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 isn’t inevitable: It’s perfectly possible for accounting firms to remain proudly independent — but to do that, they need to address the many issues that PE-backed accounting firms are solving by taking on private equity money. That means new approaches to strategy, services offerings, staffing, partner retirements, raising capital, and much more.
Join Bob Lewis of The Visionary Group for an inside look at the key factors that enhance—or diminish—an accounting firm’s value. Bob will break down what buyers and potential merger partners look for in a candidate firm, offering practical insights to help you strengthen your firm’s position in the market and maximize its worth.
*Must attend both sessions to qualify for the 1 hour of CPE credit.
In this session, a panel of top experts and deal-makers (including our conference co-chairs) will survey the current state of play in the accounting profession — covering everything from what types of firms can expect to be able to make a PE deal and how those deals are changing, and how that is impacting the broader profession, laying a groundwork for the more granular discussions to come on Day 2.
Both before and after a deal, private equity will rouse a lot of emotions inside an accounting firm — and change a lot of people’s roles. Experts will discuss how to keep both partners and young staff on side, how to communicate with clients, and how to help everyone adjust to a firm’s new structure.
Our co-chairs return to the stage to wrap up the event, highlighting the most important takeaways from the previous two days, offering their key insights, and taking questions from the audience.