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Featured Member:
José A. Alvarez
Managing Director
Alvarez Company, P.A. CPA Firm
Apollo Beach, FL
As the Managing Director of Alvarez Company, P.A. CPA Firm, located in Apollo Beach, Jose provides public accounting, tax and consulting services to businesses and individuals. He founded his CPA firm in 1975 and developed it through mergers, acquisitions and referrals. At one point the offshoot of the firm had four locations in the Tampa Bay area with over 30 employees. Alvarez Company was ranked on various occasions as one of the top 10 largest firms based in the Tampa Bay area by Tampa Bay Business Journal.
Jose has consulted with many businesses and entrepreneurs on business growth, cash management, capitalization, operations, financial, tax, and management advice. He also evaluated and consulted related to mergers, sales and acquisitions, as well as estate and gift tax considerations. Jose has served as an expert witness in determining company market values. In addition to working with his clients, Jose was the Managing Director of his firm and was involved in the day to day management of this growing business. His duties included obtaining capital and financing, growing the firm, human resources, setting procedures, acquiring real estate properties, acquiring and merging with other firms, marketing and customer service. He met the same challenges as his entrepreneurial clients. He originally sold his practice in 1996, but continued the Company as a consulting business. The current entity was incorporated in June 1, 1990 and started practicing public accounting again in 2005.
Over the years Jose also served in executive positions such as President, Executive VP, Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer and as a Board Member of various entrepreneurial and public companies including a Company grossing over 20 million dollars in revenues and employing over 100 employees with subsidiaries in various locations throughout the United States. Jose was the key person in negotiating, completing and assimilating various acquisitions including the reverse merger of a public company that had been named to the “INC” magazine’s list of 500 fastest growing privately held U.S. companies two years in a row. He was instrumental in the sale of the major assets to a publicly traded company. He was involved in various Companies in the Distribution, Communications, Publishing, Training, Manufacturing and Real Estate fields. He was also involved in SEC filings.
While growing his CPA practice in the early years, he also served as an assistant college Accounting Professor for six years, teaching Federal Taxes, Cost, Managerial and Principles of Accounting.
Jose received his Bachelors of Arts in Accounting from the University of South Florida in 1971, attaining the Dean’s List on various occasions. He graduated from Jesuit High School of Tampa in 1967 where he was a member of the National Honor Society.
As a Certified Public Accountant, Jose is a member of the American Institute of CPA’s (AICPA) and was a member of its Consulting and Financial Planning Divisions. He is a member of the Florida Institute of CPA’s (FICPA) and was the Membership Development Chairman of its Sandspur Chapter, which had the largest percentage growth in the state the year of his Chairmanship. He previously served as an AICPA Accounting and Auditing Peer Reviewer of other CPA firms’ quality control systems. Jose was previously a member of the Institute of Business Appraisers and the Tampa Bay Estate Planning Council.
As a respected member of his profession, Jose served on many FICPA committees including outstanding committee winners. He also founded the Hillsborough County Management of an Accounting Practice Roundtable, which helped CPA firms improve their own management. He has been an instructor and discussion leader for CPA’s and accountants’ continuing education courses on subjects such as Estate Planning, Income Taxes and Financial Statement Presentations. He was a speaker at the FICPA’s 75th Annual Convention on Marketing of CPA firms, was a featured speaker at the University of South Florida Small Business Development Center’s “Small Business Week Plus 1” in 1982, twice made presentations at Minority Student Seminars, spoke on “Mergers and Acquisitions of CPA Firms” at the Practitioners Conference and made presentations at many other conferences and seminars. As an expert, he has been interviewed for various articles, magazines and professional journals. He has enjoyed being a guest speaker for many organizations as well as appearing on various television and radio programs. He has authored articles on such subjects as “Starting your Own Business,” “Business Cash Flow,” and “Business Succession.”
Jose has been very involved in his community and with youth groups. He sponsors the awards for the Hillsborough County, Florida “Outstanding Male and Female High School Soccer Players of the Year.” He previously served as a youth soccer coach for 19 years in Brandon and held the league record for most coaching career victories. He currently assists his son Ryan as the boy’s soccer coach for Lake Gibson High School in Lakeland. He also coached Little League baseball and served various terms as President and Board Member of both the Brandon Area Youth Soccer League and the Regional Soccer Association. He started and served as Chairman of the Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce Sports and Recreation Committee. He was Secretary-Treasurer of the St. Leo College Parents Council and Vice President and Board member of Nativity Catholic School. Jose was a founder and the Charter President of the Kiwanis Club of Ybor City, was a Kiwanis Division Treasurer and a speaker at the Florida Kiwanis Annual Convention. He also served in many other civic organizations.
Jose has been recognized and is on the roster of various publications, including ”Who’s Who in the World”, “Who’s Who in America”, “Who’s Who in American Accounting” and “Who’s Who in Finance and Industry” as well as others. He has had a Brandon area soccer field named after him: “Alvarez Field.” He was named a Brandon Sports Achiever of the Year Finalist and was a distinguished president of Kiwanis International. His club won the Kiwanis Florida Division 8 “Outstanding New Club” award. Jose was also recognized as an “Outstanding Young Man of America”. He received the “Pride in Brandon” award and the Brandon Jaycees’ “Spectrum Award” for community beautification. He was nominated for Brandon’s “Business Person of the Year” award. Jose is a Chairman’s Circle member of the Oxford Club and was a Lifetime Fellow of the Highlander Club.
Jose has been married to his wife Janet since March 1970, and they live in Apollo Beach, Florida. They have three children: Steven, who also works at the firm, Kevin, an Information Technology Recruiter, and Ryan, an elementary school teacher and high school and junior college soccer coach in Lakeland, Florida (Polk County).
Jose has been a member of the FICPA since 1974 and a member of the Business Technology Section since 2007.
Note: Featured members voluntarily submit a professional biography for publication. The FICPA has not confirmed or verified the credential(s) of or confirmed any information contained herein about those featured CPAs, nor does it make any warranty in any respect about the CPA.
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