Matthew Becker, BDO USA’s national managing principal of tax, has been ratified by a principal-wide vote to succeed Wayne Berson as the firm’s next CEO, effective July 1, 2026.
BDO USA’s board of directors
In his role as national managing principal of tax, Becker oversees the strategy and operations of BDO’s tax practice, which has more than doubled in size since 2019 and now includes over 3,500 tax professionals.
“International tax has been a huge growth area for us, and also the often-domestic implications of international operations,” Becker told Accounting Today. “The tax law and tax policy around the world continues to get more complicated. There’s exponential growth and tax regulation around the world. That positions businesses to need more and more assistance from outside advisors, and we’ve worked hard to be the preferred firm for helping businesses with those challenges.”
Becker is a member of BDO’s executive leadership team and a member of BDO International’s global tax advisory committee. He has also served as chairperson of BDO USA’s board of directors.
Becker said the goal moving forward is “keeping as much continuity as we can” while developing a strategy that is informed by leaders across the organization.
“Wayne’s been a truly transformational leader. The exponential growth that we’ve seen, which has been part organic and part strategic expansion, it’s been incredible for the people of BDO and for our clients in terms of opportunities created,” Becker said. “The benefit is that we’ve had 14 years of consistent leadership, and our strategy has been refreshed periodically while Wayne has been the CEO, but we’ve had consistency of leadership that entire time. You look around the industry — some of our competitors have had multiple leaders during that timeframe, some have had five or six.”
“Of course, the world changes and our strategy needs to evolve and be refreshed, and that’s something that we’ll do,” Becker continued. “But we have a year of transition between now and when Wayne officially retires. We’ll use that time to talk to our principals to make sure we fully understand what’s working well in the market as we’re trying to serve our clients, what’s not working as well, what we need to leave the same, what we need to change. And we’ll work together to refresh the strategy — always keeping in mind that the continuity of leadership is important. So a lot of the same values and philosophies that have been used to make decisions at the firm in the past will continue to be used going forward.”
Berson has served as CEO since 2012. During his tenure, the firm has grown nearly 400% to annual revenues of roughly $3 billion, and he oversaw the firm’s transition from a partnership to a corporation and then an
“I believe that the most impactful leaders recognize that the strongest organizations are greater than the sum of their parts,” Berson told Accounting Today. “Success comes from creating synergy, encouraging collaboration, giving space for ideas to flourish. I’ve seen Matt embody this approach in the tax practice. Under Matt’s leadership, the tax practice overtook the assurance practice for the first time in our history, and I’m excited to see how he’s going to bring this philosophy to the entire firm.”
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