Mark Barrus, CPA
Finance & Accounting
Thirty-five years on both sides of the table — as a Big 4 tax partner and as a public company CFO. Mark began at Arthur Andersen before joining KPMG, where he rose to Cleveland tax leader, Global Lead Partner for the Metals sector, and risk management partner across eleven Midwest offices.
His executive career spanned four public companies. As CFO of Mace Security International, a restructuring he led grew equity value from .5M to M. As Interim CFO of Covia Corporation (NYSE: CVIA), he helped take the company public through a .5B IPO — one of the largest industrial minerals transactions of that period.
That combination of Big 4 advisory depth and C-suite operating experience shapes how Mark thinks about AI for finance: not as an adoption exercise, but as a transformation of the financial decision-making infrastructure itself. At Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Business, where he serves as Adjunct Professor, he has developed business cases and curriculum that teach AI applications to the next generation of finance leaders.
His focus within the collective is the intersection of finance, tax, and AI — advising CFOs, boards, and finance teams on where AI delivers measurable, defensible value in the office of the CFO.
BS and MAcc (with honors), Case Western Reserve University · Global Executive Leadership Program, Yale School of Management · Licensed CPA, Ohio