DFK has welcomed a new executive director who will be using his experience to continue to build on its success.
DFK has announced the appointment of Bill Wright as its Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Martin Sharp, who has retired after 12 years at the head of the organisation.
DFK International is an association of independent accounting firms collectively with 455 offices, and 14,000 employees operating in 100 countries and territories.
The appointment of Wright was made by the Executive Board after a lengthy global outreach within, and external, to the organisation.
He previously held the position of Principal at the San Francisco, California firm of Shea Labagh Dobberstein (SLD) – a former member firm of DFK – where he was responsible for mergers and acquisitions, business development, and marketing. He was also instrumental in SLD earning the DFK International Firm of the Year award.
Harriet Greenberg, President of the DFK Executive Board, said: “Bill is a strategic thinker and brings a unique and much-valued background to the position.
“As a former client-facing leader at one of our top-performing firms, he will continue DFK’s long-standing tradition of serving our members’ best interests. Having an executive with demonstrated success in driving growth is something the board was seeking.”
Wright earned a Masters at the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University and previously was a Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, a Vice President at Daiwa Bank and a Corporate Banking Officer at Bank of America.
He is a member of the Institute of Directors in London, has held leadership roles in the USA-based Association for Corporate Growth and was an adjunct professor of accounting at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
Wright, who will be based at DFK’s headquarters in London, said: “I’ve worked with Martin Sharp for several years. He has kept a steady hand on the tiller, strengthened the foundations of our global team and charted a sustainable path through the challenging pandemic of the past two years.
“We owe Martin our sincere appreciation and wish him smooth sailing in retirement.
“The strongest attribute of our group is our culture – a culture of global teamwork to deliver expertise for clients regardless of location. Maintaining and enhancing this culture will be at the heart of everything we do.”