus column (unlike KPMG’s) for the 2020 financial year that ended […]
Grant Thornton’s Streak of Not Being Fined By the PCAOB Has Come to an End
It had been nearly three years since Grant Thornton ran afoul of PCAOB auditing rules and got caught—on Dec. 20, 2017, the Purple Rose of Chicago agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty to the PCAOB for quality control violations and audit failures as a result of its shoddy auditing work for Bancorp. But GT’s […]
Grant Thornton’s Revenue Barely Moved the Needle In FY 2020
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the petals on the Purple Rose of Chicago wilted some this year. Despite reporting a record high $1.92 billion in revenue for the fiscal year that ended on July 31, Grant Thornton’s revenue only increased 1% in FY 2020 over last year’s $1.9 billion. CEO Brad Preber commented: “Our success […]
Seven People at Grant Thornton Just Got Cushy New Industry Jobs
Well kinda. These seven veterans of the public accounting wars didn’t leave Grant Thornton for the greener pastures of industry as, say, a chief accounting officer, controller, or vice president of finance and accounting. Instead, they are the Purple Rose of Chicago’s newest leaders within the firm’s Industry practice. Here are the latest additions to […]
Promotion Watch ’20: Grant Thornton Admits 30 New Partners and Principals
Grant Thornton unveiled its 66 newest partners, principals, and managing directors on Thursday, and if we just take a look at the latest class of partners and principals, the number of purple roses that were handed out was a lot less than in previous years. Thanks, Rona. The group of 30 new partners and principals […]
Grant Thornton Poaches Someone From PwC and Issues a Press Release, Part I
Aug. 10 was a big day for the PR team at Grant Thornton in the Cayman Islands because they actually had some news to write about. They hadn’t sent out a news release since June 12. But after GT nabbed a director from PwC in the Caymans, the firm actually gave its PR team something […]
Grant Thornton U.K.’s Latest Audit Inspection Report Is Out, and It’s Almost as Bad as Last Year’s
Welp, Grant Thornton’s 2019-20 audit quality inspection report from the Financial Reporting Council shows that GT hasn’t really gotten much better at audit quality in the past year. That’s kind of a problem when you’re the sixth-biggest accounting firm in the U.K. Last year the FRC was pretty unhappy with Grant Thornton after the firm’s […]
Layoff Watch ’20: Grant Thornton Is the Latest Firm to Trim Some Staff
Happy Friday, everyone! Hopefully you all made it through this week unscathed and still have your job. Unfortunately for some employees of Grant Thornton, they can’t say the same. We received this tip a little bit ago: Looks like GT will be cutting some advisory people and furloughing new hires and cutting some executive assistants. […]
Grant Thornton U.K. Given Seven-Figure Fine For Totally Blowing Ethics and Independence Rules
In hockey if you get penalized for misconduct, you spend the next 10 minutes in the penalty box and feel shame. In auditing if you get penalized for misconduct, you pay some slap-on-the-wrist fine from a regulator, vow to be better next time, and go on your merry way. The Queen’s Grant Thornton is the […]
Grant Thornton Poaches Someone From EY and Issues a Press Release, Part I
While public accounting firms in the U.S. are registering about zero on the competitive poaching Richter scale these days, the bigger firms in the U.K. continue to shake things up. Take Grant Thornton, for example. Dan Dickinson, GT’s newest partner in its tax practice, is an EY refugee. From a press release seen by the […]
Layoff Watch ’20: Grant Thornton U.K. Is Forcing 70 Employees to Take Early Exits
Over the past three months, we’ve chronicled as best we could all the job cuts—which unfortunately have affected several thousands of professionals so far—that have occurred at U.S. public accounting firms during the coronavirus pandemic. Incredibly we haven’t been made aware of or read about any layoffs that have gone down at the biggest accounting […]
