I was born in Charleston, SC, on June 16, 1953. I grew up on a dairy farm on the outskirts of St. Stephen, S.C. I am the second oldest of four children. My mother was a schoolteacher for all of her working life. My father currently lives on Lake Moultrie, just north of Moncks Corner.
I attended public schools until my parents sent me to Carlisle Military School in Bamberg, SC. I played basketball and baseball while at Carlisle and graduated as my class Salutatorian.
I graduated from the University of South Carolina (cum laude) in 1976 with a degree in History and Political Science. I then received my Master’s Degree in Accounting from South Carolina in 1977.
After finishing college, my first job was as a Staff Accountant with a firm (Haskins & Sells) which is known today as, DeloitteToucheTomatsua, Certified Public Accountants.
In 1980 through 1996, I worked as a Corporate Controller, Vice President of Finance for a small chain of auto dealerships, owned a construction business and worked again in the car business.
I quickly learned that with so many CPAs in Charleston, I had to differentiate myself from the others by finding a specialty area to concentrate my practice. It happened by chance, when a new bookkeeping client I had just acquired in May of 1996, came to me owing the IRS $90,000. We settled his debt for $42,000 through the Offer in Compromise program.
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