Our Story Begins with People

Since our beginning in 1933, Geffen Mesher’s focus has been on supporting the lives, plans and goals of people – those we serve as well as those who call the firm home.

We Believe in Fostering Strong, Lasting Partnerships

We have a genuine concern for each client’s success. That’s a big reason why we seek to provide a full suite of professional business development services that include accounting and assurance, business consulting, estate planning, financial and retirement planning, litigation support, international services and taxation planning.

WHO WE SERVE

Geffen Mesher proactively provides financial statement audits, tax compliance and consulting services to privately held businesses, families and investors primarily in the Northwest.

Values Beyond Numbers

We know that the quality of our professional tax, assurance, financial consulting and reporting services affects the lives and financial well-being of those we serve. Therefore, we work from a core mission that points back to the people-side of the equation:

  1. Our mission is to help our clients achieve their goals.
  2. We proactively provide high quality consulting and compliance services to privately held businesses, families and investors primarily in the Pacific Northwest.
  3. We perform and deliver services with integrity and a sense of urgency.
  4. We give to our community by serving on boards of directors, making charitable donations, and volunteering our time.
  5. To accomplish this we hire and support motivated and resourceful people, and provide opportunities for them to lead successful personal and professional lives.

Peer Review

Our firm participates in an approved peer review program in order to gain and retain memberships in the AICPA and Oregon Society of Certified Public Accountants, and to retain licensing with the Oregon Board of Accountancy. An independent peer reviewer performs the review program, which evaluates portions of the firm’s accounting and auditing practices. We have received unqualified opinions in every peer review that has been conducted on our firm, which shows our history of responsible audit work. You can access reviews on the AICPA Peer Review website.

Awards for Excellence

  • Top 200 Firms  •  INSIDE Public Accounting, 10 straight years
  • Most Admired Companies  •  Portland Business Journal, 2012-2019
  • Corporate Philanthropy  •  Portland Business Journal, 2018, 2017, 2015
  • Best Accounting Firm  •  Daily Journal of Commerce, 2019
  • Best of the Best “Firms to Watch  •  INSIDE Public Accounting, 2015

Our History

A graduate of City College of New York, Henry Blauer moved to Portland after serving in the Army during WWII. Soon after arriving in Portland he met Ben Sussman, a CPA with a growing practice. In 1949 Ben and Henry formed a partnership called Sussman & Blauer. Henry quickly became a friend and trusted advisor to many new clients and the business continued to grow. In the 1960s, Henry hired two young accountants, Stan Geffen and Bob Mesher. Both became partners and the firm became Blauer, Geffen & Mesher. After merging into the national firm of Laventhol & Horwath in 1970, the firm’s Portland office continued to serve clients from 1970 to 1990 as part of this larger firm. In 1990 the single-office firm of Geffen Mesher was formed and the rest, as they say, is history. Although Henry Blauer passed away in 2012 at the age of 91, both Stan Geffen (Shareholder) and Bob Mesher (Of Counsel) remain active in the firm today. Their many years of hard work, commitment, experience and expertise have truly laid the foundation for our firm.

A History of Giving Back

The importance of giving back to the community is woven into the fabric of our firm, and is something we have been doing since our early days. Today, our professionals support more than 80 charitable organizations through serving on boards of directors, making charitable donations, and volunteering our time. In addition to our extensive organization involvement, we close our office for one day each year and volunteer directly in the community. Started in 2011, our annual service day is a remarkable way for us to not only strengthen the bonds of our employee relationships, but to have an impact on the communities we serve.

View a full list of organizations that we support.

Meet the People of Geffen Mesher