Our People

David J. Gaino, CPA, MTax, PFS  |  Chairman / Principal

Dave Gaino is the Chairman of Apple Growth Partners and serves as a principal of tax services. In addition, he leads the personal financial planning specialty services team and serves a number of... read more

Stanley L. Apple, CPA  |  Chairman Emeritus
Principal

Stan is the lead principal of our automotive dealership team that provides accounting, tax, and management consulting to auto dealers in the northeast Ohio market. He is an authority in tax and accoun... read more

Christopher J. Benko, CPA  |  Principal

Chris Benko is a principal of Apple Growth Partners and provides audit and assurance services to closely held companies and not-for-profit organizations. He is the leader of our construction/real esta... read more

Jason R. Bogniard, MBA, ASA, AVA, EA  |  Principal

Jason is a principal and leads our business valuation and litigation consulting department with more than eleven years of experience in the field. As an Accredited Valuation Analyst, Jason has been re... read more

James G. Fahey  |  Chief Operating Officer

Jim Fahey is the Chief Operating Officer at Apple Growth Partners focusing on firm administration, information technology and human resources. With over 20 years of experience in public accounting, he... read more

James T. Gornik, CPA, JD  |  Principal

Jim Gornik is the lead tax principal in our Cleveland Office. Jim provides professional services in the areas of business succession planning, tax and financial considerations in selling or buying a b... read more

Davin R. Gustafson, JD  |  Principal

Dave Gustafson is a principal in our business valuation and litigation consulting group, completing over a thousand valuation engagements in his nearly twenty-five years in the profession. He has work... read more

Joel C. Hamsher, CPA, MTax  |  Principal

Joel Hamsher is a principal and has over twenty years of experience in the area of taxation, tax minimization strategies and compliance. He has experience providing tax advisory servicesto closely hel... read more

Joseph E. Kirgesner, CPA, CVA, CFF, MBA  |  Principal

Joseph E. Kirgesner is a principal at Apple Growth Partners. Practicing since 1980, Joe has been actively involved in financial reporting, tax and business planning, succession planning, business valu... read more

Ivan J. Mahovlic, CPA, MTax  |  Principal

Ivan Mahovlic is a principal and a member of both our construction & real estate team and the firm's executive committee.  In addition, he serves as Managing Director of the Akron office of A... read more

Randy A. Misch, CPA  |  Principal

Randy leads our accounting and assurance group and serves as Managing Director of our Cleveland office. He is experienced in providing financial statement reporting and audit, ... read more

Charles F. Mullen, CPA, CMA, MTax  |  Principal

Chuck Mullen is a principal and the director of tax services at Apple Growth Partners. He provides tax and accounting services to closely held companies and individuals, manages review services and as... read more

Robert M. Nemeth, CPA/ABV, CVA, CDFA, CFE  |  Principal

Bob Nemeth is a principal and leads our business succession planning team. His diverse background includes expertise in business valuation, litigation consulting and estate pla... read more

Susan J. Peirce, CPA, MTax  |  Principal

Sue Peirce is a principal and leads our employee benefits audit and specialty services team. She provides consulting services to business owners and professionals on tax and accounting strategies, wit... read more

Christopher M. Smith, JD, LLM  |  Principal, Director of Compliance Services

As Plan Compliance Director for Flexible Benefits Systems, Inc., affiliate company of Apple Growth Partners, Chris provides benefit plan design and management services. He has extensive ERISA experien... read more

Richard L. Staikoff, PMP  |  Practice Leader

Richard is the Practice Leader of Apple Growth Partners’ Lean Enterprise Growth Services team. A certified Project Management Professional by the Project Management Institute and certified Lean ... read more

Robert G. Turner, Jr., CPA/ABV, CVA, CFF  |  Principal

Bob Turner is a principal in our business valuation and litigation consulting group. He is also the Managing Director of the Cleveland office of The McLe... read more