New National Joint Venture Adds Former

PCAOB Officials to Malin Bergquist’s

Public Company/SEC Team

McDaniel	Godshall	Kern

Two former top officials with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board have joined Malin Bergquist's Public Company/SEC Group through the creation of a new national joint venture with CPA firms in Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix.

Known as the FD Alliance, the joint venture brings together Malin Bergquist’s Peter Kern with heavy hitting specialists Seth McDaniel and William Godshall of the Frazier & Deeter CPA firm in Atlanta. McDaniel is a former PCAOB associate director, and Godshall is a former PCAOB inspection leader and Big Four public company specialist.

The other two Alliance firms lending SEC know-how are Chicago’s Mueller & Company and Arizona’s Wallace, Plese + Dreher, LLP. 

Kern, McDaniel and Godshall successfully have joined forces before on complex public company engagements for clients, and the alliance more concretely formalizes their working relationship, taking the practice to a higher national level in serving mid-market public companies. 

Team members have provided public company/SEC compliance services for clients such as Coca Cola, United Parcel Service, Home Depot and engineering giant Siemens as well as entertainment conglomerate Carmike Cinemas, Marcellus Shale producer Rex Energy and a host of real estate and broadcasting companies. Its audit and tax practitioners have worked at the Big Four level on Sarbanes-Oxley, SAS 70 and international tax, audit and financial reporting standards issues. 

Said Kern, “This exciting alliance is much different from typical large associations of CPA firms because we know one another and know how to work together. Seth, Bill and I collaborate in the same way as do practice groups of national firms, resulting in a more sophisticated resource for our clients.” 

Through the FD Alliance, Malin Bergquist also has substantially increased the depth and expertise of its other niche teams in international financial reporting standards (IFRS), manufacturing and distribution, health care, construction, transaction support and not-for-profit organizations. 

“Malin Bergquist is now deploying national caliber services but retaining the hallmark personal attention and partner involvement in the field which our clients well know and highly value,” Kern said. 

About Pittsburgh’s Malin Bergquist – registered with the PCAOB since its inception, the firm has led an energy client’s initial public offering and is helping other clients in planning IPOs and attracting investment. The firm has substantial SEC audit experience with public companies in the manufacturing, insurance, investment and software industries. More: www.malinbergquist.com. 

About Atlanta’s Frazier & Deeter – is a Top 100 CPA firm in the U.S. and has been rated the number one accounting firm to work for by Accounting Today; one of the fastest growing CPA firms in the U.S. by the Public Accounting Report; and one of the top 25 best managed CPA firms in the U.S. by Inside Public Accounting. The firm has received the Practical Accountant’s Practice Innovation Award for taking the lead in developing new or improved services, and in promoting efficiency. More: www.frazierdeeter.com. 

About Chicago’s Mueller & Company – based in the Chicago suburb of Elgin, it has been named “Best Accounting and Tax Firm” in Kane County by the Kane County Chronicle. It is nationally known for manufacturing and distribution, health care and construction accounting expertise. More: www.muellercpa.com.

About Tempe’s Wallace, Plese + Dreher, LLP – founded in 1996 and based in Tempe, it has established a reputation for serving closely-held owner-managed businesses and their owners. More: www.wpd-cpa.com.