Trusted Man - Ben Affleck’s recent portrayal of the Accountant by Charles Wilhoite

Early years:

Grew up on in Northern Arizona on a Navajo reservation in a small town called Winslow

Was not Native American but parents both teachers for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Father was in the military and got his degree and paid back the gov by committing to working on res. Father principal, mother a teacher.

Minority among minorities But we were kids, my older siblings some issues.

He lived on the res until 6 and then moved to town he is the 4th of  5 brothers and sisters that when through kindergarten

Relationship with Parents- both an educator every day and loving parents. 

Small town did everything in sports, base

The Accountant@accountant Inspiration

“I had expected to go to college and go into finance, but I thought I would go into the banking side.  When you grow up in a small town the bank is very visible, it was a professional career. In college I had committed to finance initially but I had an accounting professor who said “you should get strong in accounting as well.” So I ended up getting degrees in finance and accounting. But probably the strongest reason I went into accounting was because one of my closest friends, who was a year ahead of me, was in accounting. I knew it was a very mobile degree you could work anywhere and for any type of company and that is kind of the way it has worked out.”

The Glamorous Life, Accounting? Disconnection, Intimacy

“I think it is a foreign language to some, and particularly when you get to people of color, it's not something kids really want to grow up and be an accountant@decisions. It isn’t really viewed as glamorous, but what I have found with an accounting background, I have had more opportunities than I would have ever expected to have, both professionally and personally. The boards I sit on, a lot of them know that I am a person of color who has an accounting background and I can bring different things to the table.

 Outside of sex, there are few intimate relationships we can have with each other than understanding another’s finances through the review of looking at how they manage their books@balance.  Although books certainly don’t tell the whole story, they do still tell a story that can frame the reason anyone may arrive at the particular financial outcome.  This is in part, why so many American citizens place a value on seeing the President of the United States’ tax reports@mmm....

“You can find out everything about a company or an individual by looking at their books.”

Finance- investment analysis than the books and record tracking side

“Accounting helps you read or interpret a company based upon its financial results and finance. You use that information to help make business decisions as far as buying, selling and investing.”

Started his career in Arizona, still thought he would end up on the finance side, as a public accountant for a firm called KPMG@kpmg working as an auditor for three years, I was a public accountant in that a auditor goes in and audits the financials of public agencies so that people in the public can reasonably rely on it.

He wasn’t running into a lot of minorities in that industry at the time

“ It was interesting during the time I was in public accounting in Phoenix Arizona, there existed what was called the big 8, referring to the biggest accounting firms. I was the only African American in the Big 8 in Phoenix Arizona for about a 2year period, which was shocking.” I didn’t even register with me at the time, and didn't think about it because there is not a significant African American population in Phoenix, similar to Oregon 5-7 %. And I was so used to it growing up it was nothing to me that I didn’t even notice it until someone pointed it out. That was good and bad. You have to do something to change that but the best thing you can do is to get in the field, be in the field, work in the field, be successful and be the example and make it more appealing to others.”

He did this for three years and met the then owner of the company that I am with now. He was looking for someone with a finance and accounting background. I met him in Phoenix and he flew me to Portland in 1990. I came out and the weather was 30 degrees cooler and I thought, this is great I’m leaving, so I went back and came out here within 30 days. So that’s how I got to the firm I’m with now and I have been here 27 years” It’s been a good change.  There aren’t a lot of African Americans in the industry I’m in, there are more doing financial work and banking work, but not independent advisory work, which is the type his firm does. Which means the value of other companies that people are buying and selling, or I go to court and testify as a financial expert when there is a dispute regarding an ownership interest in a company or some intangible asset.  We will represent either buyer or seller. New Season’s value to the company, many Full Sail Brewing employees, stock ownership so that they knew what they had in their retirement fund.

92-95 moved to Chicago with Firm, came back to Portland and knew he was going to be here awhile so the first association he got involved with the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA)@liftclimb, because he wanted to know local accountants and get involved with businesses in the region so that’s how I approached it. Through the NABA he came to know the Urban Leagues and joined their board. This would launch an impressive streak of Board appointments on some of Oregon’s most powerful and influential companies including; the Portland Business Alliance; the Oregon Health and Science University Medical Group; Jesuit High School; the Oregon Children's Foundation and the Portland State University Foundation.  He is a Trustee on the Meyer Memorial Trust. He is also a member of the Portland Fire and Rescue Bureau Advisory Committee; the Portland Chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants and the Citizens' Crime Commission. Legacy Emanuel Hospital Board, Portland African American Leadership Board The Portland Development Commission…PAALF?

“Everybody needs somebody with financial and accounting expertise on their board, it's not like we are the most valuable people, but it is a valuable perspective that every organization needs.”

Expertise never ends, on top of his decrees he has over 10 designation that read off like some kind of coded Cryptology 

PROFESSIONAL DESIGNATIONS/AFFILIATIONS
Certified Public Accountant (CPA)-Oregon State Society of Certified Public Accountants
Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV)-American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF)-American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA)-American Society of Appraisers (Business Valuation)
Certified Management Accountant (CMA)-Institute of Management Accountants
Certified in Financial Management (CFM)-Institute of Management Accountants
Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA)- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Certified Business Appraiser (CBA)-Institute of Business Appraisers
Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) -National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts

Managing Expectations for client the ah

“Be very structured on how we do the analysis, I have 10 designations on top of my two degrees, the reason being because when you go to court and testify as an expert you need to show that you are up to date. People say why on earth do you need all that/ it is a constant learning thing and so I am qualified to be an expert on these issues and testify as they come up. 

He goes to a lot of conferences, speaks at a lot of conferences, and writes articles. Writes for an internal publication that his firm puts out once a quarter and other journals from around the country. He chooses the discussion. Example does work in Health Care- When I came to firm a lot of work initially in health care. We will all be impacted by and touched by the healthcare industry, and .

You understand it by staying in it and getting in it. Deep into health care and education. Just enjoy the Healthcare industry and it's always evolving.   Lots of community chatter about that.

Chicago, very refreshing and personally rewarding to see people of color in all professional industries.

Chicago is very diverse but has other challenges; economic.

Came back to Portland.

He is a managing director one of 6 managing partners that have offices in Chicago and  Atlanta  they have a profit sharing organization.

Disposition in a Hot Topic Issues

You first have to know who you are , which seems obvious, before you can bring yourself to an issue I was looking at organizations that I could bring some value to. I asked” Do I have something to bring of value, and that was a perspective, >   “

HE IS ALWAYS THE Chair

I am not a sheet in the wind kind . I think people know I'm a balanced, fact based, information based person and then say what else do we need to consider. The best way to address it is to get on a path to not fix the past but fix the future and I think that is where we have a lot of challenges to date. You can never fix the past. But you have to let people know that you don’t forget what happened in the past and you take steps that hopefully sets peoples on a different , positive path moving forward.”

What’s truly valuable and truly worth doing personally

Making things better where they need to be made better. I am a person of color, I am African American. Everyone knows it when I walk into the room. People can assume I am always going to take a position just because I am African American,but that would be incorrect. What I am always trying to do is basically set some policies or processes in place that keep us from having to be arbi

trary and reactionary. What matters to me is that I want to see the African American race advance, I want to see the Native Am, Hispanic race advance and truthfully I want to see everyone advance to make up for disparities. Because until we are all on the same opportunity level it is never going to change. That’s really what’s missing, we haven’t really placed everyone on the same opportunity level. No one is saying, here is my hand filling it, I just want an equal opportunity to do what everyone else is doing around me and that’s where we are coming up short, in Oregon and as a nation, it's not equal opportunity yet.