Top 200 accounting firm Nichols Cauley started the new year by announcing it has launched a new financial services platform geared toward privately held small and midsized businesses, self-made entrepreneurs, and family-owned companies that will be led by former Baker Tilly CEO Alan Whitman.
The Dublin, GA-based firm said it has completed merger deals with insurance brokerage Partners Risk Services in Johns Creek, GA, and Braselton, GA-based transactions advisory firm JGH Consulting in order to launch the new platform. Outside capital for the platform has been locked up through an investment from Madison Dearborn Partners, a private equity firm based in Chicago.
Financial terms of the two mergers and the strategic growth investment from MDP weren’t disclosed.
Nichols Cauley said the combination establishes a platform that unites accounting, insurance, and transaction advisory services all under one roof.
The leadership team for the new multiservices platform includes Todd Giddens, managing partner of Nichols Cauley, who will serve as chief operating officer; Joe Thompson, CEO of Partners Risk Services, who will lead risk management and insurance services; Greg Hicks, managing partner of JGH Consulting, who will lead corporate finance services; and Whitman as its CEO.
“This merger is about more than staying competitive—it’s about making sophisticated business solutions accessible and meaningful to the clients who need it most,” Giddens said in a statement. “By combining our strengths, we amplify our ability to innovate and provide value-add solutions across accounting, tax, audit, advisory, insurance, and transaction advisory services. We’re committed to being the partner of choice that walks alongside our clients through every step of their journey.”
Clients will benefit from the platform’s increased resources, knowledge-sharing, and expanded footprint, leaders say.
“We are delighted to be supporting this innovative combination of three leading complementary financial services businesses into one synergistic platform,” Vahe Dombalagian, managing partner and co-head of financial services at MDP, said in a statement. “We look forward to working closely with the platform leadership and the broader team on their mission to deliver a unified service offering to clients across the Southeast U.S. and beyond.”
Whitman, who stepped down as CEO of Baker Tilly in 2023 after a more than 20-year career with the top 10 accounting firm, said the combined platform will support and enable business owners through the entire business lifecycle: manage, grow, protect.
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In a post on LinkedIn, he wrote that this combination “represents a new firm that isn’t simply bigger—it’s better.”
“Having spent years helping scale Baker Tilly into a leading national platform, I see an extraordinary opportunity to bring that experience to Nichols Cauley as we build something truly differentiated for private businesses and entrepreneurs,” Whitman said in a statement. “By unifying accounting, tax, audit, insurance, and transaction advisory under one roof and partnering with Madison Dearborn Partners, we’re offering a next-generation platform that breaks from tradition and equips business owners with the integrated, sophisticated advice they need at every stage of their journey.”
Following the close of the transaction, which is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2026, Nichols Cauley will operate in an alternative practice structure. Nichols Cauley & Associates LLC, a licensed CPA firm, will provide attest services, and Nichols Cauley Advisory Group LLC will provide business advisory, tax, and other non-attest services.
JGH Consulting advised Nichols Cauley and Partners Risk Services, and Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP and Dechert LLP provided legal counsel to the combined company. Koltin Consulting Group advised MDP, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; Kirkland & Ellis LLP; Vedder Price PC; and Alston & Bird LLP provided legal counsel to MDP.
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