New York (Feb. 5, 2003) -- Capital Professional Advisors president Doug Wright has left as president of the company he founded, citing a break with his board members over strategies to grow the firm.
"We had a difference in strategic perspective on what I felt was necessary to keep Capital viable," Wright said. "I didn’t want to have to leave, but didn’t want to stay with something I thought couldn’t succeed."
In November, the financial consulting firm spun out from CPA2Biz, following a brief, 16-month union with the American Institute of CPAs’ Web portal.
Cap Pro’s venture following the spin-off was owned by its 15 founding firms, as well as by Nationwide Financial Services, which inked a $7.5 million deal with CPA2Biz last May in exchange for positioning as a preferred provider for Cap Pro companies.
Wright said the board of the new venture didn’t want to sign on to his aggressive growth plan to build the business through partnering with smaller firms and perhaps a large broker-dealer. The board, however, preferred to stay the course with an organic growth strategy, according to Wright.
Although Wright had hoped the company would be profitable in the coming year and double its revenue to $18 million, he said he realized after the split from CPA2Biz that such a goal wouldn’t be possible, and felt the firm could not be profitable without an aggressive growth strategy.
Wright and colleague Rich Urbealis, who also left the company, are now talking with a number of Group B accounting firms in the northeast corridor about financial services consulting opportunities, as well as with a large financial services provider about possibly running its CPA program.
"The next thing I do will be something I own or involve a big, stable company," Wright said.
-- Tracey Miller-Segarra
