On June 4, 2024, we congratulated Tony Smeriglio on his 50-year tenure at GT Reilly. In June 1974, Tony joined GT Reilly as a fresh college graduate and over the next several decades rose to become the firm’s Managing Director and CEO before retiring in 2017. Tony still works on special projects for the firm, and we thought this was a good time to ask him how the accounting profession has changed and what he sees for the future.
What was a key moment in GT Reilly’s history that made a difference in the firm’s trajectory during your years at the firm? 
The key decade in GTR’s history was the 70s. In that decade Jerry Reilly’s small practice became a growing firm. Jerry hired a few people with three to five years of experience, and in 1974 I was hired along with two other inexperienced college grads to do the “grunt work.” Notwithstanding the recession that the U.S. economy was in, Jerry saw the opportunities ahead and wanted to be prepared for them. From that point forward we hired new staff annually and became a leading CPA firm in the greater Boston region.
How has GT Reilly & Company changed over the years?
Technology has changed a lot of things. Around my junior year in college, the “Bomar Brain” was invented and marketed, the first U.S.-made hand-held calculator that could perform the four basic math functions. When I started with GTR, I was given a bulky desktop “Burroughs” calculator. Everything we did on our client engagements was documented manually on 6- and 13-column workpapers. Tax returns were prepared manually. When, not if, you made a mistake you erased your errors and started over, sometimes wearing a hole in the paper.
“Progress” led us to a data processing service company. We would prepare journal entries for a client on paper forms and courier or mail them to the data processor, who would process them and send the results back to us “in a few days.” In the same way we began preparing income tax returns.
In the early 80s, we started working with Compaq “portable” computers that weighed around 25 to 30 pounds. From that time forward, technology changed quickly. The client engagements that took weeks or months to complete in the field with three to four staff on site daily were now performed more efficiently and effectively.
What changes in the accounting profession will reshape firms in the future, and how?
GTR, like other firms, has had to morph over time in order to be competitive and provide valuable services to our clients. Technology advances will continue to change our profession, with AI already in use.
Changes in the profession’s requirements and standards have placed heavy burdens on smaller firms, to the point where those firms cannot or choose not to offer some of the services that a larger firm may offer. Some firms have had to specialize and not try to be all things to clients. Change will continue and firms will always need to reshape themselves. Nevertheless, I do believe there will always be a need for firms of all sizes to serve the needs of different businesses and organizations.
If you were speaking to a group of undecided business majors, what would you say about the CPA profession to encourage them to pursue an accounting degree and career, particularly in public practice?
I would say that public accounting is an excellent way to begin your career for numerous reasons. First, based on the demand, there is a shortage of accounting graduates and those considering the profession, which is to your advantage.
The experience and knowledge you gain by working with numerous businesses and organizations in a variety of industries is unmatched. What you do in your early years in public accounting gives you a base of knowledge, but it’s the exposure you get to various businesses and organizations and how they operate and transact business that is of real value to you.
Even if you don’t make it your lifelong career, as I have, give it enough time and the experience will be invaluable to your clients, to you and to whatever you may do in the future.
