BDO International appoints Keith Farlinger as global CEO
BDO's most senior management has approved the appointment of Keith Farlinger as the new CEO of BDO International, effective from November 1st. Farlinger has effectively been with the firm since 1973, and was most recently CEO of the firms Americas constituency. He succeeds Martin van Roekel, who will continue on at the firm as Vice Chairman, focused on strategic issues in China and Hong Kong.
Keith Farlinger has held various senior roles at BDO, first in Canada before moving to BDO International. His most recent role at the firm was that of CEO of the Americas, whereby he was responsible for driving growth and development across the network. He previously spent 6 years as CEO of BDO Canada, following more than a decade at BDO Dunwoody, which included the role of Toronto Region Managing Partner. He began his career at the legal predecessor of BDO, Dunwoody & Company, in 1973.
Farlinger was the Chair of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario between 2002 and 2008, and holds a Bachelor in Mathematics in Mathematics, Accounting which he obtained from the University of Waterloo.
Farlinger is tasked with the continued growth of the middle-market professional service firm, for which he will leverage his extensive experience drawn from his more than two decades with the firm. His work has involved bringing various innovations to the firm’s operation, including IT developments, within the wider BDO network – his appointment was agreed to unanimously by the Global Board.
He will succeed Martin van Roekel, who will be stepping down from the role of CEO of BDO International on 31 October 2017, after more than six years in the job. He will continue to play a part of BDO, in his new role of Vice Chairman at the firm focused on strategic priorities, such as China and Hong Kong. Across all member firms the network now generates around $7.6 billion in revenue, operates in 158 countries and has around 68,000 people working out of 1,400 offices worldwide.
Remarking on his appointment, Keith Farlinger said that he was very pleased to be taking up this leadership role as of November 1st, before adding that, “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.”
Reflecting on his ending role at the firm, the out-going Van Roekel commented, “I am grateful to all BDO firms and their partners and staff for their great cooperation in the past years, supporting the ongoing changes and being very helpful and accommodating in the process of investing and building an even stronger and more successful BDO network – all the time maintaining our unique BDO culture.”
