The Marcum Retrospective – Part 6

A Special Meeting of the Shareholders of CBIZ, Inc. will be held on October 23, 2024, at 9 am ET. At the Special Meeting, shareholders will be asked to vote upon a proposal to approve, for the purposes of complying with applicable NYSE listing rules, the issuance of Stock Consideration pursuant to the Merger Agreement entered into between CBIZ, Inc. and Marcum LLP. In plain English, next Wednesday, CBIZ shareholders will decide whether or not to proceed with the previously announced Marcum transaction. Assuming the CBIZ shareholders approve of the transaction, my expectation is that CBIZ will move quickly to close the transaction as they’ve indicated it would most likely close in the 4th quarter of 2024, which we are currently in.

I’ve spent the last five weeks in this column taking a stroll down Memory Lane, from the early days of Marcum & Kliegman to today, and thanking many of those who helped us along the way. But there is one group that was conspicuously left out of the thank-you’s to date, and now it’s their turn.

For those of you who know me, you know Marcum is in my blood. It’s part of my identity. It’s my other spouse, my sixth child. I’ve given Marcum the last 43 years of my life, and it has treated me extraordinarily well in return. I couldn’t have asked for a better professional career.

My wife Tracy, and children Isaac, Leo, Lily, Kate, and Max don’t know a world without Jeff working at Marcum. It’s been an outsized part of our family.

From signing checks at the kitchen table to phone calls in the car to visits to the office working through family vacations, to all of the Marcum swag (water bottles, apparel, mouse pads, pens, pads, etc.), to participation at Marcum events (the Workplace Challenge, the Day of Service) Marcum has been intertwined with their lives forever. And they graciously, without choice, accepted the fact that Marcum was always there, weekdays, weeknights, weekends; it was part of me, and they shared me with Marcum.

None of us can accomplish whatever it is we set out to do without the unwavering support of those close to us.

I’ve been very lucky that my family gets me and knew that Marcum was the unofficial eighth member of our family.

So now it’s time to thank my family for allowing me to do what I have done over the last 43 years. Tracy, Isaac, Leo, Lily, Kate, and Max, I couldn’t have done it without all of your love and support. Thank you.

Since I don’t know when the CBIZ/Marcum transaction will actually close, I’ve decided that this will be the last edition of this weekly column.

Thank you for allowing me to show up in your inbox every Friday morning and share what’s on my mind. It’s been a great run and now its time for the next chapter.