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Deborah Adams, CPA, Partner
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 Deborah has over 25 years of experience in the financial and accounting profession. She is certified in Arizona and New York. Her educational background includes a bachelor's degree in accounting, a master's degree in management, and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in accounting and tax. She also has two certificates of educational achievement, one in Personal Financial Planning and the other in Estate Planning. Deborah's industry experience includes being Chief Financial Officer or Controller of small, medium, and large corporations, including the billion dollar U-Haul Corporation. Her public experience includes Coopers and Lybrand. She has been an instructor for the American Institute of CPAs in Strategic Planning. She is active in her community and serves on various boards. She is Arizona Chairman of the National Small Business Advisory Council.
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Barbara Kvittem-Barr, CPA, Partner
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 Barb has over 20 years of experience in the financial and accounting profession and also holds the designation of Certified Financial Planner (CFP). Before moving into the accounting area, Barb received a bachelor's degree in music and a Master of Divinity degree and worked in both of these professions. She has additional graduate courses in accounting, tax, and business. In industry, she has been Chief Financial Officer of a $10-million corporation. She also has extensive experience in public accounting and has published several articles on investments. She has lectured and taught seminars on numerous topics including investments, charitable giving as an estate planning tool, tax preparation, and estate planning. She and Deb have worked together for over ten years. She is also active in her community and church.
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Tammy Manero (Salinger), CPA
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Tammy has a bachelor's degree in business administration and a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Accountancy. She originally worked with Barb in industry and then joined the public accounting world about 12 years ago, initially focusing on high-end retail environments. She has since expanded to include non profit organizations and other diverse markets. With ten years experience as a CPA, she concentrates on certain select AKB clients after reducing her hours to spend more time with her two young children. As they grow we hope to win Tammy back - but even with limited hours, she is a terrific member of out team with her positive attitude, level of service, knowledge and skills.
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John Purcelli, JD, CPA
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 John has over 25 years of experience in the income tax and accounting profession and was a partner with Arthur Andersen. He has a degree in business administration as well as a law degree. His main experience is in federal income taxes including compliance and consulting. He has worked with small family owned businesses as well as large publicly owned companies. He also has experience in merger and acquisition consulting, succession planning for family owned businesses, IRS and state audits and estate planning. He was in charge of a 40-person tax division where his responsibilities included marketing, recruiting, human resources, budgeting, forecasting and administration. He adds great strength and experience to our team.
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Sharon Strickland
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 Sharon is an Arizona native and current resident of Anthem. She is an experienced professional with over 25 years experience in the financial and accounting profession including over 16 years in public accounting. Sharon has a bachelor's degree in accountancy at Western International University. In addition, she is a member of the Delta Mu Delta national honor society for business administration and the Golden Key International honor society for general studies. Her background includes experience working with a variety of industries including professional services, construction, manufacturing, real estate, and restaurants. She is knowledgeable about a variety of business tax matters and heads up many of our accounting and payroll services.
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Lana Bruzzechesse
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Lana has her roots thousands of miles away in Belarus. She came to the U.S. in 2001 starting in New York City and then moving on to Chicago before switching to the warmer climate of the southwest in early 2008. She now lives in beautiful Carefree with her Italian husband, Andrea. Lana graduated from DeVry University with a B.Sc. in Technical Management with an emphasis on accounting and a Master in Accounting & Financial Management at Keller Graduate School of Management. Lana can be found in our Carefree office where she works with payroll, monthly bookkeeping and tax returns. You'll recognize her on the phone by her lovely Russian accent.
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Nancy Britt
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Nancy came to Arizona in the early 80's from Idaho to go to ASU, where she graduated with a degree in accounting. Her work experience is varied in private industry. She has worked with pension administration, an AHCCCS startup plan that developed into one of the three largest in AZ, a DME supplier, retail, commercial and residential real estate development, and various professional offices. During this time, she took time off to raise 5 kids and has been doing tax returns and small business accounting for the past 10 years. Once tax season is over, you will find her on a golf course, working on achieving a single digit handicap! Or, you may find her hiking up Black Mountain!
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Mary DeGroff
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 Mary joined our team in January 2007. She is our Office Manager and more importantly our "Director of Fun." She is responsible for keeping things organized and humming away in the most efficient way possible at our main office in Carefree. Mary originally hails from the Midwest, where she grew up in her family's business and attended Lansing Business University. She has worked in Human Resources, Guest Coordination and contracting, as well as many other fields and been a resident of the Carefree/Cave Creek area for several years. We're excited about the fact that she is also a "Sous Chef" - which makes our monthly team meetings a little more"tasty." |
Cindy Essendrup
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Cindy is a native of Arizona and graduate of Arizona State University West majoring in English. She has a background in bookkeeping and building client relationships. She is happily married with three children and enjoys reading, writing, and cooking. She also enjoys long distance running and playing the piano. She has lived overseas in Prague, Czech Republic and in Malaysia, which works out nicely since she enjoys traveling and meeting new people. Cindy works with Barb in the Arrowhead office and will be the cheerful voice on the other end of the phone from that office. AKB is happy to welcome her as the newest member of our team.
Email: cindye@carefreecpas.com
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Dale Kvittem-Barr
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 It is Dale's 8th official year on our team although he has assisted us in an unofficial position for many years (as Barb's husband). Dale's expertise includes the areas of business strategies & planning, visioning, administration, human resources, systems & procedural analysis and just plain keeping things on target. He holds bachelors degrees in business and psychology and has a master's degree in business administration (health services administration). Dale also manages our internal computer network & information systems and keeps us on the cutting-edge of technology. We have a state-of-the-art computer system because of his expert leadership. He is available for business consulting and special projects for our clients. |
Direct phone numbers for each team member are as follows:
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