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From intern to CEO | Accounting Today

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These days, not many people stay at the same organization for their entire career. But, my good friend Nathen McEown, CEO of Texas-based Whitley Penn, has parlayed a wide variety of roles, responsibilities and experiences into the top job at the 850-employee firm with $240 million in revenue. 

Starting as an intern 21 years ago, McEown joined the firm full-time directly out of college and hasn’t looked back since. At the time, Whitley Penn had only 60 employees and $10 million in revenue. But that was part of the attraction for McEown, who was attracted to the collegial nature and scrappy startup feel. Unlike many of his undergraduate classmates, McEown didn’t feel the pressure to join a Big Four firm. He told me he was more attracted to firms like Whitley Penn that were small, but growing aggressively. “I thought I could make a bigger impact there,” he recalled.

If McEown seems young to be a CEO of such a large firm, that’s not a coincidence. The firm’s average partner age is about 44 to 45, and it has 15 partners under the age of 35. “That’s a testament to how quickly we’re growing and developing talent,” McEown related. “It boils down to passion. If you have a passion for what you are doing, it’s easier to put in the long hours and hard work. There was never a point in my career when I did anything just for the money. It was always about the opportunity to learn something new, implement something new, or enhance my growth.” Many of McEown’s fast-rising peers feel the same.

Four core principles have guided McEown throughout his career.

1. Culture of growth (firmwide and personal);
2. Willingness to step into difficult situations and always say yes;
3. Focus on relationships;
4. Recruiting, retaining and developing talent.

Culture of growth

Early in his career, McEown said he gravitated to partners who were excelling at business development. “They  seemed to have a lot more control over their careers,” he recalled. “At a young age, I told myself: ‘I’m going to be the one who goes out and helps grow the business by finding new clients, by getting involved in the community, by networking with folks in the local business community, and by establishing my circle of influence.” McEown brought in his first client when he was just a senior, and he said that enabled him to carve out his niche much faster.

“Our firm has a passion for growth,” he said. “We know if we’re not growing, we’re not going to be able to create new partners and promote more people from within. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing those below you achieve success and further their careers.”

Professional growth

Like McEown, I’ve found growth isn’t just about enhancing firm revenue; it’s about enhancing personal development. According to McEown, when you’re early in your career — staff to mid-manager — you need the proverbial 10,000 hours of experience to really learn the craft and the trade. Then as you progress, he said you need to start focusing on the other side of the business that often gives accountants trouble — soft skills, mentoring and developing additional ways to help clients beyond the pure service line that you’re working in. 

McEown said Whitley Penn’s NextGen program takes high-performing seniors and teaches them how to learn next level soft skills, client development skills, mentoring and training skills. The firm’s Growth Champions program is for experienced senior managers or managing directors who are on the path to partner. He said that’s where participants learn how to do a deep dive into the business of public accounting and a prospective client’s business. It’s also where they learn to describe succinctly how Whitley Penn can help a client not just through the service line they’re currently in (i.e., audit or tax), but through its wealth management, client accounting and advisory services (CAAS), digital, deal advisory group, or any of its other advisory service lines. 

Willingness to step into tough situations

From the earliest age, McEown said he always played the role of “fixer” — the person who would take on the jobs (or clients) that no one else wanted. For example, in the early days of his career, Whitley Penn was doing a lot of energy work but wasn’t getting a lot of private equity energy work. So, he took on the challenge of getting to know the folks in the PE energy space and bring them in as clients.

“In 2016, I moved to our Houston office which wasn’t growing as quickly as Whitley Penn is used to,” recalled McEown. “I took it upon myself to convince the firm’s executive committee that there was a huge opportunity in Houston where the massive energy market is based. I told them I would move my family to Houston if they let me have the role of the Houston office managing partner to see if I could change things.” 

At the time, McEown said the Houston office was only doing about $10 million in business. In 2025, Whitley Penn expects the Houston office to hit $50 million. “You can’t be afraid to fail,” said McEown. “When you swing for the fences, you’re going to strike out sometimes, but that’s the only way to learn and get better.” 

Building relationships

Whether it’s navigating your own firm, handling existing clients or breaking into new markets, McEown said you can never stop building relationships. He recalled having more strikeouts than home runs in his first two years in Houston, and it entailed a lot of cold-calling and reaching out to energy leaders for breakfast, lunch, dinner or drinks…anything to develop new relationships and opportunities.

