Public Accounting Report THE INDEPENDENT NEWSLETTER OF THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION SINCE 1978

JUNE 2015 | VOLUME XXXIX, NO. 6

IN THIS ISSUE 1 BDO USA, KPMG ‘Acquire’ Top Performance Honors in 2014 3 CohnReznick Aims for Top 10; Baker Tilly Jumps into Top 15 4 Executive Forum: Firm Leaders Reflect on 2015 Tax Season 6 Guest Column: New Mexico Firm Unifies Far-Flung Offices 8 People, Firms, and Promotions

August 31, 2015 August 31, 2015

BDO USA, KPMG ‘Acquire’ Top Performance Honors in 2014 PAR Top 10 Survey finds that U.S. firms grew revenue 8% ... again! Collectively, the Top 10 U.S. accounting firms grew revenue 8% in 2014—the same revenue growth that the Top 10 firms posted in 2013. But, different firms were the top performers. BDO USA and KPMG leveraged strategic acquisition campaigns to outpace their peers in 2014, according to the results of the Public Accounting Report 2015 Top 10 U.S. Accounting Firms Survey. (For detailed results, see the PAR Top 10 EXTRA accompanying this issue.) In 2013, EY and Crowe Horwath were top performers among Big Four and non-Big Four firms, respectively. BDO’s revenue was up 22% for the FYE June 2014, the top revenue growth rate among the Top 10 firms. Mixing organic growth with six FY14 acquisitions that add 38 partners and more than 500 staffers, BDO also posted the largest revenue growth, in dollars, of any non-Big Four firm in the survey. KPMG increased revenue by 11.9% to $6.87 billion, the top growth rate among the Big Four in FY14. The firm benefited, in the last quarter of its FYE September, from the July 1 acquisition of Rothstein Kass, based in Roseland, N.J., which had FY13 net revenue of $202 million. (See PAR, July 2014.) KPMG also completed at least five other notable acquisitions in technology and investment advisory services in FY14. As a group, the Big Four grew revenue 8% to $43.4 billion. Note: As in prior years, the Big Four reported gross revenue, while other Top 10 firms reported net revenue. Deloitte topped the U.S. revenue ranking, growing revenue 7.3% to $14.91 billion, and in consulting revenue almost doubled the performance of its nearest peer. PwC US was second in total revenue growth, up 6.2% to $11.72 billion. PwC led all firms in both accounting and auditing (A&A) and tax revenue. PwC completed a big deal at the start of the fourth quarter of FY14, combining with consulting giant Booz & Co., which it rechristened Strategy&. The full effect of that deal will have its impact in FY15 results.

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PUBLIC ACCOUNTING REPORT Public Accounting Report 2015 Top 10 U.S. Accounting Firms Survey

Rank by U.S. Revenue Firm Deloitte PwC US EY KPMG McGladrey Grant Thornton BDO USA Crowe Horwath CBIZ & Mayer Hoffman McCann3 CliftonLarsonAllen All Firms Big Four Non-Big Four

Period FY14 FY14 FY14 FY14 FY14 CY14 FY14 CY14 FY14 FY14

U.S. Rev.($M) 14,908.0 11,724.0 9,900.0 6,870.0 1,470.7 1,383.0 833.0 686.6 600.0 598.7 48,974.0 43,402.0 5,572.0

% Chg. 7.3 6.2 9.0 11.9 7.6 6.1 22.0 3.3 5.3 6.2 8.0 8.0 8.2

A&A Tax 29.4 17.9 41.0 28.0 36.0 29.0 34.2 27.3 40.4 36.4 41.0 28.0 58.0 32.0 28.0 24.0 30.0 35.0 42.0 33.0 35.5 25.4 34.8 24.6 40.7 31.6

Other 52.71 31.0 35.02 38.5 23.2 31.0 10.0 48.0 35.0 25.0 39.1 40.6 27.7

Editor’s Note: Big Four reported gross revenue. Others reported net revenue. U.S. Revenue and U.S. Revenue Mix percentages are rounded. 1Deloitte reported FY14 U.S. revenue mix as follows: A&A 29.4%, tax 17.9%, consulting 47.7%, financial advisory services 5.0%. 2E&Y noted that “Other” revenue includes transaction advisory, advisory, elimination and rounding. 3Mayer Hoffman McCann P.C. is an independent CPA firm providing audit, review and attest services, and works closely with CBIZ, a business consulting, tax and financial services provider. CBIZ & MHM restated FY13 net revenue from $532 million to $570 million to reflect the inclusion of $38 million in revenue from two service lines not previously reported. These service lines are included in FY14 reporting. Source: Firm reporting, PAR data and analysis, see EXTRA for complete details

