CRAFT TALK with CPA Bruce Ekmanian

Posted by Richard L. Roberts

Bruce Ekmanian was born and raised in the Culver City area. They lived near a movie lot and occasionally heard bomb sounds coming out of the sets. He graduated from Culver CityHigh School and was selected as South Bay Area All Star football defensive end. "The best job I ever had was working for Zeppy's Pizza. We wore bathing suits, t-shirts and tennis shoes." He received his AA degree from West LA College and finished his college work at FresnoStateUniversity in 1975 with a degree in Accounting.

His first accounting job, before computers, was working for an accounting firm where he proof read financial reports and made sure the math was correct on financial statements.

He married and has two sons, Brian and Vinnie. He worked for an industrial firm as what he called an "out of controller"; two partners that knew how to build things but didn't know how to run a business. He worked for a major CPA firm in Fresno for fifteen years then moved to SLO in 2000 to work as a Tax Manager for the CPA firm, Glenn, Burdette, Phillips and Bryson. Five years later he partnered with Tom Cook to form the CPA firm of Cook & Ekmanian located in GroverBeach.

Bruce is a past president of the Fresno Kiwanis and has been the president of other organizations including Strategic Alliance, a networking organization launched by Sandra Sansoni. They needed a CPA, Bruce was asked to join, and he and Sandra started dating in 2006– they were married in Sept 2008. He is thrilled, being a member of the Rotary Club of Grover Beach.