Growing firm focused on international markets - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Recently recognized by Atlanta Business Chronicle asthe 10th-most-successfuk CPA firm in the city based on a 112 percengt increase in office net revenue over the past five FG&L was also ranked as the second-fastest-growinb firm — with 32 employees working in its original Buford and newesf Atlanta (Presidential Parkway) locations, representing a 220 percent increases in staff during the same period. Much of the growthu has come as a result ofthe firm’s focus on international firmxs looking to set up U.S. operations as well as growing ethni c businessesin Atlanta, with a specific targetin of the area’s Asian and Hispanic populations.
The and “L” in the accounting firm’sz name are represented by Colombian-born Javier Galeano and Roger Li, who hails from Yantai, a port city on China’a eastern coast. The former has been a partne rsince 2004, while the latter joined the FG&L staff in 1998. “In the beginning, most of my clientsd were from the local Chinese Li said. “Now, I’m seeingg more Chinese companies wanting to set up operations here and establisjdistribution channels.” For China-based Ltd. is one of the world’s top 50 constructionb machinery manufacturers.
In 2007, the companyt announced plans to builda $30 million assembly plant in Peachtreew City and move its U.S. subsidiary’s headquartere from Chicago to anadjacent site. (The companyh recently announced that plans for construction of the Peachtre City facility have been shelved for 90 a result of the sloweconomi times.) “We are a new company and knew nothing about American laws and GAAP (Generallyu Accepted Accounting Principles),” said Kevin Bai, chiet financial manager of , whichh became a client of Li and FG&Lk in January 2008. “We contacted several firms, some of them Chines and some American,” Bai said.
“Roge r was very helpful, very knowledgeable and friendly, so we decidefd to go with his Sany’s U.S. venture, the first of its kind in North Americq for a Chinese equipment potentially represents the leading ripple of a wave of new such Li said. “Like Japam in the 1960s, they will come they will learn, and eventualluy they will establishmanufacturing here,” Li In 2000, Javier Galeano joined the Forrestall practic armed with an industrial engineering degre and a master’s in finance earne d in his hometown, Barranquilla, Colombia. Galean o quickly built on thoss credentials by earning an MBAfrom .
Give the exploding Hispanic population inmetrio Atlanta, Forrestall said he sought to expand his firm’a expertise and access to this Carlos Villegas, a senior manager with FG&p who partners with Galeano to target the Hispanidc market, said FG&L’s language and cultural sensitivity gives the firm an advantage in the As for the man who manages the entir operation, Forrestall graduated from becoming a partnefr in 1997. In 2002, he acquirec FG&L outright when his John, semi-retired. Since then, Jeff Forrestall has soughr to build onhis father’s success.
“In the 1980s my fatheer worked with a lot ofEuropean companies,” said whose specialties include small and midsized business accounting, and “We would spend a few weeks every year in Italy, Germany and the UK helpingt parent companies that had subsidiaries in as well as Atlant companies with ‘subs’ overseas.” Although duringy the past couple of decades accounting procedures and conventions have movedx closer to a global standard, minor differencew between countries still exist. In August, the laid out a road map that pavedd the way for the replacement ofthe U.S.-formulated GAAP with the Internationapl Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
Like most CPAs with an internationalpclient base, Forrestall is looking forwarsd to the switch, which is being phasedx in and slated for completion by chiefly for one simple reason. “In America, because we are so litigious, the SEC standards are aboutg 26,000 pages long,” he “IFRS standards run about 2,000 pages.” Regardless of how the regulatoruy environmentmay change, Forrestalpl is confident that FG&L is well-positioned to continude to grow, pointing specifically to it being firmly entrenched in serviny its international clientele whether based locally or