President
The Visionary Group
Bob is President of The Visionary Group and one of Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People. He has developed deep relationships with key leaders in accounting firms nationwide and is a frequent speaker on M&A, private equity, remaining independent, and building firm value through organic growth in the accounting profession.
His focus for the last thirty years has been only in the accounting profession. Bob helps firms build value and understand their options. His group is involved in dozens of M&A and private equity transactions annually and they created the “Build to Evolve” (BTE) process for accounting firms. BTE is a structured partnership to help firms develop an independence plan or a transition strategy if independence or an internal succession is not an option.
Bob has extensive experience supporting firms in need of a transition plan, structuring deal frameworks, negotiating M&A transactions and assisting with partner buy-ins and buyouts, and compensation plans. Through Visionary’s BTE process he helps firms analyze and upscale their client base, leverage better pricing structures, address capacity, expand advisory opportunities, and increase firm value. He was an accountant and has a Bachelor of Science in Finance, and an MBA, both from DePaul University in Chicago.
Private equity transactions in accounting are evolving quickly. What began as a relatively new source of capital for a handful of firms has become a more sophisticated market with changing deal structures, different investor expectations, and new questions around governance, leadership control, compensation, and exit strategies. This panel will explore how PE deals are being structured today, what firms should understand about recapitalizations and future liquidity events, and how the role of investors is changing as the profession moves deeper into its PE era.