Making the Grade

Dr. Coffinberger, a professor at George Mason University, called Chip Helme into his office one day to review his transcript. “Mr. Helme, I understand you plan to take the upper level accounting classes next year,” he said. “But I want you to know that, unfortunately, it is mathematically impossible for you to get the necessary 3.0 GPA to qualify for taking those classes.” Chip, who had been so sure of himself and his ambition, felt the wind fall out of his sails. “But, without the upper level accounting classes, how will I become a CPA?” he asked.

After a moment of reflection, his professor offered him a deal: earn all A’s in five classes next semester, and he would give him special permission for the courses. Chip was thankful for the second chance and accepted the challenge, but did not leave the office with his characteristic carefree jaunt in his step. His world had been shaken.

That was the day Chip decided to change his entire approach to life, taking his future into his own hands and vowing to mold it into something powerful. For the first time, he decided to make the grade, steadfastly determined to earn his seat in the upper level classes. He moved into a new apartment, trading his party-going roommates for an Air Force ROTC student, and put his head to the books. “I had rarely gotten an A in any class, but I made it happen,” Chip recalls. “I reached my goal and earned all A’s. I was able to register for my classes, and I never let my grades falter again. I began treating school like it was a job, and once I did that, all the other areas of my life started to improve as well.”

Today, Chip is the Managing Principal of Thompson Greenspon, (T&G), a CPA firm located in Fairfax, Virginia. They offer audit, tax, and management advisory services to construction contractors, nonprofit organizations, government contractors, and professional service firms.

The firm was started in 1956 by Gerry Thompson and Irv Greenspon, who stayed active until they retired in the early 1990’s. T&G currently employs around 47 professionals—37 CPAs and ten administrative personnel. It has maintained its status as a leader in the local accounting community for decades—an accolade Chip credits to the firm’s “family first” culture. “Our staff is our most important asset,” he points out. “To have a loyal and dedicated staff, you need to treat them fairly. If they’re worried about their family, they won’t be able to meet their full potential at work.”

The other factor that has led to the firm’s longevity is the variety of industries it serves. “Many of the boutique firms out there specialize in just one industry and can eventually run into issues,” Chip says. “We maintain our vitality and stability through diversification.”

Beyond diversity, T&G also derives its strength and perseverance through adversity. In fact, Chip believes the recent recession actually strengthened the firm. While many other companies crumbled, the T&G partners seized the opportunity to increase training and get back to basics, focusing on hiring the best and brightest. “That choice engendered loyalty, and the good people who make the firm the great company it is today,” he explains.

Along with the great pride he takes in his work at T&G, Chip is thankful for a professional career that has kept him within the same twenty-mile radius that he’s lived in since he was a young teenager. His father was in the Navy, so he spent the first fourteen years of his life constantly on the move. He attended five schools in the span of nine years until finally settling down in Northern Virginia to attend James Madison High School when his father retired from the military.

Chip is the youngest of four with a ten year gap between himself and his next oldest sibling, so that once he had turned eight, he was essentially an only child. “All that moving made me mature, especially since my siblings were in college for most of it,” he says. “I learned how to depend on myself and overcome my natural tendency towards shyness.”

Throughout high school, he worked several jobs, including gigs at Roy Rogers and a scuba shop. Although school was not his biggest priority, it was his father’s. He encouraged Chip to earn good grades to ensure a successful future. “In elementary school, when I was struggling with my multiplication tables, he would sit me on the basement stairs and have me recite them over and over again while he worked in his shop,” Chip recalls.  “Once I learned to enjoy math, my father moved on to emphasizing the importance of English. I didn’t understand why at the time, but now I’m grateful because as a CPA, I’m constantly drafting letters and calling upon my writing skills.”

Chip and his father were extremely close, so when his father died suddenly of a heart attack, he was devastated. “I remember my mother walking into my room at 1:45 in the morning to tell me what had happened, and all I could think was, ‘What do you mean my father is dead? How can that happen?’ I was only fifteen,’” he recalls. “I was in a lot of pain, which made me act out for a couple months. I got away with a lot of things my father would have never allowed, and I think I exhausted my mom.”

His mother, who was an affectionate and understanding person, helped him through that traumatic time. But when Chip’s rebellious ways became too much for her to handle, she would send him to his older brother’s house in North Carolina for weeks at a time.  “My brother, Bob, is fourteen years older than I am, so he really stepped in to fill that father-figure role for me,” Chip says. “We had a lot of deep conversations that really helped me through those times.”

As high school graduation neared, Chip was accepted to Catholic University, yet given his wild streak, his mother decided he would do better at Virginia Military Institute. Despite his reluctance, he agreed to go in the hopes that joining the military would fulfill his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut.  “Looking back, I’m very proud of that year,” he says. “It gave me a lot of self-discipline and taught me to pay attention to details. Both of those skills have really helped me in my career.”

