On Monday, May 16 Thiru Govender, BDO’s Tampa Office Managing Partner, was featured on That Business Show with Jamie Meloni. BDO is a national and international full-service tax, audit, and consulting firm. BDO is present in 63 cities with approximately 5,500 people in The United States and 70,000 people worldwide. BDO is the 7th largest accounting firm in the United States and the 5th largest worldwide. In 1910 BDO was founded in New York City and was known as Seidman & Seidman. It then transitioned to BDO Seidman when joining an international network of firms and eventually becoming BDO. BDO has $1 billion in revenue with a 26% increase since 2014. BDO is only one of 7 accounting firms in the U.S. with revenues of over $1 billion dollars. This was split equally between organic and expansion growth.
Over the past twenty years, Thiru’s training has consisted specifically of auditing accounting and business advisory. His initial draw to accounting began at the age of eight in South Africa. Thiru worked at his father’s gas station and was a bookkeeper in the evenings where he reconciled the cash. Thiru found the task to be a challenge yet extremely fulfilling. He began working for BDO straight out of St. Bonaventure University in New York, and after 10 years in New York, transferred to BDO’s Charlotte office. BDO had always had its sights on Tampa but had been looking for the right fit. Last fall, BDO merged with a firm in Central Florida that owned a small office in Tampa and Thiru was transferred to the Tampa location.
Thiru explains that BDO helps businesses in many industries, at all stages of growth; from Start up to Initial public offerings, from being domestic to becoming a global, multinational company. . BDO truly invests the time to grow with each business and sets itself apart from other accounting firms due to its dedicated client service and partner involvement. The company’s staff to partner ratio is 9:1 compared to other large accounting firms that are usually 12:1. This translates into more partner time with clients including the use of more senior level resources to fulfill a company’s individualized needs, and adds to faster staff development
Additionally, Thiru describes BDO’s as having a competitive advantage due to its vast global resources. Its global outreach is unmatched compared to other accounting firms outside of the Big Four. BDO offers national coverage to regional firms, thus bringing in international outreach. These regional firms need a bigger base and network of resources. With BDO’s ability to take a company public with large resources all over the country and around the world, many mergers and acquisitions are seamless. BDO’s reputation has spoken for itself and the company’s first advertisement wasn’t until its 100th year anniversary in 2010. BDO’s focus lies within its client services and its mission to help People thrive everyday while staying true to its core values. Because of this, BDO maintains a high retention rate and ensures that it is consistently putting forth its best effort while demonstrating a clear path to success.
Why did BDO choose Tampa? Thiru explains that Tampa is a growing market and the outlook and growth statistics are extremely positive, making the future of this area very promising. Healthcare, manufacturing and distributions, tech startups, financial services are all hot in the market. Increased economic development is attracting a lot of businesses to the area. Tampa is a vibrant market with a great deal of potential and opportunities to grow. Tampa business owners ultimately want all businesses to succeed and thrive in Tampa Bay. With the growth of the Tampa Bay community as well as BDO’s consistent achievements, Tampa Bay will only continue to be the epicenter of growth and accomplishment.
To hear the full segment of Thiru Govender on That Business Show click here.
For more information, please visit BDO Tampa’s website.
