On her first day as CFO of UHY, Laura LaPeer asked a simple question: “Do you guys do Copilot?” She had grown accustomed to using Microsoft’s AI assistant for tasks ranging from summarizing documents to creating slides, and she wanted it in place immediately. The request, she tells us, reflected both her pragmatism and her view that technology should be leveraged quickly, but carefully, to support higher-value work.
That same instinct—to look beyond the surface of a task—has shaped her career. At an earlier company, LaPeer noticed that procurement and treasury were being handled transactionally. Purchase orders were checked for compliance, and cash was managed cyclically. By zooming out, she recognized the chance to turn these into strategic functions: evaluating vendor risks, aligning relationships with business goals, and putting idle cash to work. This shift, she tells us, allowed finance to deliver tangible impact.
Her time at ProQuest, where she witnessed growth through M&A, gave her a business lens she later carried into her CFO role at Plante Moran. Now at UHY, she applies the same perspective. With Summit Partners as a new investor, the firm is targeting $1 billion in revenue within five years, LaPeer tells us. Growth will come through both acquisitions and services such as outsourced accounting, valuation, and state and local tax.
To get there, she emphasizes unity. “One UHY,” she says, requires integrating regional groups, building the bench, and ensuring technology like Workday delivers consistent, firm-wide insights.
Made Possible By
CFOTL: So, broadly speaking, what does financial success look like for UHY?
LaPeer: We plan to keep growing—both organically and through M&A. Our next big target is the $1 billion mark, which we aim to reach within five years (hopefully four). We want to get there in a fiscally responsible way. Since a private equity investor joined at the end of last year (about six months before I arrived), we’ve sharpened our focus on both top- and bottom-line performance. Public accounting is shifting—more PE investment, more firm-to-firm acquisitions, and many partners nearing retirement without clear succession. We view that landscape as a catalyst to achieve our financial goals.
CFOTL: When we talk about growth, is it geographic, service line, or something else?
LaPeer: All of the above. We’re very Midwest-based, with coverage up the Northeast and parts of the Midwest and South. The West remains a major opportunity—we have one office in urban California—but we won’t leapfrog without the nearby offices that busy season resourcing demands. On services, we’re expanding outsourced accounting (CAS), valuation, and tax, including state and local tax, while strengthening deal-adjacent offerings like quality of earnings. It’s less about brand-new lines and more about deepening specialty services around our core business to better support clients’ transformations.
CFOTL: Does that services expansion align with where you’re making larger internal investments?
LaPeer: It does—though a number of our internal investments are about becoming a billion-dollar firm. Historically, UHY operated as three or four regions (Northeast, Great Lakes, Midwest). To hit our targets, we have to function as one firm—“One UHY.” That model took shape last summer alongside our equity investment. On the tech side, we implemented Workday in January (before I joined), which aligned well with my background. We’re investing in the enterprise stack—ERP, a data warehouse, and consistent reporting—so we can unify regional data and operate with agility as industry and client needs evolve.
UHY | www.uhy-us.com | Farmington Hills, Michigan,