Our history

A global beginning

BDO was founded in 1963 with five original member firms in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, the US and Canada. These firms formed the Binder Seidman International Group. In 1973, the British, German and Dutch member firms adopted a common name whose acronym has endured for the entire global network.

That name was: Binder Hamlyn (UK) Dijker & Co (Holland) Otte & Co (Germany). Literally, BDO stands for Binder Dijker Otte.

BDO now has over 31,500 staff, who currently work in 626 offices and in 110 countries around the world. In 2007, BDO global fees were US$4.704 billion. BDO is coordinated by the BDO Global Coordination Office in Brussels, Belgium.

BDO Kendalls in Australia

In Australia, BDO Kendalls was established as an association of firms in 1975. Today we are one of Australia's largest associations of independently owned accounting practices with offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

BDO Kendalls has over 1000 staff nationally, including specialists from every major business discipline including taxation, audit and assurance, corporate finance, business recovery and insolvency and of course the many shared service and support areas who all work together to provide our clients with solutions to their business needs. Our services also include a range of specialisations, in particular, Accredited Family Business Advisory Services and Accredited Growth Services.

These services are provided to individuals and organisations ranging from large corporates to small and medium growth-focused enterprises representing a broad range of industry sectors, as well as government departments and the public sector.