Start-up businesses drive accounting firm HHM to add partners

New Henderson, Hutcherson and McCullough CPA partners Branden Wilson, Will Clegg, Jon Paul Davis and Adam Osborne, from left, pose for a portrait in their offices on Friday, July 13, 2018, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
New Henderson, Hutcherson and McCullough CPA partners Branden Wilson, Will Clegg, Jon Paul Davis and Adam Osborne, from left, pose for a portrait in their offices on Friday, July 13, 2018, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Henderson Hutcherson & McCullough PLLC has added four new partners to the Chattanooga accounting firm, all of whom joined the business out of college about a decade ago.

"It's highly unusual," said Donnie Hutcherson, managing partner of Chattanooga's largest locally based accounting firm, about the similar experience levels of the new partners. "It was a good year."

Will Clegg, Jon Paul Davis, Adam Osborne and Branden Wilson will help continue the firm's growth in Chattanooga and in the Memphis office that opened last year, said Hutcherson.

Inside Public Accounting puts the accounting firm as the 162nd largest in the country in 2017, up from 170 in 2016. Net revenue last year was $21.2 million, up 13.7 percent from 2016, according to the ranking.

Hutcherson said the small business segment is probably undergoing the most growth within the firm as HHM capitalizes on the array of startups the Chattanooga area is experiencing.

"All the new startup businesses are a big opportunity," OVERSET FOLLOWS:he said. "It's something unique to Chattanooga."

Clegg said the firm is seeing a lot of companies graduating from the Hamilton County Business Development Center as well as from the startup scene within the city's Innovation District.

The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, which runs Hamilton County's small business incubator, calls the North Shore facility the third largest in the country.

Chattanooga's 140-acre Innovation District, meanwhile, was created in 2015 in the heart of the city center and has drawn global attention. The aim was to develop a place where entrepreneurs, tech-based startups and business incubators can mesh and create a so-called innovation ecosystem.

"There's a significant entrepreneurial spirit in this town," Clegg said.

Freight Depot Accounting, a business affiliated with HHM, was started a couple of years ago to help meet the needs of the small business sector, according to company officials.

Davis noted that HHM partners with The Company Lab, a nonprofit startup accelerator that supports entrepreneurial growth in the region. Headquartered at the Edney Innovation Center at East 11th and Market streets, the Co.Lab works with companies ranging from mom and pop shops to tech startups scaling into major markets.

At the same time, Hutcherson said the firm has clients ranging from New York to California, though the business that started in 1981 is primarily focused in the Southeast.

Auto dealerships remain a big area of specialty for the firm, which now has 20 partners with the four additions.

Wilson said that individual auto dealer accounting is "so specific you've got to be able to handle audit and taxes" for the companies.

Clegg, who came out of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's accounting program along with Davis, said he liked HMM's "open-door policy" when he was looking at which firm to join out of college.

"It had much more camaraderie," he said. "It was all part of a team approach. They empower new staff. They give you every opportunity for success from a personal standpoint."

HHM, with its affiliates, has 138 employees, including 22 in Memphis. About a year ago, the firm made its biggest foray out of the city as it joined with Brundige Payne & Co. The combined company operates as HHM Memphis in that city.

At the same time, Hutcherson said, Chattanooga is "a blessing" as a city where people want to move to and work. Chattanooga draws the level of talent such as the new partners, he said.

"We're hiring poeple, another 10 or so in coming months," Hutcherson said.

The said the company's 35,000-square-feet of office space, located in a renovated former railroad freight depot at 1200 Market St., is "a great recruiting tool," he said.

Wilson, who joined HHM from Lee University as did Osborne, said the building shows the firm is "different from any other accounting firm" in the city, citing the atmosphere and culture.

Osborne, too, mentioned the company culture.

"There's a sense of family here," he said.

Hutcherson said the new partners symbolize the importance of retaining talented people.

"It's one of our most proud accomplishments," the firm's managing partner said, seeing people recruited out of college move up within the firm a decade later.

Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.

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