Entrepreneur funding group expands board

TAMPA — The Florida Venture Forum, a statewide support and member organization for investors and entrepreneurs, made several appointments to its board of directors.

Among them are Paul Hays, audit principal in the Tampa office of law firm CliftonLarsonAllen; Mike Hendricks, managing partner of Tampa-based accountancy firm Frazier & Deeter LLC; and Marc Wilson, a CPA and partner with Crowe Horwath, also of Tampa.

Florida Venture Forum board members promote the organization's mission to help entrepreneurs obtain funding through education, strategic partnerships and networking opportunities.

The other new board directors are Julia Abelkop of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Arthur Unger of Eisner Amper and Mark Volchek of Las Olas Venture Capital.

According to a press release announcing the appointments, Hays specializes in working with technology companies that are venture capital or private equity-backed to assist them with financial reporting compliance requirements based on their financing and equity arrangements. Hendricks' responsibilities include providing tax planning; federal, state and local tax compliance services to individual and business clients; and consulting services. Wilson serves as the lead for Crowe Horwath's tax practice in South Florida. He services, manages and directs a client base that includes private and public companies.