Chela Whiteman

I started my accounting career in the manufacturing industry at Moog Music, where I worked for a little over 6 years and worked my way up to middle management. When they had layoffs, I spent 3 months applying to around 250 jobs before finding my calling in restaurant accounting at Lion Chaser Development Group. This turned out to be a perfect fit because I had worked in food and beverage throughout college, so I already spoke the language of the clients. I'm passionate about helping small business owners and restaurateurs who are working so hard to provide great atmospheres for people to gather and share meals. They know how to cook great dishes and make sales, but they don't necessarily know how to interpret those expenses and sales, and I like to be a part of that and lift that burden from them. At Lion Chaser, I did client managing, onboarding clients into Restaurant 365 software, and setting up processes before passing them to the recurring services team. About a month ago, a recruiter from Cohn Reznick reached out because they're expanding their hospitality division and needed managers with restaurant accounting experience. I'm the first manager they've hired for this division, and I'm excited to help them take on more restaurant clients and provide that service on a larger level. I get to meet all kinds of different types of clients from all over the country, which is really interesting. I'm currently finishing my bachelor's degree and plan to pursue my master's and CPA, especially since Cohn Reznick provides education assistance.