Accounting firm aims to promote more women

Gordon Krater, Plante Moran's managing partner, seeks to be a good steward of the metro Detroit accounting firm that he leads — and eventually leave it a little better than he found it.

One improvement Krater wants to make: Putting more women in leadership positions.

"We can't afford to lose as much talent as the profession has been losing," Krater, 56, said during an interview in the firm's downtown Detroit offices. "There are really smart, really good people who either opt out or we haven't trained, developed and mentored enough."

Too often, he said, unconscious bias leads to unrealized talent, a lesson he learned his first day on the job nearly 35 years ago.