EY reported $9.9 billion in revenue, up 8.8%. Following fourth-ranked KPMG, McGladrey led non-Big Four firms with $1.47 billion in revenue, an increase of 7.6% for its FYE April 2014. McGladrey continues to distance itself, however marginally, from sixth-ranked Grant Thornton (CY14: $1.38 billion, up $80 million, or 6.1%). (Note: Firms are invited to report fiscal year data or calendar year data if the latter is more current. Grant Thornton and Crowe Horwath report CY data.)

Following seventh-ranked BDO, Crowe Horwath posted revenue of CY14 revenue of $686.6 million, up 3.3%. CBIZ & Mayer Hoffman McCann (FY14 revenue: $600 million) moved from No. 10 to No. 9 in this year’s ranking, trading places with CliftonLarsonAllen, which posted FY14 revenue of $598.7 million, a mere $1.3 million behind. Cohn Reznick, ranked No. 11, hovers just outside of the Top 10, with revenue of $575 million for its FYE January 2015. It grew revenue more than 13%, year-to-year and is a genuine candidate for a future Top 10 spot. (See related story, p. 3.) 

PUBLIC ACCOUNTING REPORT THE INDEPENDENT NEWSLETTER OF THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION SINCE 1978 Editor Julie Lindy [email protected] Senior Contributing Editor Bryan Powell [email protected] Contributing Editors Tony Powell [email protected] Sandra Lim [email protected]

Production Editor Don Torres Managing Editor Terry Vaughan Coordinating Editor Jim Walschlager

PUBLIC ACCOUNTING REPORT (ISSN 0161-309X) is published monthly by Wolters Kluwer, 4025 W. Peterson Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60646. Subscription inquiries should be directed to 4025 W. Peterson Ave., Chicago, IL 60646. Phone: 800.449.8114 | Fax: 773.866.3895 | Email: [email protected] Permissions requests: Requests for permission to reproduce content should be directed to Wolters Kluwer, permissions@cch. com.

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VOLUME XXXIX, NO. 6

JUNE 2015 | VOLUME XXXIX, NO. 6

CohnReznick Aims for Top 10; Baker Tilly Jumps into Top 15 BKD, Plante Moran, Moss Adams slip one position in ranking. Talk about crashing the party! As a companion piece to last year’s Public Accounting Report 2014 Top 10 U.S. Accounting Firms Survey, for the first time, the survey reported on the firms just outside of the Top 10, those ranked No. 11 through No. 15 in U.S. revenue. Our analysis concluded that mergers or acquisitions would play a role in any of the challenger firms cracking the Top 10. (See PAR, June 2014.) Fast forward 12 months, and we find that none of the challenger firms have unseated a Top 10 firm. (See Rank by U.S. Revenue table, p. 2.) However, one firm—Baker Tilly Virchow Krause (Baker Tilly), based in Chicago—has cracked the Top 15. (See table, below.) It did so in spectacular fashion, arriving as the 12th-ranked U.S. public accounting firm based on revenue, leap-frogging from the 17th position. Baker Tilly accomplished this feat with its October merger with Philadelphia-based ParenteBeard. Baker Tilly had revenue of $301.3 million for the FYE May 2013, and at the time of the merger, PAR estimated Baker Tilly’s FY14 net revenue at $317 million. ParenteBeard had FY13 net revenue of $158 million. (See PAR, October 2014.) Add water and stir … instant 12th-ranked firm! At the time of the deal, Allan D. Koltin, president of Chicago-based Koltin Consulting Group, told PAR, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see another merger into [Baker Tilly] within the next year in the western part of the equation. In five years or so, it could be a $1 billion firm.” While Baker Tilly made the biggest splash among challengers to the Top 10 in 2014, it is 11th-ranked

