President & CEO
15+ years running firms. Now working with managing partners across North America.
Firms of all sizes, from sole practitioners to top 10 global firms rely on him. Phil specializes in succession planning, mergers & acquisitions, strategic talent acquisition and practice management consulting.
With firm management experience ranging from three partners, twelve employees, and $2 million in annual revenues to one of the Top 30 CPA firms in the Nation, with 48 partners, 400 employees and almost $100 million in annual revenues, there’s nothing Phil hasn’t seen.
Prior to practice management, Phil spent nearly six years as a multi-unit owner-operator of a National restaurant franchise, which is where he began honing his knowledge of labor law, human resources management and organizational leadership. His accounting firm experience includes audit work at Price Waterhouse, and tax work at Spicer & Oppenheim.
Whitman has authored articles and has chaired numerous committees for the New York State Society of CPAs. He has been a featured speaker for various state societies of CPA, international CPA firm associations as well as a presenter for CCHs annual user conference. He has served as conference chair of the Foundation for Accounting Education’s Practice Management Conference and the CFOs, Controllers and Financial Executives Conference.For over 20 years he has advised firms across North America, working with top management in overseeing day-to-day operations to ensure efficiency & profitability.
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Whitman is a Board Member and in 2008 helped to establish the HWMCF, Helping Win Myeloma Cancer Fight, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, whose mission is to raise funds for blood cancers research and awareness. He graduated from Rutgers College with a BA in economics and lives in NJ with his wife Mia and three sons, Charlie, Jake and Alex.
Phil’s past speaking engagements include (click here for current gigs):
- New England Practice Management Conference, Foxwoods Resort Casino & Conference Center, The Five Pillars of Practice Growth: Generate a Flood of New Profits in Good Times & Bad, Mashantucket, CT, November 2011
- Practice Management Conference, FAE Conference Center, New York, NY, December 2010
- MSI Global Alliance, 2010
- North American Managing Partners Forum, Anatomy of a CPA Firm Merger Deal that Should Have Happened, But Didn’t…Yet!, New York, NY, November 2010
- CCH 2010 User Conference, Art of the Merge: Growth With & Without Merging, Orlando, Florida, November 2010
- Signature Bank, Art of the Merge: Growth With & Without Merging, ING Bank Center, New York, NY, October 2010
- Legal Resource Group of NY, The New Business of Law, JH Cohn Training Center, New York, NY, January 2010.
- Practice Management Conference, FAE Conference Center, New York, NY, October 2009.
- CFOs, Controllers and Financial Executives Conference , Princeton Club, New York, NY June 2006, 2007, Conference Chair 2008.
- Increasing Profitability through Internal Controls, Association of Legal Administrators Educational Symposium, November 2006.
- Recruitment & Retention of Financial Professionals, NYSSCPA Human Resources Committee Panel Speaker, October 2006.
- Getting Organized to Be the Best: The ABCs of Organization, Princeton Club, New York, NY, October2005.
- Taking the Pulse of Your Law Firm, Yale Club, New York, NY, October 2004.
Articles Authored include:
- “Talk to HR: The Generation Gap”, The Trusted Professional, The Newspaper of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, January 2009.
- “Talk to HR: A Seat at the Table”, The Trusted Professional, The Newspaper of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, September 18, 2008.
- “Employees May Elect to Receive Transit Checks”, Newsletter, Association of Legal Administrators, August 1998.
- “Mind Your P’s and Q’s”, Book review, IRS Audit Protection and Survival Guide: Attorneys, December 1997.
- “Accounting for Client Disbursement”, Newsletter, Association of Legal Administrators, August 1997.
