Exec Suite: MayerMeinberg, Syosset

Since the crash of 2008, some firms in the accounting world have expanded because more individuals and business owners want a frequent financial "snapshot" of how their investments are doing, said Robert Mayer, co-managing partner of MayerMeinberg Llp, a firm of accountants and business advisers.

The challenges of the economic downturn demanded reorganization and refinancing from so many clients that a year ago, Mayer's 19-year-old firm, Mayer & Co. Llp, merged with Feldman, Meinberg & Co., which had been in business more than 60 years and was managed by Mark L. Meinberg.

Since then, the firm has merged again with Mark Ackerman and continues to expand its offices in Syosset and Manhattan. MayerMeinberg recently joined the BDO Alliance, which gives their clients access to a nationwide network of accountants.

We planned it six months beforehand . . . You have to do your due diligence, your chemistry check. You have to talk about what you want the culture of the firm to be. And you have to be prepared for flexibility because when you're putting two firms together, each of them has successful habits and successful procedures, and you're likely to only need one of them at each instance.

No, we've added an accounting position, entry level, [and] a top-level position, and we've brought in a partner, Mark Ackerman.

We're looking to add good quality CPAs to our city office and even to the Syosset office. In many cases. we're looking for area specializations that we currently don't handle, or areas that we do handle but we'd like to further develop.

I work with the dean of the School of Business, and I've just been offered to go onto his advisory board with other very high-profile Long Island businesspeople to help the curriculum . . . We're focused on bringing entry-level people into our firm and developing them, and it's been successful in the past.

People probably care a lot more about where their money's going. Even the wealthy want to know you know, what's theirs is theirs and that it's being properly attended to -- that no one is taking their eyes off the target.

I try to be at the beach as much as possible [but] starting January until April 15 we usually don't even know that there's daylight outside.

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