Our Team
Management Team
John R. Ezell, CPA, CEPA, Founding Principal and President.
Ken Berry, CBI, Principal and Vice President
Kevin Phillips, CEPA, Director of Consulting Services
Professional Services Team
Brian Costa, Regional Consultant
Rick Harrison, Regional Director
Support and Marketing Team
John Wang, Sales Assistant
Ruth Vera-Cedro, Executive Sales Associate
Marty Desmond, Marketing and Consulting Services Consultant
Justin Bennett, Office Manager
Management Team
John R. Ezell, CPA, CEPA
Founding Principal and President
John R. Ezell, CPA, is the President of ProHorizons Network, Inc. (“ProHorizons”). ProHorizons is a national brokerage and consulting company focusing on tax and accounting practice sales, acquisitions, and business development services. John has advised hundreds of clients in the merger and acquisition of accounting and tax firms since founding the company in 1995.
John is the principal author of the book, Successful Practice Sales: The Complete Guide to Buying, Selling or Merging Your Accounting, Consulting or Tax Practice. This 200-page book serves as a guide through every nuance of the potentially daunting business transactions, including financing your acquisition to exploring the complete lifecycle of a sale, and much more.
He is also a frequent speaker and presents seminars on How to Buy, Sell or Merge Your Accounting Practice throughout the country. This seminar is designed to help owners of accounting and tax practices understand the core issues as they begin to contemplate the sale or purchase of a business.
Previously, John operated his own CPA practice in the Washington, DC area that he successfully sold in 1994. Prior to starting his practice, John worked with two CPA firms in Washington, DC, including BDO Seidman, an international accounting and consulting firm.
John is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in California. He has earned the designation of Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) from the Exit Planning Institute® for completion of their Spring 2009 Program. He is also a licensed California Real Estate Broker. He holds a BS in Accounting from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants.
John served in the US Marine Corps and was an embassy guard in Moscow and Berlin.
John is married to Jennifer and they have four children. He coaches youth baseball and soccer, and serves his community in a variety of volunteer leadership positions.
John can be reached at (800) 729-3242 or via email.
Ken Berry, CBI
Principal and Vice President
Ken Berry has worked closely with John Ezell and ProHorizons since June of 2002. During that time he defined, developed, and refined ProHorizons’ internal processes, ProHorizons’ role in the accounting practice sales industry, and ProHorizons’ level of service to and communication with its existing and potential clients. In 2005, he joined the team as a full-time broker. In January 2007, he joined John Ezell as a principal/owner of ProHorizons.
Ken is co-author of ProHorizons’ book, Successful Practice Sales: The Complete Guide to Buying, Selling or Merging Your Accounting, Consulting or Tax Practice, which serves as a guide through every nuance of these potentially daunting business transactions, from exploring the complete lifecycle of a sale to identifying pitfalls to avoid, and much more.
Previously, Ken spent nine years working in marketing, sales and business development at Crisp Learning, a leading publisher of corporate training and personal improvement books, videos and computer-based training programs.
Ken has earned the highly regarded Certified Business Intermediary (CBI) designation from the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA). He also has a California Real Estate license. Ken holds a BS in History from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. In his free time, he runs, plays soccer, skis, and coaches youth soccer. He completed his first half-marathon in October 2006.
Ken can be reached at (800) 729-3242 or via email.
Kevin Phillips, CEPA
Director of Consulting Services
Kevin Phillips joined ProHorizons in January 2009 as our Director of Consulting Services. He and his team will provide direct consulting services to our clients through our workshops and custom tailored programs.
Kevin comes to ProHorizons with twenty years of organizational leadership experience. He specializes in leadership development and organizational culture design and management. In addition, Kevin conducts independent research on organizational effectiveness and designs custom solutions to problems that hinder teamwork and the leadership capacity of organizations.
Prior to joining ProHorizons, Kevin founded Relationship Impact, Inc. in Virginia. An organization dedicated to increasing the leadership capacity of organizations across the nation by helping individuals develop greater relational competence. He also partnered with young executives in the late 1990’s to found the Business Leadership and Spirituality Network, which helped executives develop the skills need to support team leaders in the fast changing high tech industry in California's Silicon Valley.
Kevin has earned the designation of Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) from the Exit Planning Institute® for completion of their Spring 2009 Program. He is a graduate of Ashbury College and the Virginia Theological Seminary. In his free time, Kevin enjoys running, biking and swimming. Kevin resides in Leesburg, Virginia with his wife, Holly, and their two wonderful children.
Kevin can be reached at (888) 729-9477 or via email.
Professional Services Team
Brian Costa
Regional Consultant
Serving Orange County and Long Beach in Southern California
Brian Costa is a ProHorizons regional Consultant working with accounting and tax owners in Orange County and Long Beach, California.
Prior to joining ProHorizons, Brian was the Sales Manager at Lobby Traffic Systems, a company specializing in facility security equipment and installations.
Brian’s sales career began while still in school when he landed a role as a route sales position with a fast-growing consumer goods company, and quickly took on a management role for one of their facilities in Brooklyn, NY. He eventually came to California where he became a partner in the business and was offered a position as a Regional Sales Manager for the western United States. Brian was able to develop and hone his training, coaching and managing skills as the sales force grew to 35 salespeople. His proudest accomplishments during this time were his integral involvement in developing a web-based reporting and tracking system and his time spent delivering classroom and field-based training programs to support his team.
Brian currently holds a California Real Estate license, a Realtor designation and is a member in good standing of the local multiple listing services. He attended Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts where he was also a member of the college soccer team.
Brian is married to Melissa and they have two fantastic boys who keep them busy with activities. Together they spend their free time outdoors camping, hiking, boating and participating in sports and community activities.
Brian can be reached directly at (909) 731-2926 or via email.
Rick Harrison
Regional Director
Serving the California Central Valley and the Mountain and Southwestern states
Rick Harrison is a sales, mergers, and acquisitions consultant working with tax and accounting owners in the Sacramento and Central Valley area of California and the states of Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and New Mexico.
Prior to joining ProHorizons, Rick was active in the Sacramento area as a business broker and mergers and acquisitions advisor. He has also served in senior management positions with several companies. As Chief Financial Officer for a multi-million-dollar manufacturing company, he was responsible for human resources and information technology in addition to finance operations. As Corporate Treasurer for an Internet communications company, he successfully aided in obtaining several millions of dollars of additional financing and was liaison to investment bankers and venture capitalists.
As an entrepreneur, Rick operated his own CPA practice for several years in Silicon Valley, and during that time bought and sold several CