EY taps new Americas PE leader

Accounting firm EY has named Timothy Tracy as its new Americas Private Equity leader.

Tracy was previously a global client service partner at the firm, advising some of the largest EY PE clients. He takes over the position from Chris Smyth, who retired on June 30 after a 29-year career at the firm.

Tracy said he is happy to have the chance to lead EY’s Americas team as it continues to build on its $1 billion PE investment. He added that most recently the firm has been working with clients on value creation and generative AI, such as ChatGPT.

Generative AI poses a range of challenges for clients that include structuring the unstructured data it provides and using it responsibly with the right policies and procedures, Tracy said. Firms have been looking at using generative AI for some research and investment decisions.

Tracy said there are generally four buckets of opportunity for firms to use generative AI: deal sourcing and due diligence, fundraising and investor communications, value creation, and supporting the back and middle office.

Firms are looking at using generative AI for fund accounting or general accounting, treasury and tax operations, Tracy said.

“There are some functions of fund accounting, like reconciliations, fee calculations and control analysis, where generative AI can take a large amount of data and sort through it very quickly to streamline those operations. And that’s what some of our PE clients are looking at,” he said.

In more than 33 years with EY, Tracy has worked on IPOs, buy- and sell-side transactions, value creation, take-privates and corporate governance across the Americas, Europe and Asia. Previously, Tracy served as the East Region assurance managing partner, where he oversaw the audit, financial advisory and forensics practices for EY US. He was also the managing partner in EY’s Iselin, New Jersey office.

Last year, EY announced plans to spend $1 billion over four years to expand its private equity services, aiming to double the size of its PE practice in that time. The firm hired Will Rhode as EY global private equity ESG leader and Konstanze Nardi as global private equity exit readiness leader as part of this planned expansion.