Finance and Economic

Accounting firm Watkins Meegan LLC has hired the managing partner of Sturn Wagner Lombardo & Co. LLC, a dissolving Annapolis accounting and consulting firm.

Kurt Sturn, founder of Sturn Wagner Lobardo, will join Bethesda-based Watkins Meegan Jan. 1 and will bring his entire book of business and five to 10 other professional employees with him, said Sean Roddy, chief operating officer of Watkins Meegan, which already has an Annapolis office with about 15 employees.

The deal is part of a new acquisition strategy for Watkins Meegan, the second-largest locally-based accounting firm in the Washington area with about 240 employees and four offices.

“We’re hoping to double over the next five years,” Roddy said.

Over the last five years, the firm has grown its staff 33 percent, according to the Washington Business Journal list of accounting firms — all of it organic.

The firm also is talking to a few potential acquisition targets, Roddy said.

With the current deal, Sturn approached Watkins Meegan, saying he and his partners were going in different directions and were thinking about dissolving, Roddy said.

The firm signed a deal with Sturn last week and is still in negotiations to bring on some of the other accountants that worked under him.

“I am both proud and confident that this merger brings together the best and brightest to serve the Annapolis business community and provide it with the resources of exceptionally trained professionals,” Sturn said in a statement.

Sturn Wagner Lobardo was founded in 1990 and began dissolving several weeks ago. As of a couple of years ago, it had about 33 accountants, though that has been reduced to about 20, Roddy said.

It has offices in Annapolis, Baltimore and Washington, according to its Web site.

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