Grant Thornton names Janet Malzone incoming Audit Services leader

Jeff Burgess, national managing partner of Audit Services, to retire July 31, 2021

CHICAGO — Grant Thornton LLP has named Janet Malzone as its incoming national managing partner of Audit Services, effective August 1, 2021. In this role, she will oversee the growth and operations of the firm’s audit-services offerings, as well as its continued focus on audit quality.

Malzone will serve on the firm’s Senior Leadership Team when she assumes the role from Jeff Burgess, who is retiring from the firm at the end of the fiscal year (July 31, 2021), after nearly 20 years in leadership roles at Grant Thornton.

“Janet will not only help our clients navigate a complex and challenging business environment, she will also drive our audit capabilities into the future by harnessing technology and innovation,” said Brad Preber, CEO of Grant Thornton. “She is the ideal leader to build on Jeff’s track record of creating a dynamic audit practice that keeps quality at the core of its operations and client services.”

Currently, Malzone serves as the Audit practice leader for the firm’s Midwest region and has served on Grant Thornton’s Partnership Board. She joined the firm in 2002 and has nearly 30 years of public accounting and audit experience serving public and private companies.

Previously, Malzone served as Grant Thornton’s Chicago Audit practice leader and as a director of the firm’s International Business Center. Additionally, she completed a two-year secondment in London, where she provided support and service delivery to Grant Thornton International Ltd member firms — guiding their U.S. financial-reporting activities and steering technical-reporting issues related to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Malzone is a certified public accountant in Illinois and Florida and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She is on the board and audit committee of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and is a Finance Committee member of the Economic Club of Chicago. Malzone is also a member of the Chicago chapter of the International Women’s Forum and the National Association of Corporate Directors’ Chicago Chapter. In 2017, she was named to the Most Influential Women Accountants in Chicago list by Crain’s Chicago Business. In 2010, Malzone was named a National Association of Female Executives Rising Star and the Southeast region Influential Woman of the Year by the American Society of Women Accountants.

Malzone received a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Central Florida and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Florida State University.

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