This past April, firm partner Mark Gardiner became a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). The CFE credential denotes proven expertise in fraud prevention, detection and deterrence. There is a complex and unique skill set involved in the CFE designation; CFE’s are trained to identify the warning signs and red flags that indicate evidence of fraud and fraud risk by combining knowledge of complex financial transactions with an understanding of methods, law and how to resolve allegations of fraud. CFE’s around the world work to help protect the global economy by not only uncovering fraud, by implementing processes that work to prevent fraud from originating.

We would like to take a moment to thank all of you who came out to see us in our hospitality room at last year’s CHS Meeting in Minneapolis. We had over 100 attendees, and gave away American Express® gift cards, golf balls and the grand prize: a Kindle Fire E-reader. We hope you will join us for 2012’s meeting in our hospitality room, and thank you again for helping us make this year’s meeting a great success!

Please welcome Cristina Bucksbaum to our Des Moines tax department staff. Cristina has 15 years of experience in the tax world, and joined Gardiner Thomsen on January 11th, 2012. Her experience covers a wide variety of tax issues and we are pleased that she joined our firm.

After 38 years of service with the firm, auditor Dave Grandgenett will be retiring at the end of 2011. We at Gardiner Thomsen are sad to see him go, but at the same time we like to remember the many years that Dave has faithfully served the firm.

We are happy to announce that with the growth of our Lincoln, Nebraska office, we’ve had to move into a larger location. Don’t worry, we didn’t move far, but if you’d like to get directions or drop by to see the new location, just give us a call! Please make a note that our new address is: Gardiner Thomsen CPAs 5901 S. 58th St. Suite F Lincoln, NE 68516 (402) 475-3482

For the past 46 years, Dan Gardiner has managed his own firm, and we have all truly benefited from his leadership. But 46 years is quite a while, so Dan has decided to start keeping limited office hours. He recently announced that effective January 1, 2011, he is stepping down in his role as managing partner of Gardiner Thomsen.