2012 Regional Leaders
see three kinds of growth
Much like our Top 100 Firms, our Regional Leaders had a decent 2011, with all 10 regions reporting growth.
And as with our T100, mergers played a
major role in how the year unfolded, both
for the firms and for the regions.
In 2011, the regions fell into three
bands: those with extremely high growth
overall, those with perfectly respectable
growth, and those with growth that was,
if not wildly exciting, at least better than
in 2010. Rocketing ahead were the Southeast and the Gulf Coast, with the Regional
Leaders there reporting combined growth
of 18 percent and 19 percent, respectively.
It should come as no surprise that these
regions are home to two of 2011’s biggest
firm mergers — the combination of Dixon Hughes with Goodman & Co. to form
Dixon Hughes Goodman at the beginning
of the year, and the creation of Warren
Averett at the end of the year, from Warren,
Averett, Kimbrough & Marino, O’Sullivan
Creel, and Wilson, Price, Barranco, Blankenship & Billingsley.
Moving along at a reasonable pace
were the Mid-Atlantic Region, the Great
Lakes, New England, the Capital Region,
and the West, all with growth between 4. 5
and 6. 5 percent. Mergers reshaped the
terrain in all of these, as well, and in many
cases created new ties between regions, as
witnessed by the number of Mid-Atlantic
Regional Leaders, particularly from the
New York Metro area, that made moves
into New England.
Bringing up the rear were the Mountain Region, the Southwest and the Midwest, with growth rates ranging between
1.1 and 2.2 percent. While that may seem
low, it should be noted that the first two
grew faster than they did in 2010, when the
In all its forms
Regional Leader revenue growth, year-to-year change
20
15
10
5
0
Great
Lakes
Gulf
Coast
Mid
west
Mountain South
east
South
west
West
Capital
Region
Mid-
Atlantic
New
England
Mountain Region actually contracted, and
that the Midwest was only off a little from
2010, while suffering the loss of one of its
major firms, LarsonAllen, which became
a national firm through — you guessed it
— a series of mergers.
It should be remembered, though,
that geography is not destiny: There were
low-performing firms in the leading re-
gions, while the Southwest’s Whitley Penn
and PMB Helin Donovan grew by over 16
and 12 percent, respectively; the Mountain
Region is home to standouts like Squire &
Co., which grew by over 11 percent; and
the Midwest hosts RubinBrown, which
grew by almost 14 percent, in part by fur-
ther expanding into the Mountain Region
by acquiring a major Denver firm.
