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Annual State of the Firm: How Our Differences Make Us Stronger

Annually, we host our State of the Firm meeting in which the entire firm comes together to reflect on our past year and look forward to the next.  This year, many aspects of our event looked different.  Given our inability to meet in person, we successfully took our event virtual! Our theme for the event, How Our Differences Make Us Stronger, was driven by the messages from our keynote speakers, the unveiling of our IDEA Council, and highlighting how we learned from one another throughout this challenging year.

We worked with Building Impact to kick off the day with a virtual firm-wide community service project.  We put together winter essentials kits for Veterans being served at The Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford, MA.  We were happy to help support such a great organization, and so close to the Veteran’s Day holiday.

After welcoming remarks from Director of Marketing, Casey Blake, the agenda was kicked off by Amy Pitter, the President & CEO of the Massachusetts Society of CPAs (MSCPA).  She shared industry updates around diversity & inclusion, economic trends, how firms/the profession are being impacted by COVID, and CPA evolution.  We then heard from HR Director, Lisa George, as she reflected on the ways that 2020 has brought us together as a firm.  A large contributing factor to this year’s agenda was the announcement of our firm’s IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Action) Council.  Partner, Dave McKay, shared not only the goals for this council, but the message that will guide our firm around this very important topic.  Also this year, R. J. Gold & Company merged into our firm.  Managing Partner, Scott Kaplowitch, sat down for a Q&A with Robert J. Gold to discuss the industry and the reasons why our firms coming together made sense now more than ever.

We then heard from Christina Frei, the founder of Innate Marketing Genius.  Prior to the event, all firm members were asked to take a 5-minute assessment to understand what their ‘marketing type’ is.  Christina shared with us the highlights of each type and why having different types within one business makes it stronger.

Department overviews were provided and anniversaries were acknowledged.  We were excited to share promotions of seven of our team members. Willy Chan, Kathryn Clark, Jon Liff, Wendy McSheffrey and Omar Tejeiro are all being promoted to the newly created Senior Manager role.  Bob DiBari and Danielle McDonagh were both promoted to principal.

We wrapped the day up with goal setting for 2021 and looking ahead with the experiences we’ve gained over this last year.

Throughout 2020 and specifically the messaging of this event, we recognize that each of our differences makes our firm stronger. We continue to learn from one another, support one another, and listen to one another.

Posted In: Events