Press Room

September 02, 2014

WTAS Revives Arthur Andersen Name as Andersen from AccountingToday

Arthur Andersen, the former Big Five firm that collapsed over a decade ago in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandals, has been revived by a group of former Andersen partners who have changed the name of their firm from WTAS to Andersen.

WTAS was founded in 2002 by CEO Mark Vorsatz and 22 former Arthur Andersen partners and has grown internationally. In an effort to identify a brand name that it could use and protect globally, WTAS said it felt the “Andersen” name best reflected its own culture of clients first, stewardship, transparency and best in-class solutions.

“We all came from a common culture and shared certain core values,” Vorsatz said in a statement Monday. “In creating a global platform, we recognized that the development of an integrated professional service model based on common values with a common identity was essential.”

Andersen, like WTAS, will be an independent global tax firm with no audit practice. It will be completely owned by its partners. Most of them have previously worked at Andersen or a Big Four accounting firm.

As the needs of the firm’s clients continued to expand beyond the U.S., WTAS said it has focused on developing more comprehensive relationships with firms outside the U.S. It said it evaluated a number of options and networks and ultimately determined that building its own global platform was the best solution to ensure the highest quality client service internationally.

In the last 14 months alone, WTAS said it has welcomed nearly 40 partners and more than 150 professionals in nine locations across Europe. Studio Associato De Vecchi in Italy, and several other additions are expected before the end of the year.

“We all share a vision of creating a premier independent tax firm that delivers best-in-class service in a seamless fashion across the globe,” Vorsatz said. “To achieve that, we needed one common name. Accordingly, we are becoming Andersen.”

 

Accounting Today
September 2, 2014

Read the entire article here.