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Back in the late 1980s, Mike Brower\u2019s list of audit clients included a roster of oil and gas companies as well a local university and a number of different state and local government entities. It was the type of client list that any accountant based in and around Cheyenne, Wyoming, might covet, a fact made all the more undeniable by having Taco John\u2019s International top the list.

A restaurant franchisor with over 450 restaurants nationwide, Taco John\u2019s first began serving local Cheyenne customers in the 1960s, before expanding rapidly across the Plains and upper Midwest as it outfitted franchisees in small towns rather than big city locations.

\u201cThey just popped up everywhere, and I sort of had an insider\u2019s view,\u201d says Brower, who joined the Taco John\u2019s finance team in 1990 after having given notice to the Cheyenne office of McGladrey & Pullen.

For the next 6 years, Brower\u2019s responsibilities intersected with every aspect of Taco John\u2019s accounting and reporting function, eventually landing him in the controller\u2019s office, where he oversaw the company\u2019s financial statements as well as those of the 30 company-owned restaurants.

However, as time passed, Brower began evaluating other local opportunities and came upon an advertisement in the Sunday newspaper seeking CFO candidates.

\u201cIt was a blind ad, but you have to remember that this is Wyoming and everyone in the local business community sort of knows everyone, so I called the guys up and said \u2018Hey, I\u2019d be perfect for you,\u2019\u201d explains Brower, who notes that the ad was placed by a fast-growing insurance company owned by two local businessmen who had in fact underwritten policies for Taco John\u2019s.

\u201cI told them that I\u2019d love to talk with them about the job, but they were like, \u2018Well, we don\u2019t want to lose the Taco John\u2019s account,\u2019 so I said, \u2018Look, Barry isn\u2019t going to take the account away just because you took his controller,\u2019\u201d said Brower, while mentioning his former boss who at the time was Taco John\u2019s CFO.

Brower got the job and became CFO of the insurance brokerage, which in short order began talks to acquire two Midwest insurance brokers. The insurance firm\u2019s appetite for M&A deal-making gave Brower a new set of experiences that injected some excitement into his first CFO role that even today he looks back upon and savors. \u2013Jack Sweeney