PYA CEO, Marty Brown featured in Neel Center’s distinguished speaker series
The Neel Corporate Governance Speaker Series was founded in 2003 and has featured experts in corporate governance from around the country.
PYA‘s President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Marty Brown was selected as a distinguished speaker during the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s (UTK), Haslam College of Business Neel Corporate Governance Center speaker series. More than a hundred students and several faculty and staff members of the University of Tennessee attended the session to watch Brown discuss leadership, ethics, and private equity in today’s business environment.
High ethical standards are at the core of Brown’s leadership, values, and the “PYA Way,” which he shared with the students in attendance.
“Can you be ethical and not have integrity?” Brown asked the group of students. “It makes you think… Can you have integrity and not be ethical? Probably not, right? You have to have both in business.”
During the session, he shared several anecdotes and experiences where PYA Owners have had to make difficult communications and decisions primarily to ensure PYA remains a firm of integrity.
“We serve the public trust. Financial markets count on us, government agencies count on us, regulators, business owners, and the general public rely on our integrity,” Brown said. “Mistakes are okay. Mistakes will occur. Nobody is perfect. If people own up to those mistakes and take accountability, there is grace, forgiveness, and second chances.”
Brown spent the second half of the presentation helping students understand the role of private equity (PE), or as Brown refers to it, passive investment in CPA firms nationwide.
“In 2024 alone, PYA has been approached by 21 private equity firms looking to invest in the firm.,” Brown said. “But for us, we desire to continue to operate independently despite this recent trend in the industry… I am very passionate about this.”, he said, and he offered that such passive investments in CPA firms are only 2-3 years old and we need to see what will occur and the 5 and six-year mark.
Most PE firms’ sole interest is to make investments and see a return. This is not a new thing for PE firms; however, recently public accounting has become a focal point for capital investments. Why? Brown said it’s because CPA services are reliably profitable and there are opportunities to consolidate the industry.
In a traditional accounting firm, this capital would come from the partners who could alter their pay to support the continued growth of the firm. For example, when a long-time partner retires, the retiree would continue to receive pay over 5-12 years to compensate for that retirement. Some firms are still paying retirement compensation to people who left more than a decade ago, and have a limited relationship with the existing partners, staff, and clients. For many firms with this structure, there comes a time when the business model is no longer sustainable.
As more CPA firms are put at risk using this model, it creates a ripe opportunity for PE to come in and “save the day.”
Brown noted that PYA is one of the few firms that does not have such a deferred compensation plan, as the Owners voted to remove it from its Operating Agreement many years ago.
Brown joined the Knoxville-headquartered firm in 1991, and since then has helped PYA, the power behind teknovation.biz, skyrocket to national recognition that includes INSIDE Public Accounting Top 100 Firm, Modern Healthcare Top 15 Healthcare Consulting Firm, and INSIDE Public Accounting Third Highest Percentage Female Ownership Among Top 100 Firms. Additionally, earlier this year, Brown was named by Forbes as one of the top 200 CPAs in the nation in their inaugural edition of this award.
In addition to his work with PYA, Brown is also an entrepreneur. PYA has or is serving on the Executive Committee of several successful start-ups, with Brown serving as a founding partner and executive committee member for these organizations, including Realty Trust Group, ranked by Modern Healthcare as the nation’s 10th largest healthcare development company, and PYA Waltman, Knoxville’s fourth largest registered investment advisory firm. Additionally, Brown is a founding member and General Partner of Market Square Ventures, Knoxville’s newest Venture Capital firm. He is also a graduate of the Haslam College at UTK.
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