Celebrating 45 Years: Bormel, Grice & Huyett, CPAs

It’s the American dream. Start a one-person business enterprise to provide a needed service—and see it grow significantly and become integrally connected to the regional community it serves.
Henry Pear was a solo accounting practitioner, with offices in Laurel, and doing a lot of work for a real estate development and management company, Berman Enterprises, which was also involved with the then named Laurel Area Chamber of Commerce, now known as the Baltimore Washington Corridor Chamber.

As the firm grew, Henry Pear took on a young University of Maryland graduate named Larry Bormel. Larry would go on to become a Board Chairman for the BWCC, and subsequently a president of the BWCC Foundation. In 1983 the firm hired Kathy Grice and Anna Huyett, both of whom would become partners in the firm. Kathy would later serve as a BWCC Treasurer and board member. In fact, over the years, three different members of the firm would serve as BWCC board chairperson.
Today the firm numbers 21 accountants with 3 support staff members. One of the members of the firms' management team, Ray Plummer, currently serves as the Treasurer for the BWCC. The firm is active in 3 chambers in the corridor area, 2 hospitals and various other community organizations, believing that “giving back” in service to the business community is part of their mission and also a way to showcase their people and services to a broader audience.

Each year the firm hosts a staff retreat and also a summer celebration that includes a silent auction of items provided by employees to be bid on by staff members and their families. What do they do with the money that is raised? It goes to a scholarship fund managed by the BWCC Foundation, which provides tuition assistance to students at various local high schools.

It is no surprise, then, that the firm was selected in 2013 as one of the Top 100 Best Accounting Firms in the Country to Work For by Accounting Today and Best Companies Group. The survey and awards program are designed to identify, recognize and honor the best employers in the accounting industry, benefiting the industry's economy, workforce and businesses.