Ozarks Profile

Owner, Faulkner Financial Services, 1655 S. Enterprise, Suite B-5, Springfield. Faulkner Financial Services provides accounting, tax and investment services for individual and corporate clients. The firm has been providing accounting and tax services for more than 30 years and investment services for the past 15 years. Faulkner Financial is affiliated with Birchtree Financial Services in Kansas City and RPR Correspondent Clearing, a division of Dain Rauscher Inc. in St. Louis.

Age: 40.

No. of years in Springfield/area: Born and raised in Springfield.

Education: A graduate of Parkview High School and Southwest Missouri State University, Faulkner received her Series VII investment license at Arizona Insurance and Investment School and her investment advisor training at STC in Chicago. She is an enrolled agent, enrolled to practice before the Internal Revenue Service.

Early career: After college, her first job was working for T&K Distributing Co., on Market Street, where the Springfield Brewing Company now sits. She began as the accounts receivable, accounts payable chattel mortgage clerk and went on to manage the parts and service department. She was working at T&K when she received a call from Mike Faulkner, who was looking for an accountant for his firm. Sharon and Mike Faulkner married and since then have worked together in the same office. Mike Faulkner is responsible for the management of the brokerage and the investment portion of the firm, while Sharon Faulkner remains focused on the accounting and tax-management areas.

Current projects: She is currently working on two projects for the office. First, Faulkner Financial is in the process of upgrading its hardware and software both for greater efficiency and to be Y2K-compliant. Second, the company is working on the steps necessary to become an investment broker/dealer. Faulkner will be obtaining additional licenses and hiring additional staff to better serve the needs of clients.

Management philosophy: "I hope that my employees will tell you that I am flexible and never ask anything of them that I don't expect of myself. And that I show constant appreciation of their skills, talents and ideas."

Spare-time pursuits: Continues to remodel the home the couple purchased seven years ago. Faulkner also enjoys gardening, cooking and reading. Most of her spare time is spent volunteering; she is now serving on the Board of Public Utilities, Springfield Little Theatre board and has been asked to join the advisory board of the Boys & Girls Town of Missouri, of which she is a past member. She is also serving as a service consultant to the Association of Junior Leagues International, which allows her to travel to Junior Leagues around the country and provide training on fund development strategy and strategic planning.

Family data: In March she will have been married to Mike Faulkner for 15 years. Her parents, Robert and Pauline Sweet, and her brother, Stuart, live in Springfield. She is also a "very lucky aunt to Ashley Marie, age 9 going on 19, who is also in Springfield," she said.

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