Hornan, who is managing partner of the London arm of UHY, formally succeeded John Wolfgang in the UHY chair at the organisation’s annual meeting, which ended on 20 Oct, although the news was not released to the media until today.
It is the second time during his more than 35 years at UHY that Hornan has been elected chairman.
In a statement released to accompany the announcement, Hornan revealed that the network, although it has been growing (and “size isn’t everything”), may consider “other solutions” to boost its growth going forward, as it seeks to compete effectively on the international stage for clients.
He expressed some scepticism, however, about whether integrating legal services – “which some competitor networks have adopted, as [have] some individual UHY member firms” – would prove to be the answer.
“Another route to growth for UHY could be add-on services through acquisition, particularly in outsourcing, without conflicting with existing member firms’ interests,” Ladislav said.
“Outsourcing as a means to achieve network-wide growth is more compatible with UHY’s core business of accountancy and business consultancy.
“Some of our member firms [have also] gained much recognition by focusing their client services on a number of specialist sectors that are significant worldwide, such as natural resources, including oil and gas and high-tech.”
38 years
Hornan joined UHY Hacker Young in the UK as an insolvency administrator in 1974, and become a partner six years later; he has been managing partner since 1995.
Founded in 1986, the UHY network is based in London and currently has offices in nearly 250 cities in 81 countries, employing more than 6,800 people. Its 2011 total revenue of $625m in 2011 makes it the world’s 25th largest international audit, accounting, tax and consultancy network.
The UHY structure is designed in such a way that each member firm is a legally separate and independent entity. The UK group of UHY International is known as UHY Hacker Young.
