In 2024, after serving as The Martin Agency’s chief creative officer since 2020, Robinson became the advertising agency’s CEO, succeeding Kristen Cavallo. Robinson joined Martin two decades ago and has overseen campaigns for national clients like Geico, UPS and Old Navy.

During his tenure as chief creative officer, Adweek named Martin its Agency of the Year in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, Robinson was named Ad Age’s Chief Creative Officer of the Year. This year, Martin lost a major account, CarMax, but in late 2024 secured YMCA and JP Morgan Wealth Management.

Before joining Martin, Robinson co-founded ad agency Vigilante, best known for Oprah Winfrey’s 2004 car giveaway.

A graduate of Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) and Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University), he serves on the boards of Creative Ladder, Donate Life and The One Club for Creativity.

ON INTEGRATING AI: AI is here to stay but it won’t make agency jobs obsolete — it’ll expose who’s actually adding value.

WHAT PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT ME: There was a period during my 30s when I regularly performed stand-up comedy in clubs in New York and Connecticut.

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In 2023, Kotter was tapped to become Greater Washington managing partner for Ernst & Young, succeeding Kevin Virostek, who retired. Kotter has worked at EY since 1998 and previously served as an assurance partner.

In addition to managing EY’s Greater Washington offices, Kotter holds client-serving responsibilities. He has served as a global client service partner for Marriott International.

He has also served as co-director of EY’s mid-Atlantic Entrepreneur of the Year program and as a member of the Americas Advisory Council and U.S. Partner Principal Council, Assurance Partner Forum and the U.S.-East Region Partner Forum.

He is currently a board member of Goodwill of Greater Washington. He has also served on the steering committee for the local chapter of the Association of Bioscience Financial Officers and as a board member of The Global Good Fund and Scouting America’s National Capital Area Council.

Kotter holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Brigham Young University and an MBA from George Washington University.

EY posted $51.2 billion in revenue for fiscal 2024, up from $49.4 billion the previous fiscal year.

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Marx became Grant Thornton’s D.C. market managing principal in 2024, leading the Arlington regional office for the Chicago-based U.S. arm of the global accounting firm network.

With more than 25 years of experience, Marx was a tax principal at Grant Thornton for 13-plus years. From 2015 to 2020, he led the firm’s Tax Accounting and Risk Advisory practices for its Atlantic Coast region.

He previously was managing director of tax services for LECG Business Consulting. (Grant Thornton purchased its parent company’s tax and business consulting groups in 2011.) Marx has also worked for InfraSource Services, Comcast and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

He holds bachelor’s degrees in education and accounting from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree in taxation from the University of Tulsa. Marx is a board member and treasurer of the Philadelphia School Partnership and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Grant Thornton employs about 375 people in Virginia and more than 72,800 worldwide. It posted U.S. revenues of $2.4 billion in fiscal 2023. In fiscal 2024, Grant Thornton International reported $8 billion in revenue.

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In October 2024, Milburn was tapped as CEO for YHB, the accounting services firm where he began his career in 1997. Each YHB CEO serves a five-year term, and Milburn succeeds C. Scott Moulden, under whose leadership the firm acquired five accounting firms and grew to 300-plus employees, expanding into Maryland and developing its

C-suite. In 2025, YHB made Accounting Today’s Top 100 national ranking and was named a regional leader. The firm with 340 employees reported $63 million in fiscal 2024 revenue, up from $61 million the previous year.

Milburn leads YHB’s financial institutions team and is a former Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants board member. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Virginia Tech and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

In late 2024, YHB moved its headquarters within Winchester, holding a ribbon cutting in January. The move united the Winchester team under one roof for the first time in nearly 20 years.

PERSONAL MOTTO: Generally, most Ted Lasso quotes

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Peters has led the state’s professional association for CPAs since 1997, representing nearly 13,000 members in both the public and private sectors.

The accounting industry has faced a dearth of workers in recent years; in 2024, Peters told Virginia Business that, while CPA staffing levels had become more stable in recent years, staffing levels industrywide were “still critical.”

But VSCPA made strides in helping with this challenge. In March, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed legislation backed by the VSCPA to add a new pathway to CPA designation and ensure practice mobility for out-of-state CPAs. Now, prospective CPAs aren’t required to obtain 150 education hours to become certified in Virginia.

Peters serves on the executive committee for the Virginia Council on Economic Education and has served as president of the CPA Society Executives Association’s board and on the American Institute of CPAs’ Peer Review Board and the AICPA/National Association of State Boards of Accountancy’s Uniform Accountancy Act Committee.

Peters holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a graduate of Lead Virginia and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Organization Management.

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In 2021, Rogish became the first woman to lead Big Four global accounting firm Deloitte’s Central Virginia market. Rogish joined Deloitte in 1998, specializing in human capital services for clients in the financial services industry. She became a relationship leader for several clients in the Washington, D.C., metro area in 2005. In 2015, she was promoted to managing director of client relationships.

A women’s leadership advocate, Rogish co-sponsors several gender equity initiatives at Deloitte, including Within Reach, a research series analyzing the rise of women in leadership positions. She founded and is an executive sponsor of DC Spark, a networking organization for female executives in the Washington, D.C., metro area. Rogish serves on the boards of the Richmond Forum and ChamberRVA.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University and a master’s degree in organizational psychology from Columbia University.

For fiscal 2024, Deloitte reported record revenues of $67.2 billion, a 3.6% increase over the previous fiscal year.

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