Grant Thornton appoints Jeff Hughes to lead Quality and Innovation for Audit Services

CHICAGO — Grant Thornton LLP has named Jeff Hughes as its national managing partner of Audit Quality and Innovation, effective Nov. 1, 2020. In this role, he will oversee all quality control functions within Grant Thornton’s Audit Services practice.

Hughes will join the firm’s Senior Leadership Team, and is assuming the role from Trent Gazzaway, who will become the global quality leader at Grant Thornton International Ltd (GTIL), the entity for the international network of Grant Thornton member firms. Gazzaway, who has served in leadership roles at Grant Thornton for more than 18 years, will help shape and develop the quality initiatives across the network of GTIL member firms.

“Quality is the foundation of all we do and continues to be a primary focus at Grant Thornton,” said Jeff Burgess, national managing partner of Audit Services at Grant Thornton. “Jeff Hughes is an extremely talented audit professional who understands how critical quality and innovation is to the accounting industry. Not only will he help our clients navigate these unprecedented times, he will build on Trent’s impressive work creating high-quality and innovative audit capabilities at our firm.”

Hughes joined Grant Thornton in 2010 and has more than 35 years of experience in the accounting and audit industry, including serving international and domestic organizations in a wide array of industries. In addition to his responsibilities at Grant Thornton, he is also a member of the GTIL Global Audit Quality Steering Committee and the GTIL Client Acceptance Committee.

Previously, Hughes served as the national managing partner of Audit Risk Management, where he led client acceptance and reacceptance processes, internal inspection programs, peer reviews and other quality-control programs and initiatives. Before that, he served as regional associate director for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

Hughes is a certified public accountant and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the College of William & Mary and he’s a member of the Accounting Programs Board of the Mason School of Business at William & Mary.

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