Nancy Ekrem:
Accountant enjoys giving back to community

As a principal of the public accounting firm Dewar Meeks + Ekrem PC in Edmonds, she works with business owners and not-for-profit groups to help them meet their financial and mission-based objectives. And as a longtime youth leader, she works with teenagers to build their awareness of the world around and within them.

Photo courtesy of Nancy Ekrem Nancy Ekrem, a certified public accountant, has been with the firm Dewar Meeks + Ekrem since 1985, becoming a principal in 1990. Inside the office and out, Nancy Ekrem strives to strengthen her community.

“Our whole philosophy here is to give back, and if we can help make the community a better place, then everybody wins,” said Ekrem, who is on the board of directors for the South Snohomish County Chamber of Commerce.

The decision to be an accountant was an easy one to make for Ekrem, who graduated from Seattle University in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, obtaining her CPA certificate in 1982.

“I enjoyed it, and it was a career path that was complementary to (life) goals, (including) being able to be a part of my children’s lives,” said Ekrem, the mother of two grown children.

She was able to achieve that with Dewar Meeks + Ekrem, where “the goal is to provide our customers with good service, be flexible for them, but also have some balance,” she said.

Service to clients begins by getting “behind the numbers and behind the owners’ objectives to understand the companies and help them grow,” said Ekrem. She noted that the firm enjoys working closely with a business owner’s entire team — lawyers, financial advisers and the rest — to get the business “where it’s supposed to be going.”

Another component of that service can be found in the firm’s innovative nature, evident in its Internet-based accounting services, she said. Using Our-CPA.com, Dewar Meeks + Ekrem accounting staff can work with clients to keep their financial records current in real time while clients can access their records “24/7, anywhere in the world, with amazing security in place.”

It enables clients to stay on top of their finances while also preventing mad-dash searches for receipts as tax season approaches — a win-win for client and accountant both, said Ekrem, noting the flurry of activity that tax season brings.

“It gets crazy about the 10th of January until April 15th, peaking during the March 15th window for corporate deadlines,” she said.

In contrast to the strict deadlines and tax laws inherent in accounting, Ekrem finds personal fulfillment in the mercurial, if no less complex, world of teenagers.

“Youth ministry is my passion. I have been a youth leader for 23 years. I lead youth mission trips to give kids exposure to a very different (environment),” she said.

Most recently, she and a group of other youth leaders took 34 teenagers to Biloxi, Miss., to volunteer their services to the community in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The high school students helped “muck out” houses, remove flooring, clean up yards, and haul roofing and siding away. They also visited more than 100 homes in the area asking how they could be of service.

“It was fun and exhausting, as every one of them are, and very rewarding for the kids,” Ekrem said.

For more information on Dewar Meeks + Ekrem, call 425-640-8660 or go online to www.dmecpa.com.

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