Rumor Mill: Grant Thornton Canada Employees Are Still Being Asked to Work Crazy Hard Despite Reduced Hours and Pay
While other big Canadian firms are strongly encouraging their staffs to voluntarily scale back their billable hours and take a reduction in pay (but not in their workloads) for the sake of saving jobs (even though that didn’t work out too well at Deloitte), folks at Grant Thornton aren’t being voluntold to do this, they’re […]
Grant Thornton’s 2018 PCAOB Inspection Report Is Not As Good As 2017’s, Not As Bad As 2012’s
Monday morning we got an email that the PCAOB had dropped six 2018 inspection reports on us—the Big 4 firms, Grant Thornton, and BDO USA—so everyone’s favorite audit cops could show off their new snazzy inspection report format. This might have been the largest one-day release of reports of firms that are inspected annually by […]
Promotion Watch ’20: A Dozen Grant Thornton Partners Have New Titles to Show Off On LinkedIn
These are your new Grant Thornton office managing partners: Brett Beightol, Orange County, CA, succeeds Alan Herrmann on Aug. 1. Hermann was promoted to lead Grant Thornton’s West region tax practice in 2019. Mike Desmond, Charlotte, NC, succeeds Dave Wedding who is retiring on July 31. David Gifford, Phoenix, succeeds Tim Zingraf on Aug. 1. […]
Grant Thornton to Staff: ‘Don’t Expect Raises or Bonuses This Year, Sry’
We’ve gotten news this afternoon from a few sources that Grant Thornton has broken it to their loyal employees that no one should expect raises this year, with one exception. One tipster writes: GT firmwide call – promotions continuing with raise commensurate with level, no raise or bonus to anyone else Another tipster informs us […]
Layoff Watch ’20: What’s This About Grant Thornton ‘Optimizing’ Some People?
We were told the other day that Grant Thornton recently got rid of some GTers who were not meeting their utilization goals. ’Tis the season for cutting loose low performers, regardless of a deadly pandemic and a shitty economy. Here’s the tip we got: They’re “optimizing” people at GT US in certain departments. Digital transformation […]
Layoff Watch ’20: Apparently Some Grant Thornton Canada Employees Had to Give Up Their Purple Roses
We got word recently that the Purple Rose of Chicago Toronto has shown some people the door at a few offices in Grant Thornton’s Southern Ontario Business Unit. Here’s what a source told us: 1. Layoffs occurred on March 30th and April 14th. Appears select few senior leaders in GT are short term layoff decisions […]
Grant Thornton Reducing Partner Draws By 25% For the Rest of FY 2020
[Updated with message from CEO Brad Preber to Grant Thornton staff.] Yesterday evening as I was on my way home from picking up some Red Robin for dinner for me and my family, we got a text on the tipline that Grant Thornton partners in the U.S. are taking a 25% pay cut. That was […]
Grant Thornton Canada Is Totally Giving Its Hourly Employees the Shaft
Hey, accounting firm CEOs, listen up. A global pandemic is not the time to be screwing your employees—salaried and hourly—out of pay and/or their PTO time. Grant Thornton in the U.S. is seemingly taking care of all of its employees as the firm has transitioned to all remote work until at least the end of […]
Grant Thornton Is Going All In On Working From Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic
While many accounting firms are “empowering” and “encouraging” their employees to work from home during the coronavirus outbreak, but still ultimately leaving it up to them to make that decision, Grant Thornton employees had that decision made for them yesterday. A tipster sent us this message that all GTers received from CEO Brad Preber on […]
Grant Thornton Economist Says Coronavirus Is an ‘Economic Pandemic’
“We know a health pandemic is global in scope, and although this has not been called a health pandemic yet, it may get there, we are seeing a global in scope reaction to the virus. As countries move to contain the virus, those actions in and of themselves are disrupting global economic activity, and that […]