CohnReznick, based in New York, that is truly a threat to enter the Top 10. The firm posted $575 million net revenue for the FYE January 2015, a 13.2% increase. Two mergers helped along the way: the November merger with Watkins Meegan/Bethesda, Md. ($40 million net revenue; 13 partners, 149 nonpartner professionals, 171 total staff; four offices) and the July acquisition of Ercolini & Co./Boston ($10 million net revenue; eight partners, 32 nonpartner professionals, 41 total staff; one office). (See PAR, November 2014.) Cohn Reznick is within striking distance—$25 million—of both 9th-ranked CBIZ & Mayer Hoffman McCann and 10th-ranked CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA). BKD/Springfield, Mo., 10th in the ranking in 2012, now ranks 13th in U.S. revenue. BKD has been bumped in successive years by the mergers that created CLA, CohnReznick and the larger version of Baker Tilly. BKD grew a solid 6.5% in FY14, to $445.3 million. BKD acquired Pennsylvania-based Malin, Bergquist & Co., a $9 million firm, in October 2013. In a deal that will be reflected in its FY15 results, BKD merged with Wolf & Co./Chicago, in November, a deal contributing $25 million in net revenue, 18 partners and 140 total staff. No. 14-ranked Plante Moran/Southfield, Mich. ($433.1 million net revenue for the FYE June 2014, up 5.5%) reported no mergers or acquisitions in FY14. The firm did boost nonpartner professional (NPP) staffing by 9%. Moss Adams/Seattle, ranked 15th in U.S. revenue, reported a 6.5% revenue increase in FY14, rising to

Public Accounting Report 2015 Top 10 U.S. Accounting Firms Survey

The Challengers: Firms Ranked 11-15, Based on U.S. Net Revenue 2015 Rank Firm

Reporting Period

2014 Rev. ($M)

2013 Rev. ($M)

% Total Chg. Partners NPPs Staff Offices

A&A %

Tax %

Other SEC % Clients

% Chg.

11

CohnReznick

FY15 (Jan. 31)

575.01 508.01

13.2

287 1,829 2,669

28

55.0

25.0

20.0

82

12

Baker Tilly Virchow Krause

FY14 (May 31)

475.0

301.0

57.8

289 1,855 2,468

31

44.0

33.0

23.0

105

72.1

13

BKD

FY14 (May 31)

445.3

418.0

6.5

242 1,466

2,102

33

48.0

31.0

21.0

88

11.4

14

Plante Moran

FY14 (June 30)

433.1

410.6

5.5

262 1,435 2,066

20

40.5

26.3

33.2

DNP

-

15

Moss Adams

FY14 (Dec. 31)

429.0

403.0

6.5

264

23

45.0

38.0

17.0

82

0.0

1,381

2,158

-1.2

Editor’s Notes: 1CohnReznick, which has a January FYE, reported FY15 data. This data is listed in the “2014 Rev. ($M)” column. Accordingly, its FY14 results are listed in the “2013 Rev. ($M)” column. Source: Firm reporting, PAR research and analysis

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$429 million. Moss Adams reported no mergers or acquisitions in FY14, but it did report in December that it had acquired the regulatory compliance and financial consulting portion of Houston-based telecommunications company CHR Solutions Inc. That deal was effective Jan. 1 and will affect FY15 results.

With the arrival of Baker Tilly to the Top 15, Marcum LLP/New York, fell to 16th in U.S. revenue. Marcum posted FYE December 2014 revenue of $385.4 million, up 10.1%. That percentage is higher than all firms ranked No. 11 through No. 15 firms except for Baker Tilly. Stay tuned! 

EXECUTIVE FORUM

Firm Leaders Reflect on 2015 Tax Season Accounting firm executives have to plan for the future as well as be flexible in the face of rapid changes. For some, the 2015 tax season ushered in a new normal for future tax seasons. Here, firm leaders discuss important lessons learned from the 2015 tax season and how their experiences can be applied to strengthen other areas of their firms’ practice and how other firms can replicate them. Jim Cunningham, CEO, Warren Averett/Birmingham, Ala. (FY14 net revenue: $113.8 million; 124 partners, 816 total staff, 15 offices): The new normal is digital: the way in which we receive information from clients, process the information and deliver the final Jim Cunningham product. Offering portals and other electronic means to deliver information to us is more convenient and efficient for our clients. Our digital capabilities also allow us to process information more cost effectively for our clients in an environment of ever-increasing complexity. This is also beneficial in providing flexibility and remote resources to our internal team. Finally, a digital environment provides a platform for delivery of our services efficiently, and most importantly, more conveniently for our clients. We definitely see the increase in digital communications across other areas of the firm and are committed to staying on the cutting edge of technology to adapt to the future needs of clients.

