Rick Berry is the President of Independence Capital Partners.
Rick also serves on the Board of Trustees of American Financial Realty Trust (NYSE: AFR), a real estate investment trust focused on acquiring and leasing properties occupied by financial institutions. He serves as an independent board member as determined under the NYSE listing standards, and occupies a position on the Board of Trustees’ Audit, Compensation and Human Resources and Finance Committees.
Rick has a thirty-year history of U.S. and global experience as part of the leadership of PwC. He is widely known for his role in the effective integration of the Tax and Legal Services practices of Price Waterhouse and Coopers and Lybrand. Following a variety of senior assignments in both Audit and Tax, Rick led the U.S. Tax Practice for four years. It was the largest tax and professional services business in the world with close to $2 billion in annual revenues and over 8,000 professionals.
Rick is recognized in Washington for successfully representing the Big-4 in discussions with the SEC and PCAOB regarding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. He testified before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations regarding responsible behavior in providing professional services. Through The CR Group, he has represented the global firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers around legislative and regulatory policy issues, such as the appropriate scope of professional services.
His in-depth experience across many industries enables Rick to provide business advice to multi-national corporations, middle market companies and members of the Forbes list of 400 richest people in America. Examples of his clients have included DuPont, Campbell Soup, Conrail, Morgan Lewis, Arnold & Porter, Pennsylvania Power & Light, Scott Paper, The Washington Post, MCI, the NASD, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Rick has authored numerous publications, including books and articles, and has been frequently quoted in the national press. He is a member of various professional organizations and is a former Board Member of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School Tax Conference, the University of Pennsylvania Law Center’s Institute for Law & Economics, and the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.
Active in community service, Rick served on the Board of the Metropolitan D.C. Boys and Girls Club, Chaired the Board of the Norfolk and Virginia Beach Boys and Girls Club, and served as Chairman of the Executive Board of the Philadelphia Committee of Seventy. He has been active in the United Way and Co-Chaired the Norfolk, Virginia capital campaign.
Rick is a CPA, and holds a Doctorate of Business Administration from George Washington University and an MBA from Rutgers University. Rick is a former assistant professor of accounting at the University of the District of Columbia and a finisher of the 2002 New York City Marathon.
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