New CFO a key player in helping UHY reach its growth goals

UHY has big aspirations. Already ranked by Accounting Today as the 26th-largest US accounting firm with approximately $385 million in revenue, the professional services firm wants to become a billion-dollar company. Its new CFO, Laura LaPeer, will play an important role in helping the company reach that objective.

“That’s one of the things that really attracted me to this role, is the seat that the CFO has at the table,” LaPeer, whom UHY announced as its new finance chief back in July, told CFO Brew. She said her job is “to not only be involved in M&A, being part of the board, working with our private equity firm, but really helping to grow the firm [and] also look to see how we can be operationally effective.”

Michigan-based UHY announced late last year it had secured private equity investment from Summit Partners. The two firms didn’t disclose the terms of the deal, but UHY noted the PE injection will help the company grow both organically and through M&A.

“This partnership marks the beginning of a new and expanded era of growth for UHY,” Steve McCarty, CEO of UHY, said in a December news release.

She’s got the background. LaPeer joined UHY from another accounting firm, Plante Moran, where she also served as CFO. Before that, she worked for another company, ProQuest, which also had private equity backing.

LaPeer said her experience at another accounting firm means “I bring that industry lens and that industry knowledge.” Her last firm operated more holistically, whereas UHY traditionally has “operated more regionally,” but about a year ago started to consolidate its operations and services.

“Because I came from this industry, I can provide some insights of…best practices, or ways that we can structure our compensation goals, how we’re incentivizing our partners, what we’re having them focus on for their metrics, because it isn’t as much office-driven now; it’s focusing more broadly,” LaPeer said.

Having worked for a PE-backed firm before, LaPeer said she’s familiar with the relationship dynamics between companies and their equity partners as well as PE firms’ expectations. ProQuest grew through numerous acquisitions when LaPeer was there, which is “exactly what we’re looking to do here at UHY,” she said. She’s contributed to acquisitions through assessing targets, reviewing their earnings, purchase accounting, and systems integrations.

Acquisition spree. UHY has a pipeline of potential acquisition targets that at any given time runs from 60 to 80 firms deep, according to LaPeer. The firm has potential deals in the works, ranging from very early conversations to “full diligence,” she said. Company leadership and PE investors discuss pending deals on a weekly basis.

UHY has closed on four deals so far this year, which have mostly been on the smaller side. But those small deals are good practice for when a behemoth comes along, LaPeer said.

“Whenever you get the one [deal] that’s $50 million, that muscle memory can come in handy” thanks to the prior smaller-value deals, she explained.

Team player. In addition to being a key player in UHY’s achieving its growth goals, LaPeer has set some of her own goals for the finance function.

At the time of our interview, UHY had “about a 10-day close.” LaPeer said she wants to reduce close time to six days “to provide insights more timely.” She also wants to provide leadership with revenue “on day one,” rather than with the rest of the financials. Achieving that comes down to improving processes, she said. Those improvements include “using workflows for invoice approval or using bank lockboxes to automate cash application.”

“You really need that if you’re going from a $500 million firm to a billion-dollar firm,” LaPeer said.