Originally from Los Angeles and Toulouse, France, born to one Croatian parent and a Nicaraguan one, Michelle grew up in a multicultural environment where a curious and open spirit was encouraged. She received a BA in International Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz and attended IEP in Toulouse.
She is a senior accountant with over 20 years of experience and an early adopter of cloud technology for accounting. Her specialties include systems integration especially for e-commerce and inventory, complex reconciliations, and financial reporting.
She began her career as a bookkeeper at Éditions Milan, a publishing house for children’s books in Toulouse, France. This first experience planted the seed to seek out new skills. Her next challenge was working for a French fine wine importer in Beverly Hills with $3M in inventory. She collaborated closely with the CPA on inventory systems, financials, and annual reviews. Before founding her firm in 2012, she worked at the business management department of HCVT, a prestigious accounting firm based in Los Angeles and as the accounting manager for Evolving Wisdom, an online education company with $7M in revenue.
She gained her accounting expertise by working in a wide variety of industries including publishing, wine importing/distribution, online education, e-commerce, start-ups, legal firms, technology, digital media, and non-profits.
Due to her dual nationality, she was on the board of Los Angeles Accueil, a chapter of the global association FIAFE that fosters the local French community abroad. She is currently a member of the French-American Chamber of Commerce in New York.