As posted May 23, 2024 on The Woodard Report
Please meet the panelists for the cannabis session to be presented at the national Woodard Conference.
This is the very first cannabis session offered by Woodard at the national event.
All panelists are degreed accountants, and four are CPAs. Most have extensive industry experience and have worked for a large firm. All operate their own firms now, have been introduced to cannabis, and have made it a dominant or solo industry for their firm.
The panelists
Bruce Andersen is based in the mature state of California but services clients in most legalized states.
Scott Fleming is in the new state of Mississippi in the newer region of the Southeast.
Naomi Granger is in a newer state of Nevada, but her membership is national.
Angela L’Esperance is in the new state of Minnesota and the newer region of North Central.
Rick LaNeve is in a new series of states in the Northeast.
A special shoutout to Rick, who has just been awarded a Woodard Top 50 Accounting Services Practice Award for 2024 for his firm, The Accounting Buds.
Now, on to individual introductions.
Bruce Andersen
Bruce Andersen, CPA, founded the Andersen CPA firm over twenty years ago. It provides accounting, tax, and consulting services to small and medium-sized businesses in California.
In 2018, Bruce founded CannabisCPA.Tax—a division of the Andersen CPA firm—which is a premier boutique resource to the legal cannabis industry in the areas of tax, audit, accounting, and consulting.
The firm is based in Los Angeles, and the bulk of its client base is in California. The firm also has clients in most cannabis-friendly states. The firm’s client base includes cultivators, distributors, retailers, and manufacturers.
Key focus areas for our clients’ assistance are CFO services on call and tax; tax includes entity structuring, tax planning, and tax preparation. It is handled at the local, state, and federal levels.
Bruce has advanced degrees from Golden Gate University (M.S. Tax), Boston University (M.S. Business Administration), and California State University-Bakersfield (MBA-Finance). His undergraduate work was done at Iowa State University (this is not the school that Caitlin Clark attended], where he earned a B.S. in Industrial Administration.
Bruce is a founding member of the National Association of Cannabis Accounting and Tax Professionals, a member of the Executive Committee of the Southern California Cannabis Affinity Group of Provisors, a 26-year member of QuickBooks ProAdvisors, and a 15-year member of the recently disbanded Intuit Trainers and Writers Network.
Bruce is a California CPA licensed to practice. He served as a regular officer in the Army Corps of Engineers.
Scott Fleming
Scott Fleming grew up in northern California, about an hour south of the Oregon state line. After high school, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served as an infantry rifleman during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Following his honorable discharge, he enrolled in university and graduated with an MBA from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
Scott spent the next decade in real estate finance before relocating to a regional CPA firm in northeast Mississippi. While there, he earned his CPA credential and then pivoted to manufacturing as CFO for what would become the largest privately-owned CNC Machine Shop in the Southeast U.S. Then, in 2020, Mississippi voters chose to legalize medical marijuana, and Scott’s life was forever changed. He left manufacturing to start his own CPA practice, and the rest (as they say) is history.
Making a strategic pivot to serve Mississippi Medical Cannabis Operators, Scott has found a niche he never dreamed possible, combining his love for all things accounting, the people of Mississippi, and the legal use of cannabis as medicine. Now, he has the honor of helping his friends and neighbors in almost every town in the state.
Naomi Granger
Naomi Granger, CPA, MBA, is a distinguished professional from Las Vegas, Nevada. She attended Florida A&M University where she earned her Master of Business Administration degree. During her college years, Naomi engaged in a notable 18-month internship in the state and local tax department at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.
Following her graduation, Naomi worked 12 years in external audit and corporate accounting roles across three of the Big Four accounting firms and various Fortune 500 companies. This experience not only honed her expertise but also set the stage for her future entrepreneurial endeavors.
In recent years, Naomi has carved a unique niche in the cannabis industry. She has educated and trained over 700 accountants, helping them navigate the industry’s complex regulatory landscapes. Her influence extends further as the founder of the National Association of Cannabis Accounting and Tax Professionals, a pivotal resource for accountants aspiring to work in the industry.
Additionally, she created Calculating Cannabis, an in-depth training program aimed at accountants seeking to specialize or expand their services in the cannabis market. Through these initiatives, Naomi continues to shape the intersection of accounting and cannabis, driving professionalism and compliance in this rapidly evolving industry.
Angela L’Esperance
Angela is originally from the small town of Two Harbors in northern Minnesota. She attended Portland State University and wrapped up her dual bachelor’s degrees in accounting and business administration at Metro State University in Minnesota.
Angela has worked in several different accounting environments. With an entrepreneurial mindset at a young age, Angela started her first business while attending college at 21. She also worked in an accounting department that allowed her to create new positions, document SOPs, and train new employees; worked in tax at a CPA firm and as an Outsourced CFO. Benefitting from her diverse experience, she eventually decided to translate her experience into cannabis and started her own cannabis accounting firm.
Angela started Ms. Jane Accounting, a cannabis accounting firm, in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2019 as the sole employee with zero clients. Now, she has an all-female team of seven and is currently servicing clients across four states in the U.S. Ms. Jane Accounting handles everything from data entry bookkeeping to advisory services, CFO services, tax planning services, and tax preparation.
In 2022, Angela won the Minnesota Top Women in Finance award and was recently awarded Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s 40 Under 40.
Rick LaNeve
Rick LaNeve is the founder of Accounting Buds. He is an accomplished senior executive, board member, and consultant with over 20 years of success. Rick is experienced in working with C-level executives, owner/operators, legal counsel, and key business personnel to perform analysis, drive decisions, build companies, and implement change.
Rick is a certified public accountant (CPA) with a versatile skill set. He specializes in developing and implementing strategic plans for organizations of all sizes. He has worked with global organizations leading process re-engineering and transformation, merger integrations, project management, internal controls, and team building. Rick has also worked with smaller organizations to build their businesses from the ground up.
Rick has given countless presentations to boards and audit committees, worked on a large corporate bankruptcy, participated in two initial public offerings (IPO), led three global merger integrations, investigated a major fraud case, and provided written and verbal communication to the Chief Accountant in the Division of Corporate Finance of the SEC.
He is chairman of the Cannabis Committee of the New York State Society of CPAs and a member of the National Association of Cannabis Accounting & Tax Professionals.
He also received a Woodard Top 50 Accounting Services Practice Award for 2024 for his firm, The Accounting Buds.
Please stop by to see us at the conference!
Visit Bruce’s posts related to Rescheduling Cannabis at the Federal Level HERE.
Please reach out to us to discuss your specific situation. Info@CannabisCPA.Tax.