Mike McGuire Is Retiring From Grant Thornton
Mike McGuire with his man-crush, Rickie Fowler. Farewell to Mike McGuire, former CEO-turned-CEO emeritus of Grant Thornton, who is hanging it up in February after 17 years with the Purple Rose of Chicago. “I am so pleased about the progress we’ve made growing our firm and serving clients’ needs during my time at Grant Thornton,” […]
Grant Thornton Made a Little Magic Happen In 2019
Despite layoffs at its U.S. firm and general malaise about its audit practice in the U.K., Grant Thornton pulled a rabbit out of its hat and managed to increase global revenue by 5.1% to $5.72 billion in the 2019 financial year that ended on Sept. 30. Instead of me regurgitating all the numbers provided in […]
Grant Thornton Elects Three Dynamic Individuals to Partnership Board
Purple roses were bestowed to three dynamos who were elected to the partnership board at Chez Preber. The newest board members are: Robert Fox: Bert is national managing partner of professional standards, based in Chicago. He leads the Purple Rose of Chicago’s national office teams over accounting principles, audit methodology, SEC and regulatory matters, and […]
Another Grant Thornton U.K. Audit Was a Total Disaster
So say the folks at the Financial Reporting Council in the U.K., which fined Grant Thornton £650,000 earlier today for crapping up the audit of a publicly listed company in 2016. The name of the company wasn’t released by the FRC, which is bogus, and neither was the name of the engagement partner at GT […]
Grant Thornton Poaches Someone From Deloitte and Issues a Press Release, Part II
It’s been more than four years since Going Concern has reported on someone changing their team colors from green to purple, but that happened recently as Grant Thornton nabbed a former managing partner at Deloitte Consulting to join its Public Sector Healthcare practice. David B. Weir, Jr. has joined Grant Thornton LLP’s Public Sector Healthcare […]
It’s Now Official: Grant Thornton Has Elected Brad Preber as CEO
UPDATE: Nice work, tipsters. Grant Thornton released the following press release today confirming the story we broke yesterday (see below line break): The Partnership Board at Grant Thornton LLP announced that Bradley J. Preber will serve as the firm’s CEO. The board appointed Preber to the role following a comprehensive search process, and the firm’s partners and […]
Layoff Watch ’19: Grant Thornton U.K. Cuts Reach the Partnership Level
Let’s face it, 2019 hasn’t been the best year for the Queen’s Grant Thornton, and neither was 2018. Let’s recap: 2018 Stopped bidding for new audit work at the largest U.K. companies. Patisserie Valerie accounting fraud; Grant Thornton was the auditor and is under investigation by the Finanical Reporting Council. Fined £3 million by the […]
Grant Thornton Reports 5.4% Increase In FY 2019 Revenue, Still Gloating About Its 2017 PCAOB Inspection Report
Grant Thornton sent out a snoozer of a press release earlier today announcing that its fiscal year 2019 revenue totaled $1.9 billion, up 5.4% from $1.8 billion in 2018. The only fun thing in the release is that GT is still taking a victory lap over its 2017 PCAOB inspection report, which found that only […]
Promotion Watch ’19: Grant Thornton Admits 42 New Partners and Principals
The last month hasn’t been the greatest for Grant Thornton, as the firm gave pink slips to 230 professionals and 40 PPMDs, approximately 3.5% of its workforce, at the end of July. So GT’s leadership probably wanted to wait until the dust settled before they announced that interim CEO Brad Preber had recently handed out […]
Ex-Grant Thornton U.K. CEO Sacha Romanovitch Has a New Gig
The first female CEO of a major accounting firm in the U.K. won’t have to worry about partners stabbing her in the back in her new position as CEO of a financial inclusion organization called Fair4All Finance: We are happy to announce the appointment of our first CEO, Sacha Romanovitch. From 1st Sep she will […]
Who Will Be the Next CEO of Grant Thornton?
