(Editor’s Note: The VonLehman & Company’s 70 years is featured in the Trib’s INSIDE NORTHERN KENTUCKY KET program which will air on Sunday on KEYKY at 6 a.m. See complete schedule below.)
By Vicki Prichard
NKyTribune Reporter
It’s no secret that Northern Kentucky is a fertile landscape for successful businesses that are uniquely homegrown.
They’re businesses that began decades ago, that grow and prosper with future generations, honoring and carrying forth legacies of business acumen and success.
Such is the story of VonLehman & Company, a leading regional CPA and business advisory firm founded in a tiny rented office in Covington by Joe VonLehman, Sr., a man with a commitment to family, community and good business.
“My father founded the company in 1946, and I don’t think he set out to start a 120 person CPA firm,” says shareholder Andrew VonLehman. “I think he started it really to provide for the family.”
As the one-man CPA practice grew, so did the size of Joe VonLehman’s family.
Over nine years, Joe and Sis VonLehman had seven children – six boys and one daughter – of which Andrew was the youngest. They raised their family in Fort Mitchell.
“My parents were very devout Catholics and my father, after having six boys, I think was very hopeful that one of us would go into the priesthood, but that was not in the cards so I think that was a lifetime disappointment for him,” says VonLehman.
Brothers in business
In 1972, Andrew’s brother Joe VonLehman, Jr. became his father’s partner and the firm became VonLehman and VonLehman.
“We were doing taxes during tax season by hand, no computers, and we would work late hours a couple or three days a week, maybe until midnight, or near midnight, and we’d go down to the Greyhound Grill in Fort Mitchell and have a beer before we went home. And those were some of my fondest memories with my dad,” says Joe.
For a while, he said, the company grew internally, without any mergers or acquisitions. Then, in 1975, VonLehman and VonLehman merged their practice with Robert Hofacre and Clifford Kohlepp. The new firm of Kohlhepp, VonLehman & Hofacre was the largest firm in Northern Kentucky.
In 1978, brothers Mal and Andrew VonLehman, along with Michael E. Wilson, became shareholders, and the renewed firm of VonLehman & VonLehman moved its offices to the Drees Building in Fort Mitchell.
Growth accelerates
In 1980, the firm merged its practice with Melvin W. Kist and Phyllis A. Taylor and opened new offices in Blue Ash as VonLehman, Kist & Company. In 1982, when Joe VonLehman, Sr. retired, Joe officially took over. Not long after, the company became VonLehman & Company Inc.
“They acquired a firm in Cincinnati, and put my brother Mal over there and Mal was just terrific,” says Joe. “Mal was a great salesman and the firm kind of exploded from that point. We hadn’t had an Ohio presence – we had Ohio clients but no presence. And that really got the ball rolling.”
By the 1990s, VonLehman & Company developed its expertise in manufacturing and expanded its medical expertise to include hospitals, home health agencies and nursing homes.
As the firm’s trajectory soared in new directions, it benefitted from the input of important personnel such as Mark Weber, a specialist in the tax and accounting needs of closely-held companies, and Brian Malthouse, who joined the firm after ten years of tax experience with a large national firm.
Malthouse is currently VonLehman & Company’s president.
He and Weber two became shareholders in 1992, and one year later, CPA Tom Ruberg, became a shareholder. Don Fritz, who had significant national firm experience, joined the firm that same year.
When Joe left the firm in 1993, brother Mal became president. But in 1994, after playing a major role in the firm’s success, Mal, at 43, died from cancer. Andrew VonLehman stepped into the managing shareholder role. The firm continued to grow and moved to its new Blue Ash office to accommodate expansion.
Expanding space…and young talent
And the growth continues.
On November 12, 2015, VonLehman & Company broke ground on a new $10.7 million headquarters building in Fort Wright. The 57,000-square-foot Class A office building is located at the Wright’s Summit Office Complex.
And, as the company celebrates its 70th year, it continues to grow beyond bricks and mortar.
“I kind of view the 70th year as, one, a milestone, but I kind of hope that it’s a jump-off point to set this firm up for another 70 years,” says Malthouse. “Our brand new headquarters in Fort Wright will be state of the art.”
Malthouse says he believes the new building will drive a good deal of energy with their young employees.
“All CPA firms are going through transition issues of the old guard turning over,” says Malthouse, “I think we have embraced that more than a lot of firms.”
He says they’ve given VonLehman’s young employees the tools to help them be better leaders and will consistently develop them.
“I’m 100 percent confident that the firm is in great hands and that it will be in great hands in the future,” says Malthouse.
And, he says, his team of CPAs debunks a long held myth about millennials in the workplace. As for studies that say millennials will have 15 to 17 jobs over a lifetime — that, on average, they’ll stay at a job two to three years and then leave — Malthouse says that’s not the case at VonLehman & Company.
“At VonLehman & Company that has not been true at all. If we get somebody who stays more than five years, generally they’re here a lifetime,” says Malthouse.
The lasting legacy
“What I really like most is that everybody here that I talk to had been here pretty much since they were an intern,” says Stephanie Allgeyer, an associate shareholder.
“Everybody is what we consider homegrown for the most part and it made me realize that nobody really leaves and there’s no reason for them to leave,” says Allgeyer.
For shareholder Beth Vice, who has worked with VonLehman for 17 years, the company’s commitment to community matters to her.
Vice says so much has changed in the last 17 years, and they’ve grown with regard to people and the services they provide to their clients.
“You know, we’re not just a compliance shop, we really do a lot of different things to benefit our clients and we’ve really taken a step as far as being involved in the community and that’s one of the things that’s kept me here as well,” says Vice.
“Our motto is to make a difference everyday, and that’s not just in doing the everyday accounting and tax work, but really to make the community a better place,” says Vice.
And for Joe VonLehman, Sr. that’s a significant lasting legacy.
Homegrown VonLehman celebrates 70th anniversary on Inside Northern Kentucky
HERE ARE THE PROGRAM TIMES REMAINING ON KET. WATCH FOR IT ALSO ON CAMPBELL COUNTY PUBLIC ACCESS AND ON LOUISVILLE METRO PUBLIC ACCESS.
I enjoyed reading about the family history. What an incredible family and even though I have known Pat for years I didn’t know the history of the company.
We are blessed to have you back in Northern Kentucky.