Jim Peko on Building the Future of Professional Services at Grant Thornton

**Jim Peko** (0:00)
In our old governance model, you know, there was a risk aversion, again, to making longer term investments. Now, we were able to demonstrate by bringing in a new partner and effectively sharing that risk. We were able to make the investments in technology that were necessary to put us in the forefront of the market and make investments in M&A that we hadn't made before.

**Peter High** (0:27)
Welcome to Technovation. I'm Peter High, President of Metis Strategy. My guest today is Jim Peko. Jim is the Chief Executive Officer of Grant Thornton Advisors LLC, one of the largest audit tax and advisory organizations in the United States, and an increasingly global professional services platform. Grant Thornton's global network earned $8.5 billion in revenue in 2025
Jim became CEO in early 2025 after previously serving as COO and leading the firm's advisory services business. Over nearly two decades with Grant Thornton, he's advised clients on complex transactions, restructuring, and value creation initiatives while helping shape the firm's broader growth and transformation strategy. Under his leadership, Grant Thornton has accelerated its expansion globally through acquisitions and platform integration, supported by significant investments in technology and artificial intelligence capabilities, which he has noted will reach $1 billion.
I look forward to speaking with Jim about how the accounting and advisory industry is evolving in the era of AI, how Grant Thornton is building a more integrated global platform, and why speed, data, and technology are becoming increasingly important competitive differentiators in professional services. Jim, welcome to Technovation. It's great to speak with you today.

**Jim Peko** (1:36)
Great to be with you today, Peter. I'm excited.

**Peter High** (1:39)
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**Jim Peko** (2:36)
I am as well.

**Peter High** (2:37)
Thank you. Well, why don't we begin with the business that you run. Grant Thornton, talk a bit about the business as it stands now. I'd love to hear it in your own words.

**Jim Peko** (2:45)
Yeah, Grant Thornton is one of the largest professional services firms in the world. Grant Thornton Advisors provides advisory and tax services across 20 countries.
This is something that is very unique in the industry in the sense that the international firms are really made up of individual territory firms that are loosely affiliated through global networks. You can almost think about them as franchises. And what we've really done, and it's not quite a franchise system, but what we've really done is we have consolidated a number of the firms in the largest territories. And that's unique. So we have true operational and financial alignment across our platform now. So you may hear me through this podcast talk about the platform, which is the Grant Thornton firms as part of Grant Thornton Advisors and you may hear me refer to the network, which is the broader network of firms, which are not owned by Grant Thornton Advisors. So that's an important distinction because both are very important in the context of how we serve our clients.

**Peter High** (4:15)
Talk a bit more about what differentiates the platform from the network. How do you determine those that were brought together into the platform versus those that were not?

**Jim Peko** (4:22)
Yeah, that's an excellent question. I mean, what we really looked at was really three factors. Where do we have client crossover? Where do we have industry alignment? And where do we think that there's going to be outsized growth from an economic perspective? So when you look at some of the early acquisitions, for instance, Grant Thornton Ireland, there was clear alignment with industry alignment around financial services, as well as client alignment. And then when you look at some others that have the same characteristics, but then an outsized growth aspect. So the UAE, for instance, which we acquired around this time last year, outstanding growth opportunity, in fact, above normal growth opportunity in that market with a lot of the regulatory changes, tax changes coming in 2027 So it really is around those three options.