Claire Esten

Partner, Grant Thornton LLP

Claire is an audit partner and member of Grant Thornton’s Higher Education and Not-For-Profit industry practices. Claire has spent her career working with higher education and not-for-profit organization and her experience includes managing financial statement audits as well as various regulatory audits including Uniform Guidance audits, offering recommendations on internal controls, operations and accounting issues, and training accounting professionals to ensure they provide the proper guidance and support to their clients. She has also assisted clients with financing arrangements and acquisitions. Claire has extensive experience serving large, complex organizations with international operations, multi-location university systems and organizations with over $1billion in federal expenditures and >$4 billion endowment portfolios.

Claire has authored training materials and technical guidance covering not-for-profit accounting and auditing issues as well as instructing courses on a national level covering these topics. She also speaks at not-for-profit industry events such as EACUBO and NACUBO meetings, primarily providing updates on technical accounting matters and mergers and acquisitions in higher education.

A selection of Claire’s higher education clients includes The George Washington University; Lafayette College; Connecticut State Colleges and Universities; the University of Louisville, the City University of New York, Elon University, Clark University and Emerson College.

Claire participates on the board of trustees of the Framingham State University Foundation and received a Bachelor of Sciences in Accounting from Boston College.