People: Steven Elliott joins GBH CPAs of Houston as a tax manager serving publicly traded and privately held clients … Steven L. Gerard will retire as CEO of CBIZ in March 2016 and will be succeeded by president and COO Jerome P. Grisko Jr. … Craig Jacobson joins GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group LLC as senior managing director in the NYC office … Helene Jacobson has been named senior managing director of CBRE Group Inc.’s valuation and advisory services group. She will be responsible for valuation and advisory services both in the New York tri-state area and nationally … Joshua Lefcowitz has been promoted to managing director of valuation and business analytics at the Pittsburgh office of BDO Consulting … Sam Martin, Chris Meineke, and Patricia Walker are new partners in the St. Helena, California-based Brotemarkle Davis & Co. LLP, an accounting and advisory firm specializing in the wine and hospitality industries … Michael McGinley has been promoted to director at Prairie Capital Advisors Inc.’s Atlanta office … Philip Ratliff joins the Atlanta-based firm Habif, Arogeti & Wynne LLP as partner in charge of Dispute Resolution Services … Russell Romanelli, managing partner of Wolf & Co., will join BKD as managing partner of the Chicago office … Peter Thacker joins as director of the Richmond, Va., office of Elliot Davis, LLC … Emmanuel Vignal joins EY’s assurance, tax, transaction, and advisory services firm as a partner in its fraud investigation and dispute services (FIDS) practice and will be based in Shanghai. He will serve as Greater China managing partner of the FIDS practice, leading a team of over 140 working in Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei and Hong Kong … Jason Zeman joins BDO Consulting in Boston as a director of its Valuation and Business Analytics practice. 

Firms: BDO USA will acquire the Akron-based firm SS&G Inc. next January and will retain all 375 employees. BDO USA stated that SS&G’s national restaurant niche was a particularly appealing aspect of the deal … BKD LLP and Chicago-based accounting firm Wolf & Co. have merged, increasing BKD’s footprint to 34 offices in 15 states … Taqeem, the Saudi Authority for Accredited Valuers, is the newest organization to join the International Institute of Business Valuators’ (IIBV) global network … Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico LLP created MFA Capital Advisors LLC, a business consulting and transactional services firm to support middle market companies … Wipfli LLP has acquired the Minneapolis-based firm Assurity River Group in order to increase its risk advisory and forensics services practice.