For 75 Years, Clients Count on HBK

HBK CPAs & Consultants started in business in a small office in downtown Youngstown in 1949 as Hill & Hammonds. By the mid-1950s, the firm had become Hill, Barth & King, and today the company – still based in the Mahoning Valley – is recognized as the 46th largest accounting and business consulting firm in the country.
Present at the beginning and central to HBK’s growth is Wallace “Wally” King, a combat pilot during World War II who returned home and cofounded the company along with Rowland Hill and William Barth.
King, who turned 101 on Oct. 31, shares his story and insights in this special anniversary coverage. 
Others helping to tell HBK’s story are principals Phil Carlon, who joined the firm in 1980; Jim Rosa, who joined in 1986; and Jim Dascenzo, who arrived at the firm in 1988. READ MORE

Keys to Growth of HBK: Leadership and Planning

As a young man just out of college, Jim Dascenzo’s options were wide open. Armed with a degree in accounting from Youngstown State University, Dascenzo recalls he had his pick of joining major firms such as Ernst & Whinney and Deloitte.
Uneasy about committing to a major firm in Cleveland or Columbus and wishing to remain in the Mahoning Valley, Dascenzo approached a family member for advice – his uncle, Anthony Giampetro, then a CPA. After Dascenzo described his situation and his prospects, his uncle imparted a dose of wisdom: “He said, ‘You’ve got to go with Hill, Barth and King,’” Dascenzo remembers his uncle advising. “They’re the best. You’ll get the best training. You’ll learn the most. And you’ll make a career out of it.”
So, Dascenzo took a job at the firm, then based in Boardman, in January 1988. “I was lucky,” Dascenzo says. Today he is a Principal and National Director of HBK Manufacturing Solutions in the firm now known as HBK CPAs & Consultants. READ MORE

Wally King Personifies the ‘Greatest Generation’

Wally King personifies a generation that struggled through the Great Depression, fought in the most devastating conflict in history, and participated in the largest economic expansion the world has ever known.
During the Depression, King would take on any job that was available. On one occasion, he and another classmate spent a summer excavating the ground underneath a house to make way for a new basement.
“We were using a tractor and a dirt scoop. We worked all summer taking the dirt out so they could build a basement. That’s what you call starting from the bottom,” he says with a laugh.
King graduated at age 17, seven months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States’ entry into World War II. During that summer, he worked several jobs, eventually securing a clerk typist position for the Erie Railroad. His life would change dramatically when he was called up for active duty in January of 1943 and entered a program to train as a pilot. READ MORE

Business Services Set HBK Apart

Twenty years ago, a shift in strategy at HBK CPAs & Consultants set the course for exemplary growth at the firm, adding to what was already a dynamic and diverse company, its executives say.
It proved to be a critical moment for the 75-year-old HBK, reflects Jim Dascenzo, Principal. “It was really monumental,” he says. 
The new strategic planning initiative helped to transform HBK from what was mostly a tax, accounting and consulting operation into a multidisciplined business services company, according to Dascenzo.
Since then, the firm has added services such as wealth management; information technology; retirement planning; leadership and culture development; and valuation, litigation and forensics.
“I’m amazed at the growth that we’ve had and the resources we’ve brought to share with our clients,” says Phil Carlon, Principal.
“That’s just been an amazing journey,” he says. READ MORE

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75 YEARS OF HBK COVERAGE