About

Jim Caruso is a CPA and a partner at Fesnak and Associates LLP, where he is in charge of Financial Management Solutions and Mergers & Acquisitions, groups that provide strategic financial insight and leadership to help entrepreneurs, executive teams and investors enhance business value.

Jim is passionate about helping companies get to the next level through strategic financial management, which he believes is best achieved through outsourcing. Jim believes that finance and accounting outsourcing will become ubiquitous in early-stage, emerging growth and middle market businesses, following the trend set by Fortune 500 organizations that have long benefited from shared services and outsourcing. Jim envisions a day when outsourcing the entire accounting and finance function is the default choice, as commonplace as the outsourcing of payroll or information technology services. Virtual business models will be adopted, in whole or in part, by more and more companies as they focus on their core competencies and outsource everything else. By offering perspectives on outsourcing, and sharing business insights gained as a Virtual CFO, the Virtual Lucidity blog serves as a resource for those seeking to understand or benefit from finance and accounting outsourcing.

As a Virtual CFO, Jim enjoys blogging not only about finance and accounting but also on a range of business topics including strategy, leadership, management, technology, and even personal productivity, all geared toward helping entrepreneurs, executive teams and investors achieve peak performance. Jim also offers occasional commentary on the accounting and professional services industry itself, blogging on topics such as innovative CPA firm management practices and the challenges and opportunities resulting from the trend toward finance and accounting outsourcing.

Jim is a CPA with over 20 years’ experience in accounting, financial management, operations and consulting. This includes auditing and process improvement consulting roles at a Big Four firm, as well as turnaround CFO experience at a distressed private equity portfolio company. Jim’s complete professional bio is available here and on LinkedIn.

Jim’s personal passions include Brazilian jiu jitsu and other martial arts, as well as fitness and conditioning. He enjoys cooking, wine, and micro-brews now and then, accompanied by a background of jazz, blues and contemporary hard rock music, and is a bit of a political junkie. Jim is also what some would call a “weather geek” or, more accurately, a severe weather enthusiast that has been storm chasing on the Great Plains almost every year since 1996.