Among the slew of tips we received about the layoffs that went down at Grant Thornton last week and what interim CEO Brad Preber had to say about it was this one that also piqued our interest: As Brad Preber is the “interim” CEO, there are three people (women) currently being considered for the CEO […]
Why Grant Thornton Quitting As Auditor of Sports Direct Matters
In an ordinary midsummer news slump, only yawning disinterest would greet the July 29 news of Grant Thornton’s notice to the U.K. authorities of its intent to resign as auditor of troubled retailer Sports Direct International plc. The times are not ordinary; the cauldron of auditor criticism has bubbled since the collapse of Carillion in […]
Layoff Watch ’19: Interim CEO Brad Preber Addresses the Grant Thornton Layoff Rumors
It’s Brad Preber’s first day on the job as interim CEO of Grant Thornton after now-former CEO and hero of the wastes Mike McGuire noped on up out of that seat. And boy did he have a shitstorm to deal with first thing. Rumors of Grant Thornton layoffs started swirling earlier this week, and no […]
Layoff Watch ’19: It’s Going Down at Grant Thornton
Back in March, Jason let us know about a handful of layoffs out of Grant Thornton U.K. and now it seems the fun is coming to ‘Murica. First, a tipster informed us of a shake-up in the Northeast Region, with the Westborough, MA office closing up and possibly more closures planned. Our tipster says they […]
U.K. Inspection Reports Reveal That Grant Thornton Can’t Audit Its Way Out of a Paper Bag
Here’s some good news for the 300 new auditors Grant Thornton in the U.K. is expecting to hire within the next 12 months: You can’t be any worse than the auditors GT has employed in recent years. The Financial Reporting Council released its annual audit inspection reports for the Big 4 firms, as well as […]
Hiring Watch ’19: Grant Thornton U.K. Is Looking For Competent Auditors to Fill 300 Jobs
Hey, auditors! How confident are you that you wouldn’t royally screw up auditing the financial statements of a well-known U.K. cafe chain and could uncover a £94 million accounting fraud? Pretty confident, eh? Well, you couldn’t do much worse than the dolts Grant Thornton U.K. had handling the audit work on Patisserie Valerie’s accounts. While […]
We’re Sure Mike McGuire Will Be Dynamic In His New Role as Grant Thornton ‘Brand Ambassador’
Bear with me, I’m writing this on my phone at the side of a pool. Anyway, talk about your Friday night news dumps. This came out of the blue: Grant Thornton LLP, the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL), one of the world’s leading audit, tax and advisory firms, announced today that […]
Auditor Swap: AZZ Says Buh-Bye to BDO USA, Hires Grant Thornton
Auditor shopping has made the news a little more than usual of late, with high-profile companies like Fitbit and Goldman Sachs in the U.K. both kicking PwC to the curb in favor of a fresh, new set of eyes. Then there’s General Electric, which might end its century-old relationship with KPMG after this year. While […]
Grant Thornton Poaches Someone From KPMG and Issues a Press Release, Part II
In the comment section of an article we posted on May 10 about a managing director and a partner recently fleeing KPMG to join Grant Thornton’s Corporate Value Consulting practice, we got a tip that the Purple Rose of Chicago recently poached KPMG again—Candice Turner left the HoK to join GT as a principal in […]
Grant Thornton Poaches Two People From KPMG and Issues a Press Release, Part I
A couple of months ago, we reported that a partner and a principal bolted Grant Thornton earlier this year for the blue-and-white confines of KPMG, one of whom actually left and came back to the House of Klynveld. Well, it looks like the Purple Rose of Chicago has turned the tables on KPMG. Grant Thornton […]
Grant Thornton Partner Killed In Car Crash
Some sad news to report, as a partner in Grant Thornton’s New York City office died in a one-car crash in Westport, Conn., on April 14. Cullen Walsh, 39, was identified by authorities on Tuesday as the person killed in the crash, according to the Westport News. Shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday morning, first responders […]
Grant Thornton Surprises Everyone By Not Sucking at Auditing
Grant Thornton gets a bad rap around here, much of which is kinda justified to be fair. They’re sort of like your annoying little brother who always wants to come with you to hang out with your friends but he smells like curdled milk and always has crusty gunk on the corners of his mouth. […]
Layoff Watch ’19: Grant Thornton U.K. to Part Ways with Up to 60 Staffers
