People: Jeffrey Baliban is now a managing director in the Dispute Resolution Consulting practice within Financial Advisory Services at Houlihan Lokey, working in New York City … Anthony Creamer was named managing director in the forensic advisory services practice of Grant Thornton’s Philadelphia office. Grant Thornton also announced the hires of Christopher Hanson and Brian Sullivan as directors and Scott Peoples as senior manager … Bill Dempsey has joined the Boise, Idaho, office of CliftonLarsonAllen … Florin Dorobantu has been promoted to principal at Washington, D.C.-based firm The Brattle Group … LBMC announced the promotion of Lee Tabor and Katie Tarr to senior manager in the litigation valuation mergers and acquisitions department in its Nashville, Tenn., office, and Jordan Enix’s promotion to manager in the same department in the Knoxville, Tenn., office … Economic damages specialist Jeffrey George has been appointed partner at RGL Forensics in the Denver office … Kathy Johnson was elected chair of the California Society of CPAs. Johnson owns CPA Forensics Plus in San Bernardino … Suzanne Loomer, a partner at KPMG, was elected chair of The Canadian Institute of Chartered Business Valuators for 2017-18 … Robert Metcalf, a partner in MarksNelson’s Kansas City office, will serve a four-year term as Region 4 governor of the American Society of Appraisers … Stacey Udell has joined HBK Valuation in its Cherry Hill, N.J., office as the director of valuation and litigation services.

Firms: Bennett Thrasher followed up its new logo (mentioned in the March 24, 2017, BVWire) with a relaunch of its website at www.btcpa.net … St. Cloud, Minn.-based BerganKDV has acquired Beltz, Kes, Darling & Associates, a firm specializing in charter schools based in Farmington, Minn. … Cincinnati-based Clark Schaefer Hackett has added LublinSussman, a firm based in Toledo, Ohio, effective July 1 … Portland, Ore.-based Columbia Financial Advisors announced the opening of its new Seattle office, with Nic Staloch joining as principal and office director … HiAccounting acquired fellow Hawaiian firm WR Financial, adding the latter’s employees to HiAccounting’s Honolulu office … K·Coe Isom has added Baer & Co., the former’s first expansion into Missouri … Southfield, Mich.-based Plante Moran was the only accounting firm named to the “100 Best Workplaces for Millennials” list by Fortune.com … Steger Gowie & Co., based in Chadds Ford, Pa., and Merves Amon & Barsz, based in Media, Pa., have merged to create a combined accounting firm, Barsz Gowie Amon & Fultz … The Cleveland Plain Dealer named Walthall CPAs to the “2017 Top Workplaces” list. It’s the sixth time the Cleveland-based firm has made the list.

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