Vince Mattina, managing partner, Mattina, Kent & Gibbons/Rochester, Mich. (FY14 net revenue: $3.2 million; six partners, 35 total staff, three offices): The 2015 tax season has proven to be a different tax season than in the past. Each Vince Mattina season has become more compressed due to late legislative changes, new regulations (particularly within the healthcare marketplace) and interest and dividend reporting being pushed back and amended on a regular basis through mid-April. I think this is going to become the new normal—that tax season will become a six-week process [lasting from] March 1 through April 16 rather than the 12 weeks we’ve had. This has caused a greater demand on staff work/life balance and employment opportunities for a short amount of time. Higher demand for experienced help for a few weeks is a difficult position to fill. Our greatest lesson learned this season was front-end scanning and copying of client source documents is a tremendous help to the tax preparers, a process we had not implemented before. Hiring administrative assistance to continue our quest for a paperless environment meant having extra help in the pre-tax preparation area and helped keep the client prep time to a more reasonable level.

JUNE 2015 | VOLUME XXXIX, NO. 6

Jeff Corey, partner and tax practice leader, The Bonadio Group/Pittsford, N.Y. (estimated FY15 net revenue: $87.92 million; 72 partners, 650 total staff, 10 offices): We viewed the 2015 tax season as an intensified continuJeff Corey ation of the new normal from the past three to four years. The overall theme is compression and complexity—doing more work of a higher level in a shorter period of time. Contributing factors included a combination of late information from brokerage houses and the fact that we received critical revenue procedures in March, along with other late guidance from the IRS, much of which stemmed from delayed decision-making by lawmakers. The major lessons we took from this trend are to prepare our people with early training, to reach out to clients to get their input early and to set expectations, and to invest more in seasonal personnel. These challenges are widespread in our industry. Where government regulations are concerned, we generally don’t get much lead time. In addition, tax preparers are now responsible for increasingly more points of data the government tracks, including new reporting requirements for the Affordable Care Act. Unfortunately, it looks as if regulatory overload is here to stay. Bill Pellino, managing partner, Smith & Gesteland/Middleton, Wis. (FY14 net revenue: $13.3 million; 16 partners, 80 total staff): Simplify! Ironically, during the 2015 tax season, we found that the processes we spent so much time developing added more confusion for Bill Pellino our tax preparers, reviewers and assemblers. Additionally, those same processes impacted a large number of our tax returns, but only a very small percentage of our revenue. The 80/20 Principle tells us to treat small revenuegenerating activities differently than large ones. Following our own advice to clients, we will reduce the processes that relate to the insignificant many and focus on the processes that impact

our critical few clients. Bingo! Tax season is a major struggle for many of our employees. Balancing the heavy workload while maintaining quality of life is a struggle all firms are familiar with. John Flatowicz, managing shareholder, Briggs & Veselka Co./ Houston (FY14 net revenue: $29,716,764; 20 partners, 175 total staff, two offices): Our new normal is constant adaptation to new technology, which, after an initial adjustment John Flatowicz period this year, added efficiency, manageability and increased staff utilization. The lesson here is that to keep up with ever-changing technology, our firm had to be organized. We assigned a leader, developed best practices and wrote procedures that resulted in consistent compliance to maximize benefits. We created a system to measure results, then employed flexibility to adjust any procedures or processes that had hiccups during the first run. We use this approach in most other areas of the firm, such as recruiting and retention of millennials. Representatives from each department work alongside human resources to execute a specially developed plan that underscores the flexibility needed for today’s changing workforce. No matter what changes the future holds, our firm’s goal is to embrace flexibility while remaining loyal to our legacy of commitment to clients, staff and community. John Di Carlo, managing partner, Windes Inc./Long Beach, Calif. (FY14 net revenue: $24 million; 17 partners, 140 total staff, three offices): We are experiencing an “evolving” normal for filing season. Workload compression John Di Carlo compounded by more complex rules and technically challenging data is exacerbating an already challenging period. Success revolves around being proactive and efficient and maximizing resources without sacrificing quality. In preparation for

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this season, we implemented a Lean Six Sigma process flow system for our tax return work and enhanced our scheduling and monitoring of all returns. We aggressively collected client data as soon as it was available in order to “frontload” the season’s projects. In addition, we hired more temporary staff. Our team, from staff to partner, shared a commitment to attempt to alleviate the workload compression. The Lean Six Sigma process and additional hiring helped us achieve a

less stressful season. We will continue to pursue these strategies in our tax practice and will implement them in our other practice units. This topic came directly from a reader request. If there is a question you would like PAR to ask for Executive Forum, or if you are interested in writing a guest column for PAR, please contact Editor Julie Lindy at Julie.Lindy@ wolterskluwer.com. 

