Not a consultant who hands you a report and walks away. A strategic partner who sits at the table, understands your operation, and helps you build something that holds.
Jake Thomas is a CPA who helps privately held companies gain the financial clarity needed to make confident decisions.
His background includes roles in public accounting, construction project management, and manufacturing senior management. Most recently, Jake served as CFO and CEO of Highway Products Inc, leading the financial and operational separation of the Pavati boat division ahead of its 2025 divestiture. Prior to that, he spent several years at Timber Products Company supporting multiple divisions and playing a central role in the full liquidation of over 100,000 acres of timberland holdings.
Earlier in his career, Jake spent nearly a decade in construction estimating and project management, giving him a grounded understanding of cost structure, risk, and execution. He also worked in public accounting for several years, advising closely held businesses and high-net-worth individuals on tax strategy.
Today, through Five Talents CFO, Jake partners with businesses as an outsourced CFO, bringing senior financial leadership that drives clarity, accountability, and growth. He holds active CPA licenses in Oregon and California.
You didn't build a $20M company by accident. You built it by outworking everyone, knowing your trade cold, and betting on yourself when nobody else would.
Scaling a business is a monumental achievement, but it comes with a paradox: as your company grows, the complexity often outpaces the systems that got you here.
You shouldn't have to choose between keeping your finger on the pulse of operations and mastering the nuances of financial strategy. Whether you are in a phase of aggressive growth, navigating a shift in the market, or turning around performance, you need a partner who speaks the language of the floor and the boardroom.
I’m here to take that weight off your shoulders.
A $25M manufacturing or construction business deserves the same caliber of financial leadership as a $100M corporation. But you don't need a full-time CFO in a corner office. You need someone in your corner.
That's why I started this firm. Not to hand you reports and disappear, but to sit across from your banker, translate the fine print, build the cash flow systems, and give you the financial clarity to run your business on offense instead of defense.
You know how to build. I'll make sure the numbers never get in the way of doing it.
The goal is always to make your financial world more navigable, not to impress you with how complicated it could be.
You'll get a clear picture of where things stand. Not a softened version of it. Good decisions require accurate information.
Reports tell you what happened. Strategy tells you what to do next. That's where the value of this work actually lives.
Plans that stay on paper don't move businesses forward. Everything here is built to be acted on.
Production environments with continuous flow, throughput targets, and margin pressure that comes from a hundred directions at once. I understand how these businesses operate and what the numbers need to be telling you.
Project-based businesses where every job has its own cash flow, every estimate carries risk, and the distance between a good year and a hard one is often just a few decisions made without the right picture in front of you.
No pitch. No pressure.
Just a conversation about what's going on in your business and whether there's a fit.
