Strategic Partner for Accounting
Founded in 1972, Cray Kaiser is a certified public accounting firm with three full-service locations in the Chicago metropolitan area. We act as accountants and business consultants to a variety of family-owned businesses in the Midwest. Our aim is to give clients not just a service, but a competitive advantage. Our focus on family-owned and closely held businesses requires a more intimate knowledge of a client’s unique business attributes and environments. Typically, this requires a more hands-on approach to evaluating the issues and determining effective solutions for these clients. Whether you need a certified audit, help filling out a government form or a critical viewpoint on your business finances, Cray Kaiser can give you an edge.
Location:
1801 S. Meyers Road | Suite 300
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
Deanna L. Salo
Phone Number: 630-953-4900
Address: 1901 S. Meyers Road | Suite 300
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
If you ask Deanna Salo about her 35-plus-year career with Cray Kaiser, she will eventually tell you about the mergers and acquisitions she has overseen, shareholder disputes she has helped resolve, and the strong agreements she helps build into companies. But first, she will reflect on the impact she and her team have on the people and families behind each engagement.
Deanna joined Cray Kaiser in 1986 after earning her Bachelor’s in Accountancy from the University of Arizona. Since then, both she and the firm have grown together, grounded in Cray Kaiser’s people-centric approach.
A CK Principal since 2001 and Managing Principal since 2021, Deanna provides assurance, strategic, and tax planning services across the client portfolio. She specializes in closely-held and family-owned businesses, nonprofit organizations, and M&A engagements on both the buyer and seller sides.
Karen Snodgrass
Phone Number: 630-953-4900
Address: 1801 S. Meyers Road | Suite 300
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
Karen Snodgrass oversees Cray Kaiser’s tax division, with expertise in closely held and family-owned businesses. In her tax planning work, she minimizes liability at the entity and individual level by helping clients consider the tax implications of their decisions.
The leaders of family-owned businesses, whose personal lives mingle with their business lives, share their financial heart and soul with Karen. For her, that’s an honor. So, she does more than meet tax goals; she informs and educates them.
Karen is committed to sharing knowledge. Having successfully navigated tax codes for 20-plus years, Karen leads seminars on tax law updates at the firm. Based on her ongoing analysis of the effects of new laws, the firm’s reputation for excellence in tax services is unmatched.
With a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame, Karen gives presentations on tax and business finance topics to groups like EFBC.
