Chief executive officer

The CEO is appointed by the Board for an initial term of five years and is eligible for successive terms of three years each. The CEO is appointed from a pool of candidates who are nominated by the Board. Grant Thornton received external advice on the 2009 selection process, including selection criteria and evaluation methods.

The CEO is responsible for the leadership and management of Grant Thornton International. The role of the CEO includes the development and recommendation of global strategic priorities for ratification by the Board, together with overseeing execution of these priorities. The CEO has responsibility for appointing the Global leadership board (GLB), subject to the concurrence of the Board. The GLB assists the CEO in the execution of the global strategy. The CEO is regularly briefed by GLB members on recommended modifications to the policies and procedures, including those governing international work for the assurance, tax and advisory service lines.

Ed Nusbaum took office as CEO on 1 January 2010. Previously, Ed was CEO of Grant Thornton LLP, the member firm in the United States of America: a position he had held since 2001. Before becoming US CEO, Ed served as that firm’s national managing partner of professional services, managing partner of the Philadelphia office and national director of assurance services. His experience includes being a Trustee of the Financial Accounting Foundation and a member of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Advisory Committee on Improvement to Financial Reporting (CIFiR). Ed is a member of the International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC) whose mission is to create a globally accepted integrated reporting framework which brings together financial, environmental, social and governance information in a clear, concise, consistent and comparable format.