Bill Balhoff
Managing director and CEO, Postlethwaite & Netterville
Growing up in a family with 11 children, Bill Balhoff never had a dull moment as a youngster. He learned to make the best of it, and his many siblings taught him valuable life skills. Little did he know his childhood experiences would prepare him for his future career as an accountant. Balhoff learned how work with large groups of people with differing personalities and opinions, build consensus, be a leader and communicate effectively. His knack for working with people steered him out of a major in chemical engineering and into business school. Since joining Postlethwaite & Netterville in 1976, the company has grown from 22 employees to 600 and revenues of more than $50 million, which Balhoff attributes to the firm’s high quality service and talented team.
After 38 years at P&N, Balhoff has witnessed tremendous change within the business. “What’s most exciting to me is the increased diversity of our people, our clients, and our services,” Balhoff says. As times have changed, so has P&N, growing to offer a broader suite of services to clients including innovative consulting and technology services.
For Balhoff, there is more to a public accountant than meets the eye. “People think CPAs are number crunchers, and that’s true, but they don’t realize that pubic accounting is a people business,” Balhoff says. Being successful takes good communication skills, especially the ability to listen to a client’s problem and work with them to solve it.
Working at P&N, Balhoff doesn’t work in a single industry, but many. He manages clients in a wide variety of industries, each of which has its own rules, regulations, timelines and challenges. “Keeping up with industry-specific issues as well as the regulations that impact the accounting profession itself can be challenging,” Balhoff says.
The best piece of advice Balhoff has ever received is to allow himself to be pushed out of his comfort zone. “I use that advice constantly, from public speaking to testifying before Congress, to being Chair of the American Institute of CPAs. “I strongly believe that you can’t grow and get better if you are firmly planted in your comfort zone,” Balhoff says.
Balhoff’s next professional goal is to become more active in his profession at the international level. “As our clients continue to increase their operations overseas, international knowledge and connections will be more of a focus for accountants all over the world,” Balhoff says. In addition to the international focus, Balhoff says one item on his bucket list is to travel the world with his grandchildren.
