Chief Growth Officer, Knoxville

About Ascend

Ascend empowers entrepreneurial CPAs to reach their goals with an innovative growth model that brings their firms into the new age. Backed by private equity from people-focused Alpine Investors, Ascend is building a modern platform for regional accounting firms that enables them to stay independent while accessing the resources of a large CPA firm to help them grow. Ascend provides access to growth capital, robust talent acquisition, best-of-breed technology, a catalytic leadership system, shared back-office services, and modernized equity incentives so that firms can surmount today's industry challenges and reach their full potential. Founded in January 2023, the company attained revenues sufficient to qualify it as a Top 100 U.S. accounting firm within six months of operations.

For more information, visit ascendtogether.com.

About Alpine Investors

Alpine Investors is a people-driven private equity firm that is committed to building great companies by working with, learning from, and developing exceptional people. Alpine prides itself on fostering cultures where people value empowerment, diversity, fairness, integrity, and intellectual honesty. Founded in 2001, Alpine specializes in investments in companies in the software and services industries. Alpine has over $15 billion in AUM and has offices in San Francisco, New York, and Salt Lake City.

For more information on the firm, visit www.alpineinvestors.com

Position Summary

Ascend is seeking a Chief Growth Officer (CGO) to sit at one of our partner firms and implement the Ascend Growth Model. The CGO, alongside the partner firm's CEO, will be responsible for the firm P&L and will drive achievement of KPIs and business growth through targeted collaboration with the CEO and Regional President (skip-level manager). The CGO will play a critical role in continually iterating on the organic growth playbook for the firm to realize double digit EBITDA growth.

The CGO will report to the CEO of the partner firm and is a hybrid role in the Knoxville, TN metro area.

Key Responsibilities

Implement the Ascend Growth Model

• Work alongside the partner firm CEO to achieve the firm's P&L targets, ultimately driving double digit EBITDA growth

• Build an in-depth understanding of the Ascend Growth Model (including, pricing, offshore, CAAS, marketing, M&A, etc.) and make strategic suggestions for how to prioritize and adapt growth levers to be most effective

• Implement the Ascend Growth Model, driving key operational initiatives for the firm and demonstrating excellent cross-functional project management expertise

• Build and maintain KPI dashboards and reports to provide insight and transparency into performance; review these dashboards regularly with the CEO and Regional President, flagging any potential negative leading indicators for slowing growth or other revenue quality issues

• Implement and help drive adoption of the PeopleFirst Operating Rhythm, ensuring the firm leverages weekly project/issue tracking methods as well as quarterly and annual planning

• Bring a mentality of continuous improvement to your work and the firm, consistently evaluating current approaches/processes and seeking opportunities to drive efficiencies and improvements

• Drive accountability throughout the partnership and across the firm

M&A Integration

• Develop an integration playbook for tuck-in acquisitions and serve as the owner

• Ensure seamless integration of tuck-in acquisitions, helping accelerate the path to realized value from adding team members and additional books of business

• Implement operational changes and initiatives to sustain and improve an eNPS of 70+

Relationship Management & Team

• Build meaningful relationships up and down the organization

• Effectively communicate with relevant professionals at Ascend HQ, ensuring seamless collaboration on projects and day-to-day business operations

• Serve as a thought partner to the CEO and RP on all regional operational matters

• Ensure the firm has A players in all key roles for driving future growth; backfill positions as needed

• Evaluate talent quality on the admin team and repurpose, replace, or let go of individuals who are not well equipped for the future-state scorecard/role responsibilities

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university, MBA preferred

• Track record of driving revenue growth

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify opportunities and make data-driven decisions

• Excellent leadership abilities with the capacity to inspire and motivate cross-functional teams

• Strong organizational, critical thinking and communication skills

At Ascend, we provide a fair and equal employment opportunity for all candidates regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, marital status, disability, or any other legally protected characteristic. Ascend hires and promotes individuals solely based on qualifications for the position to be filled and business needs.