GUEST COLUMN

New Mexico Firm Unifies Far-Flung Offices Technology, communication facilitates ‘one firm’ mentality. By Ray Roberts Managing Partner Accounting & Consulting Group/Albuquerque, N.M. Our firm’s eight offices are spread apart by many miles. Most of the locations are in rural communities with little to no air service, so our team gets a lot of time “behind the windshield” driving between offices and traveling to and from clients. This much driving is not Ray Roberts the best use of our team’s time, so we wanted to minimize travel as much as possible. At the same time, we were experiencing staffing issues (just like most firms in our industry). However, it sure seems like an added challenge to find staff in rural New Mexico, where there may only be six or seven CPAs in a whole town—and most of them already work for you. If that weren’t enough, some of our offices are located in oil and gas field communities. It is difficult to compete with oil companies willing to pay bookkeepers $80,000 a year. Heavy competition and a boom-town mentality can lead to huge turnover in any given year. Facing a myriad of problems—not the least of which is how to make remote

offices feel like part of the firm as a whole—can be overwhelming at times. Our challenge was clear: How can we break down the walls and reduce the miles between our offices? We looked around for a model and found the overseas outsourcing market. After all, if firms can send work to India, shouldn’t we at least be able to send work a few hundred miles to another one of our offices? Our vision for a one-firm concept slowly began to emerge. Even though we had multiple offices (many of which started out as sole proprietors), we wanted to work together as a single organization. Work should be done by the person most qualified, wherever he or she may be, rather than exclusively by team members of the local office. Clients are managed locally, but their work can be done anywhere. Clients belong to the firm, not to a partner. With our thoughts focused, we set out to make technology work for us and forged ahead with breaking industry traditions entrenched for decades. As our first step, we reorganized the firm into service lines: tax, consulting, small business and audit. We knew we had to be able to share work between offices on a constant basis, not only in a crisis. To make this possible, we researched new technology and rebuilt our entire network based on a single centralized system

JUNE 2015 | VOLUME XXXIX, NO. 6

capable of putting all of our team members—near and far—on equal footing. We brought all of our firm’s data together into one central location and implemented a Citrix network to create our own cloud. We originally published just the applications, but we now publish the entire desktop—accessed via our intranet. Everyone’s desktop has the same look and feel, and our team can work from anywhere in the world. We also partnered with XCM Solutions, becoming an early adopter of its XCM Workflow tool. With XCM, it really became easy to know exactly where a project was and who had control of it. Communication was (and still is) one of the biggest keys to making this “one-firm” vision a reality. So, one of the most important decisions we made was to simultaneously set up a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone to truly unite our team. I can pick up my phone, dial a fourdigit extension and connect to any team member in the firm, regardless of location. They all may as well be right down the hall. Some of the extra features have solidified the experience, allowing us to instant message, collaborate with screen sharing, quickly conference in more parties and receive our voicemail as audio files in our email inboxes. With the technology in place, we next focused on processes and communicating our vision and methods from the top down. Each service line was assigned a partner to lead it, and we required each service line partner to develop and implement a strategic plan. One of the most significant aspects of the plan required creation of a detailed process and procedures manual to be followed by every office when performing engagements under that service line, helping to standardize our work so offices could help one another. Other strategic plan requirements included development and maintenance of a business plan, a marketing plan, key performance indicators and a system for tracking them, a staffing assessment and an education schedule. With unified standards and procedures, our firm can take in a tax return in one office, have it prepared by another, reviewed by a remote worker in a different state and returned to the original location for final partner review and delivery.

