Rick takes charge
The Greenville, S.C.-based Elliott Davis received a new leader in June 2008, when the firm’s shareholders selected Richard E. “Rick” Davis as managing shareholder. Davis replaced Todd Mitchell, who had held the position since 2003. Before taking the firm’s top spot, Davis, a graduate of Clemson University, had served as one of two regional managing shareholders, after beginning his career at the firm—one of the largest in the Southeast—back in 1984.
When North met South
Merrill Patten brought the Boston-based accounting firm Elliott, Davis & Company to South Carolina in 1925, opening a small branch office in Greenville. For many years, Patten was Elliott Davis’ lone representative in the region, but he singlehandedly kept the business running through the Great Depression. In 1939, his persistence was rewarded when James Elliott, the firm’s founder, passed away in Boston and left his business to Patten. Patten, in turn, passed the company on to four of his employees when he retired after World War II.
These days, Elliott Davis is firmly established in the Southeast, with offices across the state of South Carolina (and additional locations in North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia). It’s no longer present in New England, but Merrill Patten’s efforts to build client relationships among Southern manufacturers, financial institutions and textile companies remains at the heart of the firm.
