🔒Longobardi plots growth strategy for CohnReznick

Frank Longobardi, regional managing partner-New England for CohnReznick LLP, can look out the window of his downtown Hartford office and see the building a block away where his former accounting firm, Haggett Longobardi, started with a staff of six.

That view is about to change dramatically for Longobardi, who's moving to New York City to become CEO of CohnReznick, a roughly 2,700-person accounting, tax and advisory firm with 30 offices nationally.

The move is bittersweet for Longobardi, 60, who has spent his entire accounting career in the Hartford area. Now he said he's excited to chart the firm's next growth phase, live in New York and attend more Yankees games — he's followed the team since growing up in West Haven.

Longobardi said CohnReznick, created when J.H. Cohn LLP and Reznick Group PC merged in October 2012, wants to be a top 10 firm. It's No. 11 right now and has more than $600 million in annual revenues.

“We should really be looking to be a $800 [million] to a billion-dollar firm in the next four to five years,” Longobardi said of the growth he seeks by the end of his four-year term as CEO (It will be his only term because a partnership agreement mandates retirement at 65).

Organic growth is part of the game plan. Mergers too could fuel growth, but on a smaller scale than when Cohn and Reznick joined forces years ago, he said.

Longobardi said he wants to accelerate growth in four key national practices: private equity, commercial real estate, affordable housing and renewable energy.

CohnReznick also has select city industry groups, which include not-for-profit, technology, life sciences, hospitality, construction, manufacturing and wholesale distribution.

“We have some really solid strength in those industries in some of our offices, but not all of our offices, so we have to start to building out that platform,” Longobardi said.

CohnReznick also needs to grow its consulting practice, he said. Advisory services account for about $90 million of the firm's revenues, a number he'd like to approach $150 million in four years.

Longobardi also intends to focus on leadership development.

“We're in a situation right now where there's scarcity of talent; everybody's looking to hire accountants,” he said. “So one of the things that we have to do is continue to identify the talent in-house and … be focused on recruiting.”

Longobardi also plans to spend time continuing to align the cultures of Cohn and Reznick and build on the firm's successful women's program — about 47 percent of its professional staffers are women versus 44 percent nationally in accounting.

Tom Marino, one of the firm's co-CEOs with Ken Baggett — they were Cohn and Reznick CEOs, respectively, and will step down Oct. 1, per the partnership agreement — said Longobardi is the right leader at the right time.

Longobardi has a great personality and people skills and is an excellent communicator, Marino said.

“He's going to be very engaging,” Marino said. “He's going to build a lot of consensus. But the one thing that stands out, he's a people person — it's not just going to be the partners, it's going to be to every employee we have.”

Marino added, “I have full confidence that Frank's going to do a great job and it's what this firm needs at this stage in our formation.”

The firm, meanwhile, is interviewing for a new regional managing partner-New England to oversee offices in Hartford, Stamford, New London, Boston and Springfield. Ed Kindelan remains office managing partner in Hartford, which has 220 employees, including 92 CPAs.

Longobardi and his wife intend to live on New York's upper west side to be relatively close to CohnReznick's headquarters, which will relocate from 6th Avenue and W. 48th Street to 6th and 53rd in December.

“I just enjoy the city life,” Longobardi said. “For my wife and I, it's a great time because both our kids are grown.”