In this case, our tax service line ensures every engagement receives the same level of care no matter where it’s from and that our administrative team has a phenomenal data intake system. Nothing is ever perfect. Early issues with a technology vendor and internet connectivity limitations in several of our communities have made for some major challenges. And although it’s sad to say, often the biggest problem can be the partners themselves. CPAs are creatures of habit, and it can be difficult to ask people to change beliefs and procedures they’ve used for their entire careers. Stick to your guns. Modify your partner compensation system to influence this major change in your vision, and simply give the system time to prove that increased efficiency and utilization will yield returns. In the end, this system allowed several of our key offices to survive tough times. Huge staff turnover, loss of a partner and increasing client pressures could have spelled disaster in earlier times; however, our ability to perform work anywhere meant we could hire help for one office in a different city, retain good team members whose families were being relocated by allowing them to become remote workers and immediately send work to our other locations. This adaptable system allowed us to salvage these situations, and these offices are now stronger than ever. While the whole process does take time to develop and bear fruit, it has exceeded our expectations. The firm operates with far fewer people than would have previously been required. For example, we don’t need to employ a full-time bookkeeper, tax accountant and auditor in each office just to handle a few months of busy season work. It’s more challenging to earn competitive billing rates in rural areas than in urban areas, so efficiency is extremely important to our margin. We are now perfectly poised to develop specialists who can have access to clients across the firm (instead of a single town of 25,000 people). We have also emerged as a firm with a growing population of remote workers. We are able to hold on to good people who move away. Currently, more than 10% of our team members work remotely 100% of the time, and they are spread across six

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states and three countries. This has helped us retain good people, since moving no longer necessarily means separating from our employ. Our clients are getting better and faster service. Our team members have more flexibility and resources than ever before. It’s easier to recruit new accountants to a firm with its technological foot forward, and we’ve optimized our retention tool belt. Most importantly, our firm is uni-

fied, and we have a very bright future, which all of us are excited to build together. In addition to Albuquerque, Accounting & Consulting Group LLP has offices in the New Mexico cities of Alamogordo, Carlsbad, Clovis, Hobbs and Roswell, and in the Texas cities of El Paso and Lubbock. For more information about the firm, visit www.acgsw.com. 

PEOPLE, FIRMS, AND PROMOTIONS Alliott Group admitted Weber, Shapiro & Co., based in Ramsey, N.J., to membership. Michael L. Milani joined Chicagobased Baker Tilly Virchow Krause as a principal and managing director of Baker Tilly Capital. The board of directors at Eide Bailly, based in Fargo, N.D., elected Kevin Doyle as chair and Scott Kost as vice chair. Doyle and Kost will serve one-year terms. Doyle is partner-incharge of the firm’s Sioux Falls, S.D., office. Kost is director of technology consulting. He is based in Fargo. Ashley McAdams and Scott Keller were named partners at Horne LLP, based in Ridgeland, Miss. McAdams is part of the financial institutions team and chairs the firm’s personnel committee. She is based in Jackson, Miss. Keller is a member of the firm’s government services team and is based at the firm’s Ridgeland headquarters.

John C. Malone, founding partner of Houston-based MaloneBailey, retired in May after four decades in the public accounting profession. He founded the firm in 1982, and in the 1990s, he pioneered a niche serving small public companies. Malone is credited with revolutionizing the way audits for small public companies are conducted. Today, the firm has nearly 200 SEC-registered clients and is ranked No. 7 in the world in number of U.S. public companies served. Seattle-based Moss Adams made several leadership changes. Bob Hinton, who has been partnerin-charge of the Tacoma, Wash., office for eight years, was named partner-in-charge of both the Tacoma and Seattle offices. He succeeds Dave Schilling in leading the Seattle office. Schilling was named regional managing partner of the Puget Sound region. Rob Grannum was named partner-in-charge of the Everett, Wash., office. Jarret Rea as-

sumed the role of partner-in-charge for the firm’s Kansas City, Kan., office. He succeeds Clay Sturgis, who shifted his focus to growing the firm’s new locations in Dallas and Austin, Texas. Sturgis also will continue developing the firm’s telecommunications practice in the region. Steve Fein was named partner-incharge of the Portland, Ore., office. He succeeds Joe Karas, who is regional managing partner for Oregon. Chris Paris was named partner-in-charge of the firm’s offices in the California cities of Santa Rosa and Napa. His predecessor, Jeff Gutsch, will concentrate on leading the firm’s wineries and vineyards practice. In addition, MA welcomed Eve Dreyfuss and Kevin Hasegawa as partners in its Silicon Valley office, located in Campbell, Calif. St. Louis-based RubinBrown welcomed Sunti (Sunny) Wathanacharoen as a partner in its Business Advisory Services Group. He is based in the firm’s office in Kansas City, Mo. 