Though successful in military school, Chip longed to return to Northern Virginia and a non-military lifestyle. With that, he transferred to George Mason University, moved into an apartment with friends, and spent the following two years having the time of his life. “I had my high school and college friends all in the same place, so I relapsed into having a good time and not working too hard,” he admits.

Starting at GMU, Chip also was looking for a better fit than the engineering track he was on, and thankfully, a career interest survey pointed him towards accounting. After taking a basic accounting class, Chip found the material made perfect sense to him. “It was so logical, and it just came easily to me,” he says. “I enjoyed it and felt empowered every time I worked out the right answer.”

Chip fell in love with the field and, seizing his professor’s offer of a second chance, he used his new passion to succeed. He took the accounting world by storm, earning top-notch grades in his last two years of college. His junior year, he landed a co-op position as an auditor with the Department of Defense Inspector General.

After graduation, Chip was hired by his very own Thompson Greenspon. The local firm wasn’t one of the large accounting firms he had originally hoped to work for, but when he was interviewed by Irv Greenspon himself, they found a perfect match in one another. Months later, Chip passed the entire CPA exam, all four parts, in his first sitting—a feat accomplished by only 17 percent of CPAs. With such notable success, Chip attracted the attention of a number of firms. “My friends told me I should go work for a larger company to keep moving up the ladder, but T&G hired me for who I am. I have incredible loyalty to them for that,” he says.

That was in 1985, and Chip has been with Thompson Greenspon for the entirety of his professional career. It has been a career of fulfillment, growth, and satisfaction. Only briefly, nine years in, did he waiver.  Feeling that he was ready to be made a partner, he became frustrated by a lull in his advancement. To get to where he wanted to be, he felt he needed to bring in more clients and work more hours, but he and his wife, Mary, had three small children at home. Working more hours would come at the expense of home life—a sacrifice he wasn’t sure he could make.

Looking for a solution, he turned to June, his older sister and a social worker by training, for advice.  “Having worked in a hospice for ten years, she had sat by many deathbeds and listened to patients speak of their lives. Never once did anyone say they wished they had spent more of their time working,” Chip recalls. “They always wished that they had spent more time with their families. Her words stuck with me, so I decided to be patient. I continued with T&G, working the same amount of time but being more focused and intentional. Staying the course turned out to be the best decision I could have made because I was able to keep family first, and within a year, I was made partner.”

Five years later, Chip was voted in as the managing partner.  While he found it strange at first to make decisions for the older and more experienced partners around him, he takes confidence in the fact that he was voted into the role by his fellow partners, and thus trusted by the people he leads. “When our previous managing partner was ready to retire, we brought in a consultant who had us vote for who we thought was right for the position,” he says. “When it came down to it, they decided I was someone they could trust, so ever since, I’ve put all my efforts into making sure that the partners feel heard.”

Chip’s open door and consensus-building approach to leadership served him well as a partner. And since taking on his new role at the head of the company, he has noticed his management style continues to evolve in subtle, significant ways. “I’ve had to learn this the hard way, but you just have to make a decision and not be afraid of making the wrong choice or upsetting someone,” he affirms. “More important than futilely trying to make everyone happy all the time, is the ability to be definitive about your decisions and move on. As CPAs, we are very cautious and risk-averse, but sometimes you have to make hard decisions, try something new, and deal with the outcome.  As long as you are able to look yourself in the mirror at the end of the day and know you did what you thought was best for everyone, you’re making progress.”

This steady determination, reflective of his unyielding pursuit of his CPA dream, has allowed him to make the grade in the professional world just as he did back in college. Since 2009, Chip has been named a Super CPA in Virginia Business Magazine in the category of Government and Nonprofits. In 2013, he was appointed to CPAmerica’s Board of Directors as Vice Chairman, and he will serve as its Chairman during 2015.

Additionally, Chip is the Treasurer of the Fairfax County Crime Solvers and a board member of both the George Mason University Accounting Advisory Council and the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association. But his real passion for community service lies with the Boy Scouts of America. He was President of his explorer post as a young man, and he has served as Scoutmaster and Cubmaster for his three sons’ troop.

“I love spending time with my kids and teaching them the lessons I’ve taken my whole life to learn,” Chip says proudly, echoing the advice he would give to any young person today. “When they get discouraged with school, they say they think it’s stupid and they don’t want to do the work. I say: You may think that, but it’s just like a sport: there are rules, and you have to abide by them if you want to play. I’m thankful to my old professor for helping me see that. I doubt he was even aware of his impact, but I left his office realizing that I had the power to determine my own destiny.  I think that’s an invaluable lesson to learn at any point in your life—that making the grade is about making your future. It’s all up to you.”

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