When Ascend's founding team gathered to set the vision and strategy for our organization, we did things a little differently -- we started by sharing our individual values, passions, and professional purposes. A surprising value was consistently shared as we went around the room: Love. 

Love - for our neighbors, not the romantic kind - is at the heart of why we started Ascend. We often use the phrase "People First" because it is through love for our people that we cultivate a joyful, engaged team who can make a positive impact in each other's lives and in the lives of everyone we touch through our work.

We celebrate that each of us is gifted with a unique combination of talents, attributes, experiences and perspectives to steward in our lives and careers. We are in awe of the amazing diversity of humanity and believe that we can maximize the impact Ascend has on the world by assembling diverse, complementary teams that love each other, learn from one another and flourish together.

We desire to see our people rise up and reach their full potential. Through structured, rigorous hiring processes and transparent performance management using scorecards that tie to career paths, we are designing our workplace to promote both personal and professional development. Everyone hired has an opportunity to invest in themselves on a path to excellence, contribute to our goals and participate in fulfilling, rewarding work.

We aim to create a peaceful atmosphere where all are loved and respected. We want to be known for interacting with grace, consideration, compassion, and kindness. We also want to communicate with clarity and candor as an expression of how much we care. We are committed to continuous learning for ourselves and our people on their leadership journeys and will provide safe ways for employees to receive and share honest feedback. Through our dedication to be outstanding in how we care for our relationships, we hope to grow and keep a diverse, engaged team over time.

We are on a mission to help entrepreneurial CPAs bring their firms into the new age, and as we do, we want to be remarkable in the way we build teams, provide opportunity, and love each other. When you join Ascend, you join a company passionate about using our excellence in business to lift people up. We hope you will join us on this ascent.