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By Warren Turner
• Editor
A time for reflection and gratitude
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By Andersen Alumni Association
• Admin
Congratulations to the Following Alumni and Best Wishes in your new roles.
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By Michael J. Johnson
• BGS Consulting CFO Advisory Practice Leader | AI
Agentic artificial intelligence in finance has moved past the pilot stage. The models are capable and affordable, and capability is no longer what stalls a finance program after the proof of concept. The gap is controls and data quality: whether an answer rests on a consistent definition of the truth, produces auditable results, ties back to reliable data, and yields financial results an auditor will concur with.
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By J. James O'Malley
• Former Andersen National Director of Experience Recruiting, Jim is Managing Director at Kensington International Executive Search
Early in my career at Arthur Andersen, information was considerably harder to find. Research took time, market intelligence often came through experience and relationships, and understanding an industry required conversations with people who knew the companies, the competitors, and the individuals leading them.
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By Warren R. Turner
• Former Arthur Andersen Enterprise Group Manager, Founder of Andersen Alumni Association and Partner Cardinal Points Group
In the July issue of the Andersen Alumni Newsletter, I wrote about the potential pitfalls of Microsoft’s evolving licensing strategy, particularly the temptation to upgrade based on attractive discounts rather than demonstrated business value.
My message was straightforward: A discount isn’t necessarily a savings.
Now I’d like to ask organizations that have recently renewed or upgraded their Microsoft agreements a simple question:
Are you spending more or less on Microsoft today? And are you getting greater value from that investment?
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By Todd Dewett
• Andersen Alumnus, author and speaker
Stress is both an objective reality and a subjective experience that can be managed. Whether you're talking about a crazy client expectation, a difficult relationship, job insecurity, or any of many other stressors we might list, their impact is variable depending on choices you make. Your choices matter.
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By Brendan Giuseppe
• Andersen Alumnus and Founder of BGS Consulting, a proud sponsor of the Andersen Alumni Newsletter
For years, private equity returns could be supported by favorable financing, multiple expansion and a healthy exit market. That playbook has become harder to rely on. PwC reported that the number of U.S. private equity transactions in the first half of 2026 was 67% lower than in 2025, even as total deal value increased nearly 10% evidence that sponsors are becoming more selective and concentrating capital on higher-conviction opportunities.
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By Jack K. Gelman
• Former Andersen Partner and Managing Director & CEO Gelman & Associates, LLC
One morning recently, my dear friend George called, unhappy and confused.
George had retired a few months earlier. Since then, he'd been filling his days on the golf course, puttering around the house, and reading — books, newspapers, blogs, magazines, anything he could find.
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By Jennifer Eggers
• Andersen Alumnus and Founder & President of LeaderShift Insights®
On Monday, September 17, 2001 (six days after 9/11) I walked into a strategic planning session I had tried to cancel. I stood in front of the room and told the president and his leadership team that we were about to waste our time. Any strategy we created that day, I told them, was likely to be wrong by the end of the week.
They laughed.
And a week later, they threw the strategy out.
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By John G. Blumberg
• Andersen Alumnus and author of Return On Integrity
For nearly thirty years, I have asked audiences the same simple question. If you had to describe integrity in a single word, what would it be?
The answer rarely changes. Honesty. Ask for a phrase and it is just as predictable. What you do when no one is watching. Heads nod. Of course. We all know what integrity is.
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By Gary Thomson
• Andersen Alumnus and currently a Managing Director at Thomson Consulting
For several years now, accounting firm leaders have heard experts share various challenges that must be addressed to ensure future success. These issues have been on countless parter retreat agendas year after year: launching advisory services, changing governance models, improving accountability, developing the appropriate talent strategy, or addressing succession.
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By Mary Trigiani
Sometime during the past ten years, the universal bartending 101 skill of mixing a classic dry martini, straight up with plain olives, has begun eluding a strong percentage of America’s bartenders.
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By Don Bravaldo
• Andersen Alumnus and Founder and President Bravaldo Capital Advisors
Global M&A is on pace for one of its strongest years on record. Sit across the table from a business owner in the middle-market, however, and you are just as likely to hear about a deal that stalled, a financing package that came in tighter than expected, or a process pushed into next year. Both pictures are accurate, and reconciling them is the task at hand, because the second half of 2026 will reward owners who understand precisely which of these two markets they occupy.
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By Jim DeLoach
• Former Andersen Partner and Founding Managing Director at Protiviti. He is the author of several books and a frequent Forbes and NACD contributor.
A 900-page board book isn’t helpful, but solutions to distractions exist if you are willing to re-assess meeting materials.
Board materials should be channeling the board’s energy and effectiveness as strategic advisers, not bogging them down, Protiviti’s Jim DeLoach writes. He offers a disciplined approach for excellent board operations through a shift from presentation to collaboration that honors the sanctity board members’ time.
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By MIke Casey
• Andersen Alumnus and Co-Founder of TechCXO and CEO of Banker Advisor
HSBC just told its private credit clients something they didn't want to hear: we're not renewing your lending facilities. The British banking giant is pulling back from a sector it once courted aggressively, citing concerns about risk and the need for "robust central oversight."
HSBC isn't alone. Barclays is constraining lending to structured finance counterparties with "vulnerable business models." J.P. Morgan marked down collateral held by private credit firms and slashed their borrowing capacity. Deutsche Bank, sitting on a €25.9 billion private credit loan portfolio, faces potential losses that Bloomberg Intelligence estimates could eat up 13% of its 2026 profit in a downturn scenario.
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By Ralph Schonenbach
• Former Consultant Andersen Business Consulting, Founder and CEO of Meerkat, Inc.
Last week I spent two days at the Yardstick Innovation Institute in Ojai. I've been trying to figure out why it stayed with me the way it has, and I don't think it was any one session. It was what happened when I let myself actually be there.
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By Johnny Lee
• Andersen Alumnus and Partner Risk Advisory Services Grant Thornton Advisors LLC
As agents gain enterprise traction, boards need to probe deeply.
Responsible board members want to ask the right questions about AI agents.
That’s not as difficult as it sounds, even though the technology is new.
