2008 Economic Impact Awards Top Honors, CPA Firms: BKD

“We’re hoping to break ground in late July, early August. We’re really excited about that,” says John Wanamaker, partner in charge of BKD’s Southern Missouri Practice Unit, which includes Springfield, Joplin and Branson. “By us being downtown and having the number of people we have who work downtown … it’s pretty amazing how much economic impact 300 people have.”

BKD’s new building – which will house staff for both the corporate office and the Southern Missouri Practice Unit – will have 27,000 square feet each on four floors.

Three of those floors will house current employees, while a fourth is reserved for future growth, Wanamaker notes.

BKD’s recent merger with three Mississippi accounting firms brings its office count to 29 and extends its reach into 12 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas.

The three firms add $10 million in revenue, which isn’t a huge merger, Wanamaker notes, but location is key.

“Mississippi was a good fit for us geographically,” he says.

BKD announced a merger, effective July 1, with San Antonio-based The Hanke Group PC. That merger was expected to net about $12 million in annual revenues and add 70 employees, including eight partners, to the firm.

In 2007, BKD posted companywide revenues of $318 million. The Southern Missouri Practice Unit, which posted 2007 revenues of $31 million, is the company’s third largest, behind the Kansas City-Kansas-Nebraska unit and Indiana unit, Wanamaker says. The southern Missouri group works with clients all over the nation in a variety of fields, from banking, real estate, government and higher education to construction, manufacturing and distribution, and health care.

“We even have clients in Alaska and Hawaii who are serviced out of the Springfield office, everywhere from New York to Los Angeles, because our health care practice is nationally recognized,” Wanamaker says.

In fact, while health care and manufacturing and distribution are the two largest sectors for BKD – representing 21 percent each of BKD’s total revenue – health care is the No. 1 segment for the Southern Missouri Practice Unit, Wanamaker says.

Hospitals account for about one-third of that business, according to partner John Cooper.

“We also have a substantial long-term care practice, which is nursing homes, home health care agencies and federally qualified community health centers,” he adds. “We do work in most of the 50 states.”

Quality employees are in high demand in BKD’s field, and the company pulls heavily from accounting programs at local educational institutions, such as Missouri State, Drury, Evangel and Southwest Baptist universities, Cooper says.

BKD employees are encouraged to step outside the office to support their community.

“Every practice has its own checkbook and funding,” Wanamaker says, adding that local dollars are put toward local organizations.

BKD LLP

Address: 901 St. Louis St., Ste. 1000, Springfield, MO 65806

Web: www.bkd.com

Employees: 1,900 firmwide; 326 in the Southern Missouri Practice Unit

2007 Revenues: $318 million firmwide; $31 million in southern Missouri

Did you know?

BKD had its first headquarters in Joplin. Its first Springfield office opened in 1948 in the downtown Landers Building.

Information accurate at the time of the honor.