Plante Moran named ‘Best Accounting Firm for Women’ for fifth consecutive year

Southfield, Michigan – Plante Moran, one of the nation’s largest certified public accounting and business advisory firms, has been named to the Accounting MOVE Project’s “Best Public Accounting Firms for Women” list, released by the Accounting & Financial Women’s Alliance and American Women’s Society of CPAs.

The list, which has been published for the past six years, names 10 accounting firms that demonstrate the following characteristics:

• Consistent, measurable progress in advancing women
• Proven and continually evolving programs that retain and advance women
• Evidence that the firm’s advancement of women is intrinsic to its growth and succession goals

Those named to the list were selected by the Accounting MOVE Project after reviewing survey results submitted by 47 leading financial and accounting firms. Plante Moran has been included on the list each of the five years it’s submitted.

“Plante Moran has been focused on recruiting and promoting women in accounting for decades,” said Sue Perlin, leader of Plante Moran’s Women in Leadership initiative. “For more than 25 years, we’ve had a WorkFlex committee to create policies and practices to help retain all staff, including women and working mothers at the firm. We’ve had flexible work arrangements and we’ve encouraged balance for all of our staff members.

“In 2013, we decided we needed to do more and launched a Women in Leadership initiative for the attraction, retention, development and advancement of women into leadership positions within the firm.”

The goal of Plante Moran’s WIL initiative is to foster equal presence, impact and influence from men and women at all levels of the firm, including partnership. The initiative is driven by four key strategies:

• Ensure the initiative has dedicated leadership, senior management team involvement and coordinated activities and programs
• Focus on increasing the visibility of women leaders both internally and externally
• Provide targeted developmental career opportunities in order to retain and advance women leaders
• Continue to work on developing customized career and life integration strategies that complement the firm’s existing and proven work-life programs

“Women are a differentiating factor for firms competing intensely for new clients,” said Joanne Cleaver, president of Wilson-Taylor Associates, Inc., the content and communications firm that manages the Accounting MOVE Project. “Most employers are concerned with advancing women, and they want to do business with CPA firms that share those values.”

About Plante Moran

Plante Moran (www.plantemoran.com) is among the nation’s largest certified public accounting and business advisory firms, providing clients with tax, audit, risk management, financial, technology, business consulting and wealth management services. Plante Moran has a staff of more than 2,000 professionals in 22 offices throughout Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, with international offices in Shanghai, China; Monterrey, Mexico; and Mumbai, India. Plante Moran has local offices in the following cities:

• Michigan: Ann Arbor, Auburn Hills, Clinton Township, Detroit, East Lansing, Flint, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo,  St. Joseph, Southfield (two offices) and Traverse City
• Ohio: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo
• Illinois: Downtown Chicago and Elgin