The article shared below, “Albuquerque accounting firm REDW opens Oklahoma office,†by Albuquerque Business First Editor-in-Chief Rachel Sams, appeared on the publication’s website on December 4, 2020.
Victor Flores, REDW Director of Tribal Services in Oklahoma (Kip Malone)
A few years ago, tribal finance expert Victor Flores asked a couple of principals at accounting firm REDW: “When are you going to open an office in Oklahoma?”
Albuquerque-based REDW opened an Oklahoma office last month, and hired Flores, who also serves as president of the Oklahoma Tribal Finance Consortium, to lead it.
“There’s lots of opportunities, even in a pandemic, and this is a great example,” REDW Managing Principal Steve Cogan said.
Flores, an REDW client for years, said opening the office allows the firm to do more direct outreach to Oklahoma’s 38 federally recognized tribal nations, in addition to four tribal nations in Kansas and three in Texas. REDW aims to hire five people for the office by the end of January and continue growing “strategically and aggressively” from there, Flores said.
Flores previously served in leadership roles for the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, including as chief financial officer.
REDW currently occupies a 750-square-foot office Flores had already been working from in Edmond, Oklahoma, and will likely look for new space in the state as the firm grows.
About 40 percent of REDW’s business across all service lines comes from tribes, Cogan said. And tribes have made lots of inquiries to REDW about compliance with federal requirements for CARES Act money available to tribes during Covid-19.
“No one wants to pay that money back,” Flores said, and the requirements to receive the funds are complex.
REDW has had recent demand from tribes for human resources, compensation, sales tax and data visualization services, officials said.
Business First broke the news in 2016 that REDW had forged a partnership with Notah Begay III (Navajo/Pueblo), known for his career in professional golf, to help promote and build out the firm’s tribal services to governments. Their work together continues, said REDW Director of Marketing Gabe Tevrizian, adding that Begay gave the keynote speech at REDW’s Tribal Finance & Leadership Conference last month.
REDW, ranked the second-largest accounting firm in New Mexico on Business First’s Accounting Firms List, also has an office in Phoenix. It employs more than 200 and expects to report about $32 million in revenue this year, Cogan said.
REDW is committed to growth as a locally owned, independent CPA firm as consolidation in the accounting industry continues, said Cogan.
“It’s an exciting time and opportunity for our business model,” he said.
