Comstock's magazine 1018 - October 2018 | Page 39

GROW
Your Local Business.
At a time when only about one-third of partners in
accounting firms are younger than age 50, five of
the 13 BFBA partners are 45 or under.
2006), the company has prepared for
its own change at the helm.
BUILD THE BRAND
From the start, BFBA grew steadi-
ly while managing to stay local. The
partners had a strategy to combine the
expertise and range of services that a
big firm could offer with the flexibili-
ty and attentiveness of a smaller local
enterprise. By the late 1980s, the com-
pany had expanded to about 10 people,
and it doubled to about 20 in 2002 after
bringing in new partners Ken Astle and
Jeff Gustafson, also from KPMG.
“With them, we really started to
grow,” says David Boyce. The compa-
ny quickly burst the seams of its Mid-
town office and moved to its current
spot in the Sierra Oaks neighborhood.
More expansion and the acquisition of
two other small firms in 2011 and 2015
brought the company to its current 75
or so employees.
Two of those hires were direct
second-generation family members.
Ben Brown, Myles Brown’s son, had
been hired by KPMG after college in
1999 to work in its San Francisco of-
fice as an accountant. Soon he’d climb
the ladder to become a KPMG manag-
er. Looking for young talent, BFBA’s
partners asked him in 2001 to join the
company. He said no. He liked his job
and the challenge of managing big
accounts — Levi Strauss, Wells Fargo,
Visa — and he perceived a certain stig-
ma in joining the family firm. It might
seem as though he’d gotten his job be-
cause of the connection.
Ben’s answer shifted in 2004 after
a three-week stretch of 16-hour days
that prevented him from even seeing
his oldest daughter while she was still
awake. It was time for a change, and
when BFBA asked again that year, he
said yes.
The next year the firm pulled in Na-
than Boyce, David Boyce’s son, hiring
him away from PricewaterhouseCoo-
pers’ Silicon Valley office. There he’d
worked with venture-backed startups
and publicly traded firms doing audits
and setting up internal controls.
Trust the agribusiness specialists
at Community Business Bank for
the resources you need to grow,
season after season. Because
around here, farming isn’t just a
way to earn a living. It’s a way of life.
Bank Local
CommunityBizBank.com
[phone]
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October 2018 | comstocksmag.com
39