Withum Expands with Management Consulting Services
Joseph Riccie, CPA; Meghan Watson; and Walter Merkas focus on helping clients align overall business strategy and objectives to propel their organizations to a position of strength. Management Consulting Services is an extension of Withum’s traditional tax and accounting services expertise and offerings.
Riccie recently joined Withum as a partner to launch the new practice area and concentrate on solving business management challenges while delivering value-based outcomes. The services are rooted in business process automation, regulatory compliance, third-party oversight, project management assistance, user adoption programs and software technology planning and implementations, including NetSuite Software Solutions. Riccie has over 30 years of financial, human capital and operational management experience within the private and public accounting sectors.
“Joining Withum was like reconnecting with family members who had moved away and recently came back,” said Riccie. “It was an easy decision to use my prior experiences expanding another CPA firm’s geographic reach in order to support Withum’s growth plans by launching their management consulting services. When I learned about the firm’s business advisory capabilities in cybersecurity, privacy, risk management compliance – including SOX and SOC I and IIs – and merger and acquisition services, I immediately saw that by incorporating management and technology consulting into what the firm already does today would allow us to be even stronger in the marketplace.”
In addition to Riccie, team leaders include Watson and Merkas, who both bring over 17 years of experience to the practice. Watson joins Withum with audit and advisory experience leading a broad array of long-term, transformational engagements, risk and internal control assessments, regulatory compliance reviews and business process improvement projects for a wide range of clients. Merkas joins the team with extensive expertise in organizational transformations, business system architecture and selection. Building upon his past successes, his expertise lies in the areas of on-premise, cloud or private cloud software solutions.
“At Withum, our clients rely upon us for more than the traditional tax and accounting services offered by most firms today,” said Jim Bourke, Partner, Technology Practice Leader. “As trusted advisors to our clients, our management consulting team is an integral part of our service offerings. Withum’s highly regarded specialists add depth to the areas of cyber security, privacy, mobility, big data analytics, conversion of data into knowledge, scoping, implementation, training and support on various cloud-based accounting and operational systems and Service Organization Control (SOC) reporting and readiness assessments.”
As one of the nation’s 30 largest accounting and consulting firms, Withum’s annual revenue is approximately $140 million. The firm operates offices in New Jersey (including its Princeton headquarters); New York City, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Boston, MA; Orlando, FL; Aspen, CO; and Cayman Island. Withum also is a member of HLB International, a worldwide network of independent professional accounting firms and business advisors committed to assisting clients build and expand globally.