A look at the people behind the numbers in area business:
Jacque J. Lee baker Tilly
Title: Partner
Age: 40
Newly promoted partner Jacque Lee continues to focus on working with medical device and other manufacturing clients in the Minneapolis office of the Baker Tilly accounting firm.
Lee, a certified public accountant and member of the firm's manufacturing and distribution services group, estimated that 50 to 60 percent of her clients are in the life science and medical device industry.
"It's an industry that has grown quickly for the firm," Lee said. "The Minneapolis office alone has increased our life science clients probably 60 to 75 new clients over the last few years. Minnesota is clearly a hotbed for those folks."
Lee said she has worked with such companies on matters including financial-statement audits and on accounting related to debt and equity financing.
She also has spoken about and advised companies on the medical device excise tax, which Congress approved to help pay for national health care reform, and other tax provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
"The goal was for them to figure out if they might be lucky enough to fall into one of the exceptions and thereby not be subject to it," Lee said.
Lee, who has more than 15 years of experience in public accounting, specializes in public accounting and compliance for small to midsize businesses.
She joined Baker Tilly Virchow Krause six years ago and was promoted to director in August 2013. She previously worked at Deloitte, joining the Minneapolis office from Arthur Andersen.
Lee has an accounting degree from the University of St. Thomas and a master's of business taxation degree from the University of Minnesota.
Q: To what would you attribute the growth of Baker Tilly's medical device client base?
A: A lot of smaller medical device companies work with contract chief financial officers (CFOs). We've tried hard to build relationships with those contract CFOs because they, in turn, work for several clients because as they pick up new clients, they're already working with us.
Q: What prompted you to join Baker Tilly?
A: When I was at Deloitte, I worked on a variety of clients and found myself drawn to middle-market clients, where you have the ability to interface with owners and decisionmakers and learn a lot more about their business and their industries.
Q: How would you describe your responsibilities?
A: Outside of my client responsibilities, one of my passions internally at the firm is people development, from recruiting to helping folks with career development. I invest a significant portion of my time with human resources on college campus recruiting.
Todd Nelson
