BPM adds KPMG veteran to lead tax practice

Burr Pilger Mayer, Inc. has added a 30-year KPMG veteran as a partner to lead its North Bay corporate tax practice.

Formerly partner-in-charge of KPMG's San Francisco tax practice, Thomas Garigliano, 54, will begin his role at BPM on Feb. 3. He has previously served as the tax lead partner for software and electronics, financial services and the global tax outsourcing practice at KPMG, and retired from the firm in 2013.

It was in KPMG's tax department that Mr. Garigliano first met Carol O'Hara, who served as an audit partner for seven years and now manages the North Bay practice for BPM. He cited a shared style in pursuing close client relationships as a major draw to work for BPM.

[caption id="attachment_86502" align="alignright" width="224"] Thomas Garigliano[/caption]

"I know how Carol works," Mr. Garigliano said, recounting their time at KPMG. "It's all about client service."

Mr. Garigliano will join a 45-member practice that has recently grown its footprint in the North Bay. The firm opened a St. Helena office in late 2013 to better serve wine industry clients and others in the region, and has been seeking to grow staff "at all levels," Ms. O'Hara said.

Working with those wine industry clients -- and diving into the tax issues specific to that industry -- was another draw, Mr. Garigliano said.

"I'm excited about what the team has done here," he said. "The depth of resources on the tax side was very impressive to me."

He also noted the large impact that sophisticated tax service can have for smaller companies, and said that he looked forward to providing that service in the North Bay.

Ms. O'Hara described Mr. Garigliano's professional history in ownership structures, partnership taxation, mergers and acquisitions and a broad spectrum of industries at KPMG as representative of BPM's "big firm know-how." Yet she described his personal style as reflecting a "small firm know-you," and noted client relationships at BPM that have their roots in the launch of the former Andersen & Company in 1981.

"A big part of our success is building on the success of Andersen," which became BPM in 2009, Ms. O'Hara said. "Bringing on Tom is bringing it to the next level."

In addition to Ms. O'Hara, Mr. Garigliano will join partners Jim Petray and Ken Dansie in private client services, as well as Joe Kitts and Thomas Benton in tax.

Show Comment