Since the Houston office was small, McEown and his team not only had to find the work themselves, but then do the work, too. “It was a lot of late nights, but it was fun and some of the most rewarding times I’ve had at the firm because I was able to cause change quickly,” stated McEown.

Another valuable lesson McEown learned was, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” He said you must be willing to reach out to people and say, “Hey can you introduce me to friends who may need our services.” Or, “Who are you using? Are you happy with their service? If not, how about letting Whitley Penn bid on your work?” 

“Don’t wait for things to happen; make them happen,” he said.

McEown added, “When it comes to client service, I tell our team all the time: ‘If you get a client call in the morning, you need to return that call by the afternoon. If you get a call in the afternoon, you need to return it by the following morning.'” 

McEown believes clients must always feel they’re a priority for his firm because “so many of our competitors don’t treat them that way.” He frequently reminds his staff: “Don’t just be the auditor. Go into the client’s office and ask about their family. Find out what’s going on in their life beyond the workplace.” McEown believes that once you build a client relationship and earn their trust, you can afford to make a few mistakes. “However, if you’re just an email or an invoice, that’s when you become a commodity and they’re going to jump to the next firm,” he said.

Recruiting and retaining talent

Long before COVID and the great talent shortage, McEown said his firm has always taken recruiting very seriously and done well at it. “We get our partners involved at all levels, including on-campus recruiting. It’s not just our staff or paid recruiters. The partners give presentations, get to know people and shake hands. Even during busy season, our partners know they need to roll up their sleeves and get on campus and engage with the students. Our talent is the lifeblood of the firm and we view it as a critical part of our secret sauce.”

Like McEown I’ve found that ultimately we’re responsible for our own career path. Find what you’re passionate about and let others at the firm move you along. What is your firm doing to recruit and develop talent and keep growing? I’d like to hear more.

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Accounting

IAASB tweaks standards on working with outside experts

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The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board is proposing to tailor some of its standards to align with recent additions to the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants’ International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants when it comes to using the work of an external expert.

The proposed narrow-scope amendments involve minor changes to several IAASB standards:

  • ISA 620, Using the Work of an Auditor’s Expert;
  • ISRE 2400 (Revised), Engagements to Review Historical Financial Statements;
  • ISAE 3000 (Revised), Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information;
  • ISRS 4400 (Revised), Agreed-upon Procedures Engagements.

The IAASB is asking for comments via a digital response template that can be found on the IAASB website by July 24, 2025.

In December 2023, the IESBA approved an exposure draft for proposed revisions to the IESBA’s Code of Ethics related to using the work of an external expert. The proposals included three new sections to the Code of Ethics, including provisions for professional accountants in public practice; professional accountants in business and sustainability assurance practitioners. The IESBA approved the provisions on using the work of an external expert at its December 2024 meeting, establishing an ethical framework to guide accountants and sustainability assurance practitioners in evaluating whether an external expert has the necessary competence, capabilities and objectivity to use their work, as well as provisions on applying the Ethics Code’s conceptual framework when using the work of an outside expert.  

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Accounting

Tariffs will hit low-income Americans harder than richest, report says

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President Donald Trump’s tariffs would effectively cause a tax increase for low-income families that is more than three times higher than what wealthier Americans would pay, according to an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

The report from the progressive think tank outlined the outcomes for Americans of all backgrounds if the tariffs currently in effect remain in place next year. Those making $28,600 or less would have to spend 6.2% more of their income due to higher prices, while the richest Americans with income of at least $914,900 are expected to spend 1.7% more. Middle-income families making between $55,100 and $94,100 would pay 5% more of their earnings. 

Trump has imposed the steepest U.S. duties in more than a century, including a 145% tariff on many products from China, a 25% rate on most imports from Canada and Mexico, duties on some sectors such as steel and aluminum and a baseline 10% tariff on the rest of the country’s trading partners. He suspended higher, customized tariffs on most countries for 90 days.

Economists have warned that costs from tariff increases would ultimately be passed on to U.S. consumers. And while prices will rise for everyone, lower-income families are expected to lose a larger portion of their budgets because they tend to spend more of their earnings on goods, including food and other necessities, compared to wealthier individuals.

