Elliott Davis is charting its own path moving forward after a planned merger with Texas-based accounting firm Whitley Penn was called off at the end of 2022.
The proposed merger, which was originally announced last June, would have combined the two firms under the name Elliott Penn, creating a new business solutions firm with approximately $400 million in revenue. Combined, the firm would have had a larger presence nationally as a Top 25 firm, with a team of roughly 1,400 employees across 16 offices in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and New Mexico.
But the merger was ultimately shelved as both firms agreed to move forward on their own, according to Elliott Davis CEO Rick Davis.
“After evaluating where we were and realizing how special what we had was, we decided to stay on our own path,” Davis said.
The cancelation of the merger comes a year and a half after Elliott Davis set down even sturdier roots in the Greenville business ecosystem by opening new offices downtown. Situated on floors four through six in the Camperdown development, with floor-to-ceiling windows providing an expansive view of the downtown skyline, the new 75,000-square-foot offices of Elliott Davis were designed to reimagine how offices should complement the lives of the employees who flow through its spaces.
“Clearly, we wanted to provide a work environment that was attractive, but we also wanted to provide a work environment that was reflective of our values,” Davis said at the opening of the new offices. “I would say that the flexibility people expect today is certainly a component you’ve got to build into anything.”
The move to Camperdown, which occurred during a time when questions about the future of physical office space had been increasingly vocalized, has proved to be a prescient decision, as more companies see the limits of one-hundred-percent remote work arrangements, Davis said.
“We felt very confident from the beginning that we needed to be together,” he said.
Beyond functional purposes, Davis said he hopes the office continues to serve as a symbol of the company’s commitment to downtown Greenville.
“The space you’re in reflects where you’re going,” he said. “We’re very proud to have what we have, proud to call Greenville home, which we’ve done for 100 years, and we look forward to continuing to be committed to our people, customers and community.”
