— Aprio
How Aprio Built Culture Into Its Growth Strategy
Client Overview
Aprio is the 20th largest business advisory and accounting firm in the U.S., with a long history of platform growth. CEO Richard Kopelman joined as a staff accountant more than 30 years ago and has spent his entire career at the firm, growing it from a regional accounting practice into a national professional services firm.
Richard became managing partner and CEO in 2013. In 2017, he oversaw the firm's rebranding as Aprio and the adoption of the 31 Fundamentals that form the Aprio Way. Forbes named him to its Top 200 CPAs list, and the Atlanta Business Chronicle named him one of the city's most admired CEOs.
Why It Matters
Aprio is building the firm of the future, an integrated platform that reaches well beyond traditional accounting. Culture drives that growth. In an industry known for rotating managing partners, technical silos, and partnership politics, Richard chose to run Aprio like a business rather than a typical CPA firm. The Aprio Way gave that business a backbone: a defined, practiced culture that holds its shape across acquisitions, international teams, and fast hiring.
The Challenge
When Richard became CEO in 2013, the firm had 250 people and a vision: build the best place to work in the profession. The values were real, but they lived in people's heads. Nobody could teach them or repeat them at scale.
Then Aprio started acquiring firms, entering new markets, and hiring fast. The question got urgent: how do you stay who you are while adding hundreds of people a year across dozens of locations? Aprio's culture worked. It just needed to become something written down, practiced, and repeatable.
When we adopted the Fundamentals, we were 250 people and $53 million in revenue. We are now north of half a billion and more than 3,400 team members. It is our culture that has made that growth cohesive and sustainable, and kept us grounded in who we are along the way.
Aprio
Richard Kopelman
CEO
The Solution
In 2017, Richard met CultureWise founder David Friedman at a speaking engagement. Within minutes he knew he'd found the system to bring Aprio's brand promise, "head and heart," to life. The firm adopted 31 Fundamentals that now form the Aprio Way and practices one each week across the organization.
What started as a culture initiative became an operating system. Today the Fundamentals run through the whole business:
- Every meeting opens with the Fundamental of the Week
- New hires meet the Fundamentals on day one
- New hires and interns name the Fundamentals as a top-three reason they chose Aprio over other firms
- Merging-in firms get their own announcement, with stories from new and legacy team members
The Results
Average tenure at Aprio now tops eight years, well above the norm in professional services. The Fundamentals hold the firm together. New people connect through them week after week, learning from each other across offices, teams, and practice areas.
That cohesion shows up in outside recognition. Aprio has made Glassdoor's Best Places to Work list, ranked #58 on USA Today's national Best Places to Work list, made Vault's 150 Best Internships for 2026, and earned Top Workplace Culture Excellence recognition. Forbes named Richard and other Aprio leaders to its Top 200 CPAs list.
With investment partner Charlesbank backing its next phase, Aprio is investing in technology, new services, and global capacity, carrying the same defined, practiced culture into the growth ahead.
Key Outcomes
- 10× revenue growth since adopting the Fundamentals
- Culture used as a filter in every M&A conversation
- 600 people integrated via M&A in a single year
- Fundamentals cited as top-3 reason new hires choose Aprio
"A defined and practiced culture tells people whether Aprio is the right fit. When the values are shared, the right people stay and build thriving careers here."
— Richard Kopelman, CEOThe Culture You Need
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