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 Company: HKS, Inc.
Company Description: HKS, Inc. is the nation's top-four ranked architectural firm. HKS has completed over $39 billion in construction in 758 cities in 46 states and 41 countries from its Dallas headquarters and Atlanta, Denver, Detroit, Ft. Worth, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Orlando, Phoenix, Richmond, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Tampa, Washington DC, Mexico City, and London offices.
Nomination Category: Management Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Finance Executive
Nomination Title: Larry LeMaster, CPA, CFO
- Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2007 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
Larry LeMaster’s core belief begins with servant leadership including serving
the client, the community and HKS staff.
In the past five years, Larry has been at HKS’s financial helm as the privately
held firm has jumped from number nine to number three architectural firm in the
United States and from number 13 to number four in the world.
Through his financial leadership, HKS’s total revenues have grown from $134
million in 2003 to $380 million in 2007. Larry was instrumental in executing
HKS strategic plan to expand worldwide including:
• Acquisition of three firms and opening of 10 new offices enabled HKS to be #1
in the world in hospitality, healthcare and sports design.
• New offices in India, London, and Mexico City to grow internationally
Internally
Larry is responsible for auditing and communicating financial information
including over 200,000 transactions totaling more than $900 million over the
last three years. He stringently works with agencies to research and implement
the latest rules and regulations. For example, although HKS is not subject to
Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) requirements, Larry has implemented many policies and
procedures similar to SOX standards. His philosophy is that a company should
review and implement solid controls around its financial and operational
processes.
Since joining HKS, his department has grown five-fold. One of his greatest
achievements is growing, mentoring and promoting his staff including:
• Developing new continuing education programs and one-on-one mentoring
• Coordinating accounting Intranet site to highlight staff accomplishments
• Hiring diversified staff (94 percent women and minorities)
Since HKS is privately held, his goal is to educate stakeholders (employees) on
HKS’s financials.
• Companywide, he hosts an HKS Finance 101 course. This involves training
everyone on HKS profit motive, cost-conscious decisions, HKS investment
decisions, cost reduction and financial measurements.
• He hosts regular seminars based specifically on project finance and reporting
for project managers and project architects.
Larry founded HKS’s investment committee which researches and suggests
retirement funds and removes non-performing funds. He expanded the 401(k)
program from three to 20 diversified funds. Also, HKS did not have an employee
match program. Through his efforts, the firm now offers a 50 percent match.
Externally
Serving on the AIA Committee on Property Tax Reform, he has helped affect
legislation on the new Texas property tax bill. He alerted the committee that
businesses were being taxed twice on subcontractor contracts. This double-
taxing was repealed, allowing businesses to pass the savings on to their
clients and employees.
He was selected to review the financial chapters of the national AIA
Practitioners Handbook. The handbook is a staple of architects nationwide,
offering guidelines to efficiently and effectively run their practice.
Larry is a member of the AIA CFO Round Table for large architectural firms.
The peer group shares information to better the financial end of the
architectural practice. Larry was recently selected to chair the committee
that directs the biennial Large Firm Round Table Financial Benchmarking Survey.
- List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://www.hksinc.com/news/2007_03_LeMaster_Named.htm
http://www.hksinc.com/news/2007_06_Hill_Glazier_Merges_with_HKS.htm
http://www.hksinc.com/news/2007_06_HKS_is_Best_Place_to_Work.htm
http://www.hksinc.com/news/2008_02_HKS_Opens_Chennai_Office.htm
http://www.hksinc.com/news/2008_03_HKS_Ranked_Top_10.htm
- Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:
Larry LeMaster, CPA, is CFO and principal of HKS, Inc.
He is responsible for managing all financial aspects of the 1,300-person, 23-
office firm including international and domestic operations. This includes
process auditing, project profitability as well as cash management and banking
relationships. Larry manages international, federal and multi-state tax issues,
exchange rate issues, lending agreements, profit analysis and revenue
projection.
With 23 years of experience in accounting, finance and administration, Larry
joined HKS in 1993 as controller. In 2004, he was named CFO. He was recently
promoted to principal – one of the first non-architects elected to this
position.
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