Advisors
With over 30 years’ experience in public accounting, the last 20 years specializing in the areas of estate, gift, generation skipping transfer tax, fiduciary, and succession planning, Ms. Alvarado has worked with clients in a variety of industries, including high income and high net worth individuals in the entertainment industry, closely held businesses and their owners, foundations, trusts, and not-for-profit entities.
Ms. Alvarado ran her own successful estate and gift taxation practice for five years. Prior to starting her own accounting practice, Ms. Alvarado was a Managing Director for RSM McGladrey where she lead the Advanced Estate and Gift Taxation practice as the national leader of the Technical Advisory Group for the estate & gift tax specialists throughout the firm’s 100+ offices. Marisa’s experience also includes employment with regional as well as “Big 4” firms such as KPMG, Personal Financial Planning in Los Angeles.
Ms. Alvarado graduated from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA where she received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in accounting and has also completed the curriculum for the personal financial planning designation from the University of California, Irvine. She has completed coursework for advanced estate and gift taxation at the Notre Dame Tax and Estate Planning Institute at the University of Notre Dame Law School and the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning at the University of Miami School of Law.
In the past, Ms. Alvarado has served on the Family Business Council Board of Directors for the School of Business at California State University, Fullerton, California; the Secretary of the Greater Palm Springs Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Women’s Leadership Committee member and coordinator; and a member of the Latin Business Association. She has also volunteered for Girls Inc. of Orange County, an organization she holds dear to her heart.
She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants, and is authorized to practice before the Internal Revenue Service as an Enrolled Agent.
Mr. Gagnon began as a General Contractor and still holds a current contractor’s license. In his early years, he preferred the material supply side of construction over building projects which brought him to White Cap Construction Supply where he worked for over 32 years. As Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Mr. Gagnon’s unmatched brand development, sales strategies, as well as his entrepreneurial and team-oriented approaches to marketing, led White Cap from one store to 165 stores nationwide and one of the largest industrial distributors in the country.
Mr. Nark was Chairman and CEO of White Cap Construction Supply from 2002 to 2005. During his tenure, revenues increased from $350 million to over $1.1 billion through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, and profits more than tripled. Mr. Nark was involved in the sale of White Cap to The Home Depot in 2004 and the subsequent integration into HD Supply, the professional supply division of The Home Depot.
Prior to joining White Cap, he was Chairman and CEO of Corporate Express Australia Limited, a publicly trades office products distributor in Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Nark also held a series of senior management positions with Corporate Express, Inc. in the U.S. He began his career in sales and sales management.
Mr. Nark currently serves as a director of several publicly-traded and privately-held companies and is an active private investor & adviser.
