Pub. 3 2021 Issue 1

23 nebraska society of cpas W W W . N E S C P A . O R G of the Nebraska Society of CPAs’ CPECommittee, is a TeamMates mentor, and is a member of Lincoln’s Young Professionals Group. Maggie L. Kothe was recognized by the AICPA last year as a 2019 ElijahWatt Sells Award winner. Nearly 75,000 individuals sat for the CPA Exam in 2019 with only 137 candidates meeting the criteria to receive this award, named in honor of one of the country’s first CPAs. Each year, the AICPA bestows its Elijah Watt Sells Award upon high-performing candidates who obtain a cumulative average score above 95.50 across all four sections of the Uniform CPA Examination and pass all four sections on their first attempt. Awards are presented in the calendar year following the year inwhich testing is completed. Kothe graduated fromKansas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Accountancy. She is self-employed with MK Bookkeeping Services LLC in Hastings. Michael “Mike” Kottwitz has been promoted to director at HBE LLC. Kottwitz graduated magna cum laude from Doane University in 2012. Mark Manning has been appointed to the Nebraska Board of Public Accountancy by Gov. Pete Ricketts. He will serve as an active permit holder from Congressional District 1 from 2020- 2024, replacing Michael McClure. Manning is president of Manning & Associates created in 1988 with locations in Crete and Geneva. He has served on the Nebraska Society of CPAs Board of Directors and currently serves as president of the Foundation of the Nebraska Society of CPAs. He also served for many years as a volunteer reviewer for the State Board’s Quality Enhancement Program and currently serves on the State Board’s Peer Review Committee. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska. Michael “Mike” Mason has joined Frankel Zachar ia LLC as a tax manager. Mason is a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in accounting. Christi Olsen has been appointed to the Nebraska Board of PublicAccountancy byGov. PeteRicketts. She will serve as an active permit holder from Congressional District 2 from2020-2024, replacing Michele Stromp. A graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Olsen is a member of Circle CPALLC and has been practicing public accounting since 1989. She recently served on the Nebraska Society of CPAs Board of Directors and is a past chairman of the Foundation of the Accounting and Financial Women’s Alliance (AFWA). Scott Scheef has been promoted to partner at HBE LLP. Scheef is a 2007 graduate of Hastings College. He joined HBE in 2011 and currently leads the firm’s Construction Industry and State and Local Tax (SALT) Specialty Teams. Scheef is a past treasurer of the Associated Builders and Contractors - Cornhusker Chapter, the current treasurer for SMILE-Center, and a board member for the Construction Accounting Network. Anthony “Tony” Storer has been promoted to director at HBE LLC. Storer has more than 25 years of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software experience, spanning multiple platforms and industries. Daniel “Dan” Torczon has been promoted to partner at Hancock & Dana PC. Torczon has more than 14 years of experience and joined the firm in 2016. Brock Wyatt has been elected to the Aurora School Board, ser ving as secretar y of the board. Wyatt is an Aurora native, graduating in 2002. He is presently the CFO at Hamilton Telecommunications in Aurora. Mika Yonamine has joined BerganKDV as a tax manager. Yonamine earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She is a mentor in the TeamMates program and a board member of the SantaMonica House. BerganKDV has eight offices in four states. Firms in the News HBE LLP has announced a merger with Marvin E. Jewell & Co. PC (MEJ) effective January 1. Founded in 1963, MEJ has served individuals and businesses for nearly 60 years. Carmen Standley, owner of MEJ, has joined HBE as a partner with the firm. She and the former MEJ team members will continue serving clients from their existing office at 8215 Northwoods Drive, Suite 300, in Lincoln. HBE operates from multiple office locations in Lincoln, Norfolk, and Omaha. Lutz celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2020. Founded in 1980, the firm now has a 275-plus person team with offices in Omaha, Lincoln, Hastings, and Grand Island. Masimore Magnuson & Associates PC of Omaha has donated $1,040 toGoodfellows, the OmahaWorld-Herald charity that helps people who fall through the gaps in the social safety net. Each year, the firm conducts an internal fund drive and selects a charity to receive the dollars raised by the firm’s 20 employees. The firm has been serving the Omaha area since 1974. SP Group PC of Lincoln formed a seven-person “SP Cares Team” in 2020, assisting more than 350 businesses in applying for and receiving COVID-related financial assistance by the end of the year. t