Edward E. Nusbaum is Chief Executive Officer of Grant Thornton International Ltd., one of the world's leading organizations of independently owned and managed accounting and consulting firms providing assurance, tax and specialist advisory services to privately held businesses and public interest entities.
Prior to this, Ed was chief executive officer and executive partner of Grant Thornton LLP, the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd. Under Ed's leadership, Grant Thornton, LLP had tripled revenues to approximately $1.2 billion. Of the 2,000 new client engagements in 2008, revenues from new international clients accounted for more than 25 percent.
Focusing on the relationship he builds with each client and colleague, Ed has spent 30 years with Grant Thornton serving clients, assuming leadership positions and helping to shape the accounting profession. Ed is chairman of the Grant Thornton International Ltd Board of Governors. He is also an appointed member of the U.S. firm's Partnership Board and leads both the National and Senior Leadership Teams.
Before becoming chief executive officer, Ed served as the firm's national managing partner of professional services, managing partner of the Philadelphia office and national director of assurance services based in New York.
Due to his leadership in high-profile professional policy-setting groups, Ed was appointed by Securities and Exchange commission (SEC) Chairman Christopher Cox to the SEC's Advisory Committee on Improvement to Financial Reporting (CIFiR). Members represented key constituencies in our nation's capital markets. The group, which issued its recommendations in August 2008, was charged with advising the SEC and the national on how our increasingly complex financial reporting system can be made more useful for everyone who relies on it.
Ed is also a member of the Board of Governors for the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ). The board consists of the CEOs of major accounting firms, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) representatives and outside corporate board members. The Center's mission is to improve audit quality for public companies and to improve the capital market system.
In both 2005 and 2006, Ed was one of two Grant Thornton representatives invited to participate in the SEC roundtables held at their headquarters in Washington, D.C. Both public forums focused on ongoing experience with the reporting and auditing requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
In 2006, Ed concluded his four-year tenure as a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FIBS) Advisory Council. For the last two of those years, he also served on FASB's Small Business Advisory Committee. Previously a member of the FIBS Emerging Issues Task Force, he participated in several of the task force's working groups.
As an AICPA member, Ed served on their Talent Task Force Steering Committee, a think tank composed of representatives from seven accounting firms who shared strategies for retaining talent in the accounting profession. He also served the AICPA on their SEC Practice Section Executive Committee, Professional Issues Task Force and Auditing Standards Board (ASB). While on the ASB, Ed participated in their Audit Issues Task Force.
Ed is a Certified Public Accounting in Illinois and Pennsylvania and is the recipient of the Elijah Watts Sells Award.
Contact Info
Edward Nusbaum
Chief Executive Officer
Grant Thornton International Ltd.
175 W. Jackson Blvd
20th Floor
Chicago, IL 60604
(312) 856-0200
http://www.grantthornton.com/
