Professional Services 2024: ED KEARNEY

A Pennsylvania native, Kearney founded Kearney & Co., one of the nation’s largest CPA firms, in 1985. With $256 million in revenue and more than 1,200 employees, it’s ranked No. 31 on Accounting Today’s list of the nation’s top 100 firms. It’s also the largest U.S. firm focusing exclusively on financial management and professional services for federal agencies.

Kearney has contributed to books about federal accounting and federal government auditing. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from King’s College in Pennsylvania and an MBA from George Washington University. His son, Brian, is the company’s chief operating officer.

Kearney serves on King’s College’s board of directors and has provided multiple scholarships and internships to its students. Following a 2020 $1 million commitment from the Kearney family to fund two annual full-tuition scholarships, the school’s accounting department was renamed for the company. In May, Kearney delivered the college’s commencement address.

In August 2023, the firm’s protest of the awarding of a five-year, $98.7 million Army contract to competitor Guidehouse was denied by the Government Accountability Office. Kearney claimed that Guidehouse had conflicts of interest related to “numerous current and doubtless future Army contracts.”