Cherry Bekaert is going all in on the Washington, D.C., market, putting a veteran local leader in charge and signaling it is ready to hire and spread out across Northern Virginia over the next year. The Raleigh-based accounting and advisory firm has been snapping up local practices and folding their services into a single outsourced-accounting and recruiting platform aimed at government contractors, nonprofits and tech companies. If the strategy holds, it likely means more local jobs and a beefier Beltway presence.
As reported by the Washington Business Journal, Cherry Bekaert told the paper it plans to grow headcount and expand its Northern Virginia space within the next 12 months. The move follows the firm's purchase of D.C.-based Tarsus and other deals that broaden its outsourced accounting and CFO-advisory offerings. Industry coverage has noted that the Tarsus acquisition is part of a fast-paced M&A program that ramped up after the firm took private-equity backing, a strategy described in CFO Brew as central to the firm's plans.
Mitch Weintraub, a longtime area operator, was named Cherry Bekaert’s Washington market leader after selling his Vienna-based Cordia Partners to the firm in 2023. In a press release announcing the Cordia deal, Weintraub said the combination would create "mutually beneficial achievements" for clients and staff, and Cherry Bekaert's Washington market page now lists him as Partner and Market Leader. The appointment plants someone who already knows the region's nonprofit and government-contractor ecosystem at the top of the local org chart.
Acquisitions and scale
The D.C. push fits a clear playbook: acquire specialty firms, roll their services into a larger platform, and sell clients a bundled back-office product. CFO Brew has outlined how the firm is leaning on dealmaking to build out finance and advisory services, while reporting on the Herbein deal in Accounting Today shows that Cherry Bekaert has used a string of acquisitions since mid-2022 to expand geographically and add recruiting, technology and outsourced accounting capabilities. Firm executives say buying those capabilities is faster and cheaper than building everything in-house.
Why D.C. remains attractive
The Washington region offers a steady base of government funding, a dense nonprofit sector and a deep bench of contractors that need scalable finance teams, which makes it a natural market for outsourced accounting and recruiting. Broader commercial-real-estate trends, including a wave of office-to-residential conversions and tight housing supply, are reshaping where firms plant their offices and how they staff up, a dynamic explored in local coverage by Bisnow. For providers of cloud accounting platforms and outsourced CFO services, that mix of steady contracts and shifting real-estate demand keeps the region firmly in the "must-watch" column.
For local finance professionals and employers, Cherry Bekaert’s moves translate into more options for outsourced work and likely more recruiting calls in the months ahead. The firm has not spelled out exact timing for new leases or specific hiring targets, but its recent deals make additional local hires and space commitments a fair bet as integrations continue.
