My name is Kayla Daniels and I am a senior assurance accountant. I have been with CK for almost four
months. We’ve maintained really great communication with people who work from home. I also work
from home part-time, so I’ve experienced that firsthand where it’s really easy, we have the resources in
place to just jump on a video call. People are always available via their phone or cell phone. Honestly
working from home doesn’t feel that much different in terms of, just the lines of communication that we
have and they’re so open and available.

My name is Kayla Daniels and I am a senior assurance accountant. I have been with CK for almost four
months. Cray Kaiser is different from other places that I’ve worked mostly due to the flexibility that they
offer. I currently work on a flex schedule, which is only I work 30 hours a week, and it is what it sounds
like, it’s flexible. I can work from home, I can work from the office and we just kind of facilitate that
between ourselves every week. So I’ve really appreciated that flexibility that they’ve offered me.

Dan: So here at Cray Kaiser, we have five core values, and the one that continually jumps out at
me is care. Care is we believe the work we do matters because of the people and the
businesses that it impacts. Lots of times accountants, we just deal with numbers, we’re
just numbers people, right, but these are people’s businesses. This is their livelihood. So it
means the world to me to make sure it’s done right, to make sure that they have good
solid numbers in order to make good, smart business decisions with. So care is huge to
me. You’ve got to have a high care factor in order to connect.

Micah: The main word that I would use to describe the Cray Kaiser’s culture is collaborative, both
in a work sense and on a personal sense. So clearly in a work sense, we’re working
together to find solutions for clients to get through these tasks, to make sure that we’re
getting the work done. On a personal level, it’s almost more of a family atmosphere. We
have a lot of involvement in each other’s lives, everybody asks, how are you doing? How
was your weekend? How’s so-and-so or your wife, how’s, so-and-so, your dog? Very
involved with each other. I would say that we care a lot about each other as people which
really speaks to one of our core values at Cray Kaiser.

Natalie: What I enjoy the most about being on the Cray Kaiser team is that I feel that my opinion
and my knowledge is always valued. I may not know everything, but I can certainly look
and have others help me to find answers. I think we just truly embody what a team
means. Again, everybody’s important. Somebody’s perspective might be completely
different from you, regardless of how many years of experience they have, but they may
be able to bring something to the table that you haven’t thought of or explain something
in another way that you may not have thought of before. I feel like we’re always open to
listening to other people’s ideas so that we can make sure that we come up with the best
answers for our clients.

Micah: Cray Kaiser provides a lot of educational opportunities and training opportunities,
whether in-house, or utilizing some other partner programs. We really provide the
resources for staff to learn and grow in the areas that they want to pursue.

Natalie: At Cray Kaiser I’ve been able to expand kind of my area of knowledge. I wasn’t
really strong on the S corporation side. I just didn’t work on them as often at my
prior firm. I really have been able to increase my knowledge on S corporations by
learning from other staff and attending CBE classes, things like that, and really
focusing on taking the knowledge that everybody had on other different aspects
of tax, including the S corporations and figuring out how to best plan and to
consult with my clients. Really expanding that because, it’s such a focus here at
Cray Kaiser is being able to consult and help our clients to either get to that next
step or minimize tax, whatever it is that their objective is. We really want to be
able to help them get to that objective.

Dan: Over the past nine years here, working at Cray Kaiser, my goal has always been
and will continue to be getting better each and every day. The learning
opportunities and the personal growth I have received while working here has
been tremendous. At the end of every year, I look back at where I was the prior
year, and you can just see these big grows every year. So again, it’s being a
better accountant, just getting better each and every day. And it’s impossible not
to while working here.

Natalie: Whether it’s been John Kaiser, who’s one of the founding partners. I mean, he’s
just a wealth of knowledge and I’ve tried to soak in anything I can from him. To,
again, every level here at Cray Kaiser and just always trying to learn, we’re
always trying to teach each other. I’ve really felt that I have expanded my
knowledge base since I’ve been here at Cray Kaiser.

Natalie: I feel like we all really care about each other, which is a really good feeling to have at a
place where you’re working hard. You also want to enjoy the people that you work with,
and I feel that that environment exists here at Cray Kaiser.

Dan: We want to make sure that you continue to grow, you continue to learn. By doing so, we
help the client, we help you, and we help each other.

Micah: It’s almost more of a family in this group. We have a lot of involvement in each other’s
lives. Everybody asks, how are you doing? How is your weekend? How is so and so, your
wife? How is so and so, your dog. Very involved with each other, and I would say that we
care a lot about each other as people. Which really speaks to one of our core values at
Cray Kaiser.

Natalie: We really, really value every piece of input that somebody offers here at Cray Kaiser, and I
feel that that’s truly embodied in our day-to-day activities at the firm. We also value our
clients, and I think they feel that, and they feel that we care about them. Whether it’s their
business success, personal success, I feel that people are what’s important here at Cray
Kaiser. Another thing I’ve seen is diversity, which I think for a firm in Oakbrook and for our
size, we have so much diversity here.

Micah: We’re in a relationship business, and the fact that we really make a point of saying, we
focus on people. I’m happy to be a part of a firm that does that.

Micah: I think one of the great things about working at Cray Kaiser is being a trusted advisor with
our clients. Being that strategic partner, that really helps them get to the next level. To
either their next transaction or get past their next goal, whether that’s operationally,
whether that’s business transition, whether that is tax minimization and tax mitigation.
We have solutions for all of those things. We really work with each individual client to
determine what is their biggest need, what are their needs currently, what are their needs
in the future. Then deliver individualized, personalized solutions for each of those needs
and needs in the future.

Natalie: The trusted advisor role from a tax standpoint typically is either helping them with
transactions, helping them to minimize tax. Going above and beyond just preparing a tax
return, reviewing a tax return compliance work, but actually doing some planning to help
minimize.

Dan: So being a team member here at Cray Kaiser means yes, we’re going to work some long,
hard hours and it will be stressful from time to time. The relationships you build with your
team members and the relationships you build with the client will make it all worthwhile
in the end.

Micah: This environment, when you’re working, what sometimes may be longer hours, under
deadlines, that sort of thing, you really need to rely on other people to get you through
your day. You rely on other people to get their task done; you rely on other people to get
you what you need to get the job done. Having that trust with other people and having
that collaboration, I think is the best part of being on this team at Cray Kaiser.

My name is Eva Koziel and my job title is supervisor of accounting services. I have been at Cray Kaiser for
five years. What makes Cray Kaiser different from other firms that I’ve worked with is they have a small
community feel, and what I mean by that is you don’t feel threatened to go and ask a partner a question.
It is definitely a team effort here, and we all work together to accomplish all our goals.