Former National Chairman, FEI Committee on Private Company Standards

Andy Thrower has over thirty years of experience in financial roles in both public and private companies including participation in IPOs, private placements, debt financing, and restructuring projects. He has been a CPA since 1978.  His initial career experience includes public accounting and college-level teaching of financial accounting. 

His industry work has been within small and medium-sized public and private companies, all but one with international operations.  In recent years, he has focused his energies on working as a consultant, assuming the role of CFO in numerous smaller private companies.  He helped found the NaviscentGroup, which assists newly emerging companies seeking institutional funding from venture capital and private equity groups, and he has recently founded the Automotive CFO Group which focuses on providing turnaround assistance to tier one automotive suppliers in the Southeast U.S., primarily with German and other foreign private ownership.

Andy is the immediate past national chairman of Financial Executives International's (FEI) Committee on Private Companies Accounting Standards Subcommittee, leading a team of CFOs from across the United States in advocacy of financial reporting issues affecting private companies.

He serves on the board of directors of the Southern Carolinas Chapter of FEI. In addition, he is a past member of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC) which is the FASB's primary adviser from the private sector. He is also a member of the FASB's Small Business Advisory Committee (SBAC) and has served as its Agenda Committee chairman. He continues to assist the FASB by participating as a resource for the FASB in representing the views of private company constituents. He was an invited panelist representing private company views at the June 2008 FASB forum on High Quality Global Accounting Standards in New York.

Andy periodically speaks to state and national organizations on private company financial reporting issues. He recently spoke to the Michigan Association of CPA's on IFRS for Private Entities. He has published professionally in the Journal of Accountancy and has been frequently quoted in CFO Magazine, Financial Executives Magazine and the IFRS Reporter. In October of this year, Andy moderated a FEI panel discussion in Charlotte consisting of representatives from the FASB, PCFRC, and FEI on the topic of the future of private company accounting standards in the U.S.

He holds an undergraduate and master's degree in accounting from the University of Southern Mississippi, with additional course work in the doctoral accounting program at the Georgia State University. Andy is a member of the AICPA.