Some unlucky folks at Grant Thornton U.K. are taking the hit for the firm’s miserable 2018, which saw GT stop bidding for new audit work at the largest U.K. companies, the CEO not seeking a second four-year term after a partner revolt, revenue dip from £500 million in 2017 to £491 million last year, partners’ average […]
Auditor Swap: Fitbit Dumps PwC In Favor of Grant Thornton
The Purple Rose of Chicago just got itself a new engagement. Via Reuters: Wearable device maker Fitbit Inc has dismissed auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP after a review of its fees and appointed Grant Thornton LLP, the company said in a regulatory filing on Thursday. The filing states that Fitbit chose not to renew its engagement with PwC […]
KPMG Poaches Someone From Grant Thornton and Issues a Press Release, Parts I and II
We here at GC HQ love a good poaching, especially when it involves two of the top six firms in the U.S. So we were happy to see this press release from KPMG come across our virtual desk this morning: Mark Rems has joined KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm, as a principal […]
Grant Thornton Current and Former Partners Will Have a Seat In the PCAOB’s Penalty Box
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board doled out suspensions to a current partner and a former partner at Grant Thornton on Feb. 26 for their roles in screwing up the 2013 audit of a real estate investment trust. Richard Huff Jr., CPA, was censured and given a one-year ban by the PCAOB. Huff was the […]
Grant Thornton Topped $5.4 Billion in Global Revenue in 2018
It’s a dynamic time to be a GTer (unless you work in the U.K.), as Grant Thornton International announced this week that its network of firms around the world combined to reach a record $5.45 billion in revenue for the financial year that ended on Sept. 30, 2018. Global revenue grew 9.4% in U.S. dollar […]
Patisserie Holdings Said It Was Hiring an Audit Firm That No Longer Exists to Replace Grant Thornton U.K. as Auditor
It’s the Friday before Christmas, and when you have a bad case of holiday brain, sometimes mistakes can happen. Sometimes these mistakes can be hilarious. Like this one from Patisserie Holdings, parent company of U.K. coffeehouse chain Patisserie Valerie: Patisserie Valerie mistakenly says it has named RSM Tenon as its new auditor… RSM Tenon collapsed […]
An 8% Drop in Pay Might Be the Reason Why Some Grant Thornton U.K. Partners Were Pissy at CEO
We’re just spitballin’ here. From Economia: [Grant Thornton] said on Friday its average profit per partner fell 8% from £403,000 to £373,000 in 2017/18. Ouch! Of the top six accounting firms in the United Kingdom, this puts Grant Thornton sixth, by quite a bit, in average partner pay for the 2017-18 financial year: Deloitte: £832,000 […]
Grant Thornton U.K. Gets a New CEO
Good morning/afternooon, gang. We have some news to share from across the pond, as Grant Thornton has appointed a new CEO to replace Sacha Romanovitch. We are pleased to announce that Dave Dunckley has been ratified as our new CEO elect. His focus will be to create an organisation which powerfully connects a clear social […]
Grant Thornton CEO Mike McGuire Will Hang Around For a Few More Dynamic Years
While Grant Thornton U.K. is actively looking for a new CEO to replace Sacha Romanovitch, who is quitting after being stabbed in the back by a group of anonymous partners, everything is hunky-dory at Grant Thornton LLP, where the U.S. firm has decided to keep its current czar around for a little while longer. A […]
Anonymously Bashing Your Boss Must Have Worked as Grant Thornton U.K. CEO Is Calling It Quits
A small group of Grant Thornton U.K. partners must have been grinning from ear to ear on Oct. 15 after hearing the news that Sacha Romanovitch has decided not to seek a second term as the firm’s CEO. A new CEO is expected to be appointed before the end of 2018 following an election process in […]
Grant Thornton Posts Revenue of $1.8 Billion in Fiscal Year 2018
[Updated with quote from Grant Thornton spokesperson.] The Purple Rose of Chicago put out a very skimpy press release this morning announcing that the U.S. firm’s revenue hit $1.8 billion for the fiscal year that ended July 31, 2018, up 3.4% over last fiscal year. And … that’s pretty much it. Not even a mention […]
Some Grant Thornton U.K. Partners Are Trying to Undermine CEO, Say She Is Pushing a ‘Socialist Agenda’
Grant Thornton U.K. CEO Sacha Romanovitch isn’t very popular with a small group of partners who say she is pursuing a “socialist agenda” and has instilled a “culture of fear” at the firm where there are severe repercussions for speaking out, according to a Sept. 21 Financial Times report. Romanovitch, who became the first female […]
FRC Didn’t Want Grant Thornton U.K. to Feel Left Out of All the Disciplinary Fun
