Janet Malzone

Executive summary

Janet Malzone is the CEO of Grant Thornton LLP and a principal at Grant Thornton Advisors LLC. She is also a member of the Executive Committee at Grant Thornton Advisors LLC.

Malzone joined Grant Thornton in 2002 and has nearly 30 years of public accounting and audit experience serving public and private companies. She has helped clients ranging from small entrepreneurial businesses to large multinational corporations navigate challenging business environments by utilizing technology and innovation.

Malzone has held several key leadership positions at Grant Thornton. Most recently, she served as a member of Grant Thornton’s Senior Leadership Team and was the firm’s national managing partner of Audit & Assurance Services, overseeing the growth and operations of Grant Thornton’s audit and assurance offerings, as well as its continued focus on audit quality.

Prior to that, she served as Grant Thornton’s Audit practice leader for the firm’s Midwest region, where she focused on optimizing the client experience across the region. In that role, she also served on Grant Thornton’s Partnership Board.

Earlier in her career, Malzone was Grant Thornton’s Chicago Audit practice leader and 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 (CPA) in Illinois and Florida and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Illinois CPA Society. She is on the board and audit committee of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and she serves as treasurer and board member of the Economic Club of Chicago. Malzone is also a member of the Chicago chapter of the International Women’s Forum and serves on the Florida State University Accounting Advisory Board.

A frequent speaker on issues relating to corporate governance, Malzone is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and is NACD Directorship Certified™. She also serves as an NACD Governance Fellow and is a member of the NACD Chicago Chapter.

Malzone has been named to several prestigious lists throughout her career. For example, in 2022, she was included on NACD’s Directorship 100: an annual list awarding the most influential leaders in and around the boardroom. 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.

Professional qualifications and memberships

• CPA — Illinois, Florida
• NACD Directorship Certified™
• AICPA
• Illinois CPA Society
• National Association for Female Executives (NAFE)
• Leadership Charlotte, Graduate
• Finance Executives International
• Association for Corporate Growth, Past Treasurer
• Charlotte’s Top 25 Women in Business, 2010
• NAFE Rising Star, 2010
• American Society of Women Accountants Influential Woman of the Year, Southeast Region, 2010
• Most Influential Women Accountants in Chicago by Crain’s Chicago Business, 2017
• NACD Directorship 100 recipient, 2022

Presentations and Publications

• Retaining Young Professionals Requires Board Thoughtfulness
• Three Approaches for Encouraging Innovation
• Defining Innovation in Relation to Risk and Failure
• Audit Committees Spotlight: What audit committees can do to stay on top of tax risk

Community involvement

• Lurie’s Children’s Hospital, Audit Committee Member
• Economic Club of Chicago, Treasurer
• Florida State University Accounting Advisory Board
• International Women’s Forum, Treasurer
• NACD, Member

Education

• MS, Accounting, University of Central Florida
  BS, Accounting, Florida State University