Food prices could rise by 2.6% in the short run due to tariffs, according to an estimate from the Yale Budget Lab. Among all goods impacted, consumers are expected to face the steepest price hikes for clothing at 64%, the report showed. 

The Yale Budget Lab projected that the tariffs would result in a loss of $4,700 a year on average for American households.

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Accounting

At Schellman, AI reshapes a firm’s staffing needs

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Artificial intelligence is just getting started in the accounting world, but it is already helping firms like technology specialist Schellman do more things with fewer people, allowing the firm to scale back hiring and reduce headcount in certain areas through natural attrition. 

Schellman CEO Avani Desai said there have definitely been some shifts in headcount at the Top 100 Firm, though she stressed it was nothing dramatic, as it mostly reflects natural attrition combined with being more selective with hiring. She said the firm has already made an internal decision to not reduce headcount in force, as that just indicates they didn’t hire properly the first time. 

“It hasn’t been about reducing roles but evolving how we do work, so there wasn’t one specific date where we ‘started’ the reduction. It’s been more case by case. We’ve held back on refilling certain roles when we saw opportunities to streamline, especially with the use of new technologies like AI,” she said. 

One area where the firm has found such opportunities has been in the testing of certain cybersecurity controls, particularly within the SOC framework. The firm examined all the controls it tests on the service side and asked which ones require human judgment or deep expertise. The answer was a lot of them. But for the ones that don’t, AI algorithms have been able to significantly lighten the load. 

“[If] we don’t refill a role, it’s because the need actually has changed, or the process has improved so significantly [that] the workload is lighter or shared across the smarter system. So that’s what’s happening,” said Desai. 

Outside of client services like SOC control testing and reporting, the firm has found efficiencies in administrative functions as well as certain internal operational processes. On the latter point, Desai noted that Schellman’s engineers, including the chief information officer, have been using AI to help develop code, which means they’re not relying as much on outside expertise on the internal service delivery side of things. There are still people in the development process, but their roles are changing: They’re writing less code, and doing more reviewing of code before it gets pushed into production, saving time and creating efficiencies. 

“The best way for me to say this is, to us, this has been intentional. We paused hiring in a few areas where we saw overlaps, where technology was really working,” said Desai.

However, even in an age awash with AI, Schellman acknowledges there are certain jobs that need a human, at least for now. For example, the firm does assessments for the FedRAMP program, which is needed for cloud service providers to contract with certain government agencies. These assessments, even in the most stable of times, can be long and complex engagements, to say nothing of the less predictable nature of the current government. As such, it does not make as much sense to reduce human staff in this area. 

“The way it is right now for us to do FedRAMP engagements, it’s a very manual process. There’s a lot of back and forth between us and a third party, the government, and we don’t see a lot of overall application or technology help… We’re in the federal space and you can imagine, [with] what’s going on right now, there’s a big changing market condition for clients and their pricing pressure,” said Desai. 

As Schellman reduces staff levels in some places, it is increasing them in others. Desai said the firm is actively hiring in certain areas. In particular, it’s adding staff in technical cybersecurity (e.g., penetration testers), the aforementioned FedRAMP engagements, AI assessment (in line with recently becoming an ISO 42001 certification body) and in some client-facing roles like marketing and sales. 

“So, to me, this isn’t about doing more with less … It’s about doing more of the right things with the right people,” said Desai. 

While these moves have resulted in savings, she said that was never really the point, so whatever the firm has saved from staffing efficiencies it has reinvested in its tech stack to build its service line further. When asked for an example, she said the firm would like to focus more on penetration testing by building a SaaS tool for it. While Schellman has a proof of concept developed, she noted it would take a lot of money and time to deploy a full solution — both of which the firm now has more of because of its efficiency moves. 

“What is the ‘why’ behind these decisions? The ‘why’ for us isn’t what I think you traditionally see, which is ‘We need to get profitability high. We need to have less people do more things.’ That’s not what it is like,” said Desai. “I want to be able to focus on quality. And the only way I think I can focus on quality is if my people are not focusing on things that don’t matter … I feel like I’m in a much better place because the smart people that I’ve hired are working on the riskiest and most complicated things.”

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