Accountant Still Hitting All the Right Notes After attending California State University, Northridge for one year, Rick Parent changed schools and put himself on a path that led to the doors of the Juilliard School of Music where he studied piano. Parent’s career, however, turned out to involve hitting the keys of a calculator more than a Steinway after he became a certified public accountant. A love of music and promoting the arts remained of interest to Parent, so much so that he was named this month as chairman of the Dean’s Circle Executive Board for the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media and Communication at CSUN. As a member of the executive board, Parent advises Robert Bucker, the dean of the Curb College, on how to boost fundraising and gain more exposure for the school and the new Valley Performing Arts Center, which opened on campus in January. “The wonderful thing is the Performing Arts Center is a jewel, yet it still goes unnoticed,” Parent said. “We want to make people aware of that venue.” Parent has served four years on the executive board. His term as chairman expires in 2013. “Rick’s ongoing role on the board, and his experience in finance and the arts, is extremely important as he helps the executive board reach new heights,” Bucker said. The 1,700-seat venue can become a hub for culture in the Valley, Parent said. The shortened first season for the $125 million center brought in diverse audiences of young and old, the affluent and the middle class, Parent said. Conversations between Parent and Bucker, who doubles as artistic director of the performing arts center, have focused on further promotion of the venue in the community. Traveling to Northridge, rather than downtown, for a play or concert is one the benefits of being in the Valley, Parent said. So is the abundance of talent living there, he said. The executive board meets four times a year, and its members are made up of a diverse group with ties to the arts — retired studio executives, music industry professionals, and those involved in arts education. Then there is Parent: a Valley native who attended high school in Canoga Park and whose father played piano. Parent transferred to USC after a year at CSUN. After graduating, he continued his musical studies at Juilliard, where he received a master’s degree. Los Angeles in the mid-1980s was “a cultural wasteland” for a classically trained pianist, Parent recalled. To make a living, Parent returned to school — UCLA — and took business and accounting classes. He has worked at Ernst & Young and BDO Seidman. Currently, he is a shareholder and head of the accounting and audit department at Gumbiner Savett in Santa Monica. Attending a fundraiser six years ago, held at the school of one his children, renewed Parent’s interest in playing piano after a 20 year break. One weekend this summer he joined in with a big band playing at the Madrid Theater in Canoga Park. The leap from playing piano to crunching numbers isn’t a big one from Parent’s perspective. Math and music are interrelated, he said, explaining that some musical styles, such as baroque, have a mathematical structure. At Gumbiner Savett, Parent is not the only one with a musical background. A bookkeeper at the firm trained at the Moscow Conservatory, he said. “There is a lot of correlation between musical ability and math, and therefore, accounting,” Parent said. “That is not to say that all good accountants are musicians, as well. “A lot of them are tone deaf,” he joked. Firm Expansion Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt LLP has opened a new office in Camarillo to increase its accessibility to its client base. The office at 400 W. Ventura Blvd. near the Camarillo Town Center mall is the seventh location of the Los Angeles-based accounting firm. Firm partners William L. Warburton and John R. Lilly and several principals and managers will staff the office. Warburton has been with Holthouse Carlin since 1997 and a resident of Camarillo for 22 years. He is in charge of the firm’s benefit plan audit practice. Clients in that practice area will be served from the new office. Lilly has been with the accounting firm for 16 years and specializes in tax planning and consulting services for large corporate taxpayers, high-net-worth individuals and owner-managed businesses in several industry sectors. Lilly also teaches real estate taxation as an adjunct professor at California State University, Northridge. From time to time, the firm had talked about opening a Camarillo office, said Alison Adams, the chief operating officer. A combination of employees who lived in that part of Ventura County and a desire by partners to grow business in the county made the timing right, Adams said. “In Ventura County, the business people, the agriculture industry, like to do business with local firms,” Adams said. “John Lilly has lived there for 40 years, and he feels having an office representation will make it easier to expand business opportunities in that community.” If more space is needed as the firm grows, it will open offices in areas where it makes sense, Adams said. New Branch Union Bank has opened a full-service branch in Van Nuys. Alen Sayadof is the branch manager, and Claudia Leon is the customer service manager. The Van Nuys branch is a natural outgrowth for the bank, said Senior Vice President and Regional Executive Leticia Aguilar. “We are excited to offer more convenient banking access to our personal and business clients as we continue to expand our footprint throughout Southern California,” Aguilar said. Sayadof has 15 years of experience in the banking industry and previously served as a branch manager for both JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Washington Mutual Bank. Leon joined Union Bank in 2003 after working as a customer service representative for Citibank and California Federal Bank. The branch is located at 7040 Sepulveda Blvd. Bank Repays Bailout Funds First California Financial Group Inc. will repay the $25 million it received in federal bailout money after receiving approval to participate in the Small Business Lending Fund. First California Financial, the holding company of First California Bank, was among seven San Fernando Valley banks in December 2008 participating in the capital purchase program, a part of the Troubles Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected]