Four Professionals Honored with “Bridging the Gap Awards” at Boomer Technology Circles Summit

(http://www.hbkcpas.net/our-firm-2/our_people/)

(https://www.linkedin.com/pub/rachel-godwin/29/2a9/20)

Rachel Godwin, Principal, Hartmann, Blackmon, & Kilgore, P.C., was presented with the 2015 Bridging the Gap as an Emerging Leader award.

Godwin was promoted to Principal in January 2014 and has been a major part of several initiatives. As Chair of the firm’s Technology Committee she led the group in initiatives to improve technology by migrating to a third party hosted environment, evaluating major software applications for implementation, and updating hardware replacement programs. As Director of the Accounting & Auditing services, she, along with the firm’s Lean Six Sigma staff, championed the audit team through a Lean Six Sigma analysis of the firm’s audit processes leading to higher efficiency, enhanced communications and a consistent culture.

Godwin was noted as a leader who understands that change is constant and as an advocate for improvement, excellent internal service and outstanding client service. In addition to her internal leadership, she has honed an expertise in CFO services to local government organizations providing counties and cities comprehensive expertise they otherwise would not have.

Hartmann, Blackmon & Kilgore P.C. (http://www.hbkcpas.net) is a certified public accounting and business consulting firm with four offices in Alabama.

Jim Bourke, CPA

(http://www.withum.com/partner/james-c-bourke)

Jim Bourke, Partner-in-charge of Firm Technology at WithumSmith + Brown, was presented with the 2015 Bridging the Gap in Firm Management award. According to presenter Jim Boomer, Bourke was nominated because “he continuously challenges others to lead with new technology initiatives…and many individuals consider him to be a great mentor who has helped them achieve success within their firm.” Bourke, who has been named by Accounting Today as one of the Top 100 Influential People in the Accounting Profession for three consecutive years, became the award’s first repeat winner, having won the same award in 2013.

WithumSmith+Brown (http://www.withum.com) has a staff of approximately 500 and ranked number 28 on the 2015 list of Inside Public Accounting’s Top 100 Firms.

Don Logan, MSCE

(http://www.wiss.com/firm-leadership-profile/don-logan)

Don Logan, Director of Technology at Wiss & Company, LLP, was presented with the 2015 Bridging the Gap in Technology award. Logan has been a key player in evolving his firm’s technology from its core internal technology services to offering advisory services to clients. Since migrating its internal systems to private/public cloud and applying best practices for efficiencies, autonomy and aligning technology with the business goals and plan, the technology group has taken what they have learned and applied that to its clients. Bringing clients systems to the cloud enables them to focus on their core strengths and business while getting extremely high ROI and uptime.

Wiss & Company, LLP (http://www.wiss.com) is a 28 partner/180 professional staff firm with four offices in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area.

Clark Nuber PS – Peter Henley, CPA

(http://clarknuber.com/people/peter-henley/)

Peter Henley, Senior Director at Clark Nuber PS, was presented with the 2015 Bridging the Gap award for Technology and Firm Management Project, an award that recognizes a firm’s project to leverage technology to accelerate the achievement of the firm’s vision and goals.

With their project, IRS Form 990 Board Questionnaire, Clark Nuber was able to streamline their firm operations, give their clients a better tool for collecting data, and help their client relationships with some of their own constituency.

The IRS requires not-for- profit organization to receive information from “Interested Persons” in order to complete the annual form 990. Contacting and receiving information from the organization’s current and former officers, directors, trustees and key employees; family members thereof; grant selection committee members; substantial contributors and their employees, can be extremely difficult, especially for large organizations. For several years Clark Nuber used a macro driven Excel workbook to collect data. Last year they partnered with HKMP Technologies to customize their tool Amelio as a replacement for the Excel workbook. The results benefited their clients with a faster, easier way for them to provide information and fostered a better relationship with their Interested Persons.

Clark Nuber PS (https://clarknuber.com) is the sixth largest public accounting firm in the Seattle metropolitan region and has a staff of more than 180 people.

“These awards are meant to showcase the amazing passion and talent we have working in our profession,” said Jim Boomer, CIO of Boomer Consulting, Inc. “It’s naturally an honor and a privilege to have these individuals participating in our programs so that we can network with, and learn from some of the brightest and most influential people in accounting.”

The winners were chosen from nominations submitted by around 100 eligible firms that are either members of the Boomer Technology Circles™ or participants in the P3 Leadership Academy.