Now, GlobeSt.com has learned that in the midst of a major realignment of the operation, Mark A. Smith has been tapped to serve as global corporate real estate director and manage daily operations for the group in the Americas. Smith, who has been a partner at E&Y since 1994, currently heads advisory services for the Western region. Based in San Francisco, he says that an eventual move to New York headquarters is "being evaluated."

In an exclusive interview with GlobeSt.com, Smith explained that Barovick's departure was purely coincidental with the reorganization of the department, which has been on the drawing board "for several months." Now posting as much as $150 million in annual revenues, the group, Smith expects, should see an annual hike of between 20% to 30% as a result of the reorganization.

"We're trying to take the group to the next level," Smith reports. "We have major practices in North America, Europe and Asia, and we want to connect them." Not that they were ever disconnected, of course. "We need one unified methodology to serve our clients."

Understandably, in terms of certain aspects of the reorganization, Smith is relatively tight-lipped. "We have a phased rollout that we will be implementing over the next six to nine months," he says. These phased changes will be global in scale and relate in large part to human resources.

He does say that the reorganization will also focus on shedding the product-provider image, a burden all advisory firms share. "Anybody who plays in this industry is seen as a provider of product," he comments. In order to shake that image and create a more global methodology, Smith explained that the ranks of advisory services will swell from under 600 to more than 1,000 people over the next two or three years. Those changes will take place "primarily in the US and Europe, and to a lesser extent in Asia," Smith notes.

Instant Insights /

E&Y Names New Leader for Corp. Advisory; Launches Major Reshaping

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