“This isn’t a flash in the pan. This is an actual structural change in the profession.”
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Big 4 Transparency
By Dominic Piscopo, CPA
For CPA Trendlines
Private equity in public accounting is often reduced to a caricature – buy, cut, flip.
Tim Brackney, CEO of Springline Advisory, says that framing misses what many accounting investments are actually trying to do: fund a growth thesis built around expanded capabilities, talent development, and modernized service delivery. Springline, backed by Trinity Hunt Partners, is a “buy-and-build” platform that has completed nine deals across CPA and advisory firms as it works toward becoming a national and eventually global firm with “all of the capabilities inside our four walls that our clients will need.”
MORE Big 4: Dominic Piscopo | MORE Brackney: Don’t Blame Private Equity. Blame the Accountants | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation
Brackney’s path to the CEO seat isn’t the “serial PE operator” stereotype. He started at PwC as an auditor, then moved into advisory and BPO work, and later spent two decades at Resources Global Professionals (RGP), a publicly traded Deloitte spin-out, ultimately serving as president and COO. He describes an 18-month mutual diligence process with Trinity Hunt, emphasizing that the goal wasn’t a quick arbitrage play. It was building an enduring firm, potentially by bringing in future investors over time rather than forcing a rapid exit.
A key early lesson, Brackney says, was that 2023 still required “Private Equity 101” education for many sellers.
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