Headshot of Sarah Brett

It’s embarrassing to say, but I’m not a big music person. You won’t find me at Lollapalooza, but I’m a huge Broadway fan. Ask me about my favorite shows.
Sarah Brett
Principal, CPA

Experience

I help clients manage federal and state tax compliance and actively communicate necessary information and deadlines with management. My focus is on mitigating tax liability by identifying opportunities like research and development credits, expediting expenses, and other tax incentives.

My clients are primarily engaged in the service and manufacturing and distribution industries. This includes consulting and marketing firms, hospitality groups, technology companies, food and beverage companies and transportation and logistics companies. I also spend time in our private equity group and have assisted many of my clients through buy- and sell-side transactions.

My love of accounting and finance started as a young child. To be honest, the interest wasn’t just accounting — it was an overall entrepreneurial spirit. My parents were small business owners on the south side of Chicago throughout my childhood, so the desire to create something of my own was, and still is, part of my core identity. While my friends were playing softball, I was running a side hustle selling stickers and managing a fake restaurant in my basement. Public accounting gave me the opportunity to merge those interests: to advise businesses like the one my family ran but also to retain the independent spirit this industry allows.

Around the office, colleagues know me for my strong staff development skills as well as my wise words and passion for destigmatizing mental health, especially in the workplace. I’m also known for my love of animal rescues — I often have a random foster dog hanging around my house.

With more than 10 years of experience at the firm, the accomplishments I’m most proud of include creating new internal tax trainings as part of the firm’s tax education committee, being part of the 2021–2022 Praxity Emerging Leaders Academy, and helping create the “Anxiety in the Workplace” presentation for our Women in Leadership initiative.

I’m a member of the Illinois CPA Society, and I earned a B.S. in accountancy from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

As for hobbies, I love reading, discovering new restaurants and breweries in Chicago, and traveling. I spend my free time with my husband, Josh, and our two rescue dogs, Franklin and Wallace. I foster dogs through One Tail at a Time and volunteer for Fresh Truck in Garfield Park through the Greater Chicago Food Depository.