The Big 4 firms in the U.K. have been the target of repeated tongue-lashings from the Financial Reporting Council lately because, let’s face it, audits have been pretty damn bad. Things have gotten so desperate that EY is bringing in behavioral psychologists to improve audit quality. But the U.K. accounting watchdog’s most recent tongue-lashing wasn’t […]
Grant Thornton Admits 32 New Partners and Principals
This just in from the Purple Rose of Chicago: Grant Thornton LLP has admitted 32 new partners and principals, and promoted 29 to managing director, effective today. Specifically, 20 new partners and 12 new principals are members of the class of 2018. Here’s how this year’s numbers compare to previous years’ new partner/principal promotions at […]
Grant Thornton Gets Dinged for Giving Partners with Audit Quality Issues More Work
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has announced a big settlement with Grant Thornton over quality control violations and audit failures. The firm was censured and agreed to pay a $1.5 million civil penalty. The quality control violations related to the assignment of two Philadelphia-based partners to audits in 2013 when they had been cited […]
Grant Thornton Admits 39 New Partners and Principals
Who are the new Grant Thornton partners? Glad you asked. The firm announced them earlier today along with new principals and managing directors, as is customary for the Purple Rose of Chicago. If you like to parse these things out, then it breaks down as: 27 partners, 12 principals and 28 managing directors. In the […]
Here’s Your Open Thread for Grant Thornton Compensation Discussions (2017)
By the sound of things, it’s time for us to open the gate on the Grant Thornton compensation thread. This is a little strange because, in years past, tips usually start rolling into our inbox in the last half of July. One message we received over the weekend, however, might explain the delay: Comp releasing […]
Grant Thornton Making Some Tweaks to Its Unlimited PTO Policy
Last time we checked on Grant Thornton’s unlimited PTO policy, we learned that it was having at least one desired effect: people were taking more time off. The median number of PTO days taken jumped from 17.4 to 19.1. However, the comments from that article suggested that things were getting a bit out of hand. […]
How’s Grant Thornton’s Unlimited Vacation Policy Been Working Out?
Last year, the only second-tier accounting firm not cool enough to go by its inititals, Grant Thornton, announced a new paid-time off policy that would allow its employees to take unlimited vacation. Although GT employees seemed happy with the idea, the move was met by skepticism here and elsewhere.
Grant Thornton Offers Unnecessary Reminder
#ElectionDay fact: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are two of the most unpopular candidates in history>> https://t.co/bjeXFC2rpV — Grant Thornton (@GrantThorntonUS) November 8, 2016 Thanks, GT.
Don’t Pretend That the Presence of Three Grant Thornton CEOs Had Nothing to Do With a Cubs Victory
The first Cubs World Series win at Wrigley Field in 71 years wasn't just going to happen. The three CEO's of Grant Thornton since 2001 at the World Series tonight! Go Cubs! pic.twitter.com/jhf2lVgDba — J. Michael McGuire (@mikemcguireCLT) October 31, 2016
Grant Thornton Admits 47 New Partners and Principals
Grant Thornton announced its new partner class yesterday and while this year's group was slightly smaller than last year's class of 50, it's still far larger from those in recent years. There were 32 new partners admitted in 2014, 30 in 2013, 27 in 2012, 26 in 2011 and 22 in 2010. Here's the newly […]
Grant Thornton CEO Does His Best Ferris Bueller Impression
Mike's just blowing off work to see a Cubs game: Our @mikemcguireCLT put on his #Cubs hat + took to the mound to throw out the first pitch. #LetsGo pic.twitter.com/kl0fPlFsyC — Grant Thornton LLP (@GrantThorntonUS) August 5, 2016 Ball? Strike? Wild pitch? If you were there, get in touch to let us know how he […]
Here’s Your Open Thread for Grant Thornton Compensation Discussions (2016)
Grant Thornton saves its compensation discussions for the dog days of summer. My hunch is that they like sharing disappointing news when people are feeling lethargic and unwilling to make too much of a fuss over a raise that barely keeps up with inflation.
Grant Thornton Hoping to Bring Soul-Crushing Disappointment to Charlotte Hornets With New Sponsorship
Grant Thornton recently became a multi-year sponsor of the Charlotte Hornets basketball team. The deal will afford them several perks including "leasing a suite at Time Warner Cable Arena, advertising courtside and putting the firm’s name on a private club near the home locker room." It's a great deal for GT; a sports franchise — […]