BDO continues to uphold position within best five of the world’s largest professional services netwo

BDO Global recently announced worldwide turnover of $ 8 billion for the year ending 30 September 2017 marking an increase of 8% from the previous financial year.

BDO, which was founded in 1963 by Bernhard Binder and Hans Otte, today is a global firm with branches in over 160 different nations forming an international network of providing auditing, accounting, tax, consulting and business advisory services. The continuous growth shown by its member firms and the financial, strategic and organic growth made through acquisitions, tremendously contributed to achieve the position BDO holds today.

In 2017, BDO augmented its digital transformation activities with the intention of meeting its future automation challenges such as robotic process automation, blockchain and bot technology. Further, it has planned to leverage its long-time partnerships with market leaders such as Microsoft and Xero to ensure that it’s bespoke Audit Process Tool meets its future challenges.

Further, the digital client experience BDO provides in its service line and firm level has empowered firms of BDO to provide efficient audit and tax operations to its clients while responding instantly to its client requests. Moreover, in 2017, a series of high-profile mergers across all regions took place including India and Indonesia.

It must be said that BDO has successfully reaped the harvest of the massive projects undertaken by it during the past couple of years.

In 2017, the Global leadership of BDO also saw, Keith Farlinger taking over as CEO of the International BDO network. He was the former CEO of BDO Canada and was a member of the network’s Global Leadership Team in the role of CEO Americas. He has been, and still remains, heavily involved in the multiple audit innovation and IT developments within the BDO network and as such, has been closely involved in the significant changes within BDO over the past several years.

Keith Farlinger was the CEO of BDO Canada for seven years and the Canadian member of the network’s Global Board from 2008 till 2015. Prior to that, he was active for many years as an audit partner in BDO Canada. Immediately after completing his CEO term at BDO Canada, Keith joined BDO’s Global Leadership Team as CEO Americas.

Keith Farlinger, who took up the position of Global CEO with effect from 1 November 2017, stated: “I am very pleased to be taking up this leadership role and it is a particular honour to succeed Martin van Roekel. I intend to continue the same pace of development and level of activity that he has set in motion and trust that I can actively contribute to the further growth and success of the BDO network. It is important that the change process and strategic approach introduced in recent years continues to be implemented successfully. It is my aim to ensure the further positive development of our member firms and of the network as a whole.”

The Global Board’s agreement to appoint Keith Farlinger as the new CEO of BDO International Limited was unanimous; owing to his previous international roles, he has won great respect throughout the network.

When speaking to BDO Sri Lanka Managing Partner Sujeewa Rajapakse, he was also of the view that the practice in Sri Lanka has performed well in 2017 and contributed towards the success of BDO. “We have all grown as a firm, and our clients look to us to provide advice that is reliable and timely. I believe that we are large enough to ensure that we provide a seamless service to our clients’ across many disciplines of accounting, auditing and tax services and also we are small enough to give us the agility to adjust to our client’s needs.” BDO Brand stands for exceptional client service, delivered by exceptional people.