Glenn Ballard, CPA

Glenn Ballard founded Marpé in 2011 with one unwavering objective and commitment – to provide world-class accounting and finance support to startups and early-stage companies – at prices right for them.  Glenn had spent eleven years in “Big 4” public accounting, and four years in corporate accounting and finance roles after that, and from that experience, Glenn found that many companies don’t like their lawyers and accountants; but often they are stuck with them and cannot change.  From the outset, Glenn wanted Marpé to be different.  “I want our clients to like us,” he said.  “I want our clients to smile when they see us coming.”

Glenn has a broad background of accounting and corporate finance experience, including audit, SEC reporting, M&A advisory, IPO consulting and business valuation.  He’s worked with clients in many different industries, including manufacturing, distribution, retail, telecommunications, software, SaaS, life sciences, biotech, ecommerce, digital currency, multi-media & entertainment, fin tech, ed tech, ad tech, ag tech and enterprise security software.  Additionally, Glenn has deep technical expertise in complex accounting areas such as revenue recognition and accounting for various equity and convertible instruments.  A former software engineer, Glenn has very strong financial modeling skills; and because of the breadth of his background experience, he brings strong business acumen to bear in serving clients.

Glenn earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.  A well-educated lad, he also has master’s degrees in finance and tax and bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and accounting.  Glenn’s first degree was in electrical engineering, but later he decided to move into the field of accounting to add a bit more excitement to his life.  (He’s kind of wild and crazy like that.)

Glenn’s first career gig was as a software engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, designing systems he can’t talk about.  One summer he took a break from academics and worked a construction job in Woodstock, Georgia, which has a city ordinance that every citizen must own a gun.  (Seriously.)  It’s just a political statement, of course, and most residents don’t take it seriously, but Glenn’s construction bosses did.  One day, when the foreman found Glenn’s pace of hammering nails to be too slow, he went to his truck and grabbed a pistol, which he began shooting in the air and running and screaming at Glenn.  (True story.)  So if Glenn seems a little tense sometimes, please be understanding.

In high school, Glenn was a star football player in his hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  The local radio announcer referred to Glenn as the “Sophomore Sensation”.  (You’ve probably heard of him.)  But in college, Glenn decided to become a geek, in order to be more popular with the ladies.

These days, in his spare time, Glenn enjoys assigning to his four young children math problems that are way beyond their level, as well as helping them to learn English grammar and style, Hebrew, Latin, Greek and Spanish; and watching their mother teach them Chinese.  From time to time, he also allows them to chase him down the slopes at Kirkwood. 

Once every year or two, Glenn can be overheard saying, “Can I get a little roll tide?” for about a week.  Nobody has any idea what he’s talking about.