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What brought you back to public accounting in 2004 after more than 20 years?

I had multiple experiences; I had IT (information technology), business process, accounting, auditing, was a chief financial officer. I got to the point where I thought how can I use all those talents most effectively. I knew someone at Clifton Gunderson, one of the partners, and approached him and said, what do you think (I should do) whether from a client standpoint or even go back to public accounting? The rest is history.

So you’ve had a lot of job opportunities?

I had various opportunities. I spent eight years in public accounting, and then I did pop around a little bit for the next nine years of my career and then spent 14 years with the Ruan companies downtown in various roles. I was director of taxation at the point in time that I chose to come back into public accounting.

Have there been a couple of projects you’ve worked on recently?

The crisis has been accused of being caused by fair value accounting, and fair value accounting has certainly been most recently a very big challenge in our industry, whether it be presentation or determining whether an investment is other than temporarily impaired. Then I’ve had an opportunity to work with some SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) clients, and while I did have some experience 20 years ago with SEC clients, that’s been a unique challenge to move back into the industry and accept responsibilities there.

Did you expect this much excitement when you came back to public accounting?

Yeah, probably. When I first came back, I was really across-the-board working in a number of all our industries. We’ve now had another senior manager come on. One of the things happening here is that we’ve developed a need to really become specialty oriented so we can serve our clients better, so I developed financial institutions, contractors, commercial engagements and employee benefit plans as my specialties, and the other senior manager on our staff has taken on other industries that have been more tuned to his qualifications.

Is this a trend in the industry?

It really is. Clifton itself is about the 14th-largest CPA (certified public accounting) firm in the United States, and as we’ve tried to evaluate our national focus, the ability to look at niches really became important to the development and continued growth of our firm. The financial accounting standard now has 165 different accounting pronouncements out there and then you’ve got the potential merger of international accounting standards with the financial accounting standards of the United States. We know tax law has changed greatly with the advent of the economic crisis. So for an auditor to stay abreast with what was going on in the tax side or likewise a tax person to stay abreast, we felt at our size and our niche from a clients’ standpoint, we really needed a focus on the individual specialties.

How do you escape work?

My very first job was a golf caddy in Marshalltown. I bicycled out and carried bags around for six hours in the afternoon and then on Mondays we got to play golf, so that started my love of the golf game. My wife and I own an acreage and that takes some time to take care of. It’s a mindless job, you crawl on the mower and you just mow, so that’s how I relax and get away from things.

Is there a career accomplishment that stands out?

I think certainly the most recent in memory has got to be just being elected to the partnership of the firm. It was probably something at this stage in my career I did not anticipate but to be acknowledged as one of the leaders in our firm through the election of the partnership has been a prized accomplishment. Another thing, I was involved with Girl Scouts for close to 30 some years. I was treasurer and then I was president for a number of years and those were very rewarding years, too. It was a huge growth opportunity for me personally, the volunteer work and the leadership aspects of it that I was able to gain working with all the people in that organization.