Creating opportunity for Long Island's young accountants

Long Island Business News, Oct 24, 2008 by Bernadette Starzee

As with many public accounting firms, the partners at Nussbaum Yates Berg Klein & Wolpow range in age roughly from their mid-40s to their mid-60s. "We're looking toward the future and what is going to happen to the practice as our senior partners get older and retire," said Steven Wolpow, managing partner for the Melville-based firm. "We want to make sure people are coming up in the ranks to keep the firm going and to provide for the retirement of senior partners."

According to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 75 percent of its current members will be reaching or approaching retirement age within the next 15 years, creating opportunity for young accountants. The AICPA established the Young CPA Network to help encourage young professionals to remain in public accounting and to become more engaged in the profession.

Public firms face major staffing challenges, particularly among professionals with two to seven years of experience. Many in that category flee public accounting to work in the accounting departments of companies, rather than endure long hours for years, particularly during busy seasons, with no guarantee that they will make partner someday.

As it behooves accounting firms to keep their young stars from departing, many are giving them increasing responsibility while presenting a clear path to partnership.

According to Wolpow, NYBKW has identified some professionals whom it is grooming to step into partnership roles in the future. "We have brought in professional consultants to provide them with one- on-one training in areas such as practice development, management and technical skills," he said. "We're making a great effort to gradually turn over responsibility to our future leaders."

These individuals include accountants who grew up with the firm as well as some from the outside. "We have brought in some sensational talent from Big Four firms who grew weary of the Big Four and came with a vision of becoming leaders in our firm in the future," Wolpow said.

Deloitte & Touche, a Big Four accounting firm, offers a senior manager development program, in which the firm's top 100 U.S. senior managers are exposed to the challenges of executive-level performance, allowing them to work with each other and firm leadership to learn more about what it takes to become partner.

Terrance Mendez

Terrance Mendez, 33, a senior manager in Deloitte & Touche's Jericho office, was selected to be in the program last year. "This opened a window for me to gain an insight into what the next generation of firm leaders will need to accomplish," Mendez said. "The bottom line is that Deloitte is a performance-driven organization and those young accountants who perform on a consistent basis are shown a clear path to leadership."

Mendez said he has been very comfortable making decisions for a long time. "I was promoted to manager at 27 and from that point I was making tangible internal and external decisions about technical matters, strategic initiatives and rating and ranking the success of our people," he said. "Now, I manage multiple teams of people with varying backgrounds and levels of experience and objectives." Mendez's external responsibilities include leading the audits of two public companies, while internally, he is a leader on both the regional Diversity Council and the Jericho Diversity Council for the firm.

Jeffrey Pares

Jeffrey Pares, an accounting manager, joined NYBKW a year ago. Before that, Pares worked for Deloitte & Touche for 5 1/2 years, auditing retail and manufacturing clients.

"I wanted to work in additional areas of accounting," he said. "Now, I also do small business accounting and tax work. I have a mix of clients, from restaurant owners to doctors to wealthy individuals, and some retail and manufacturing clients. Instead of seeing six to eight clients a year, I'm seeing six to eight a week."

Pares said his Big Four experience provided excellent training for his leadership role, particularly in shoring up many technical skills. "We were always in the field, and sometimes we had as many as 20 people on an audit, so there was always someone a level above me whom I could go to with questions," he said.

Deloitte & Touche did paperless audits for the duration of Pares's tenure. "When I got here, NYBKW was just starting them," he said. "One of my colleagues and I created a team to solve problems and set up a more organized system."

Pares also took a leadership role in starting the firm's first organized sports team, which plays basketball against other accounting firms and companies. "It gets the firm together to network in a nonwork atmosphere," he said. "Playing together sparks teamwork."

Diane Castelluzzo

Unlike Pares, Senior Manager Diane Castelluzzo has grown up with NYBKW. "I have been here for 11 years, and I have a wide client base," she said. "I do everything for my clients - audits, reviews, compilations, financial statements, corporate tax and personal tax."

Her clients, mostly small businesses, turn to her for everyday issues. "There's a partner on every account, but clients come to me first," she said. "I just go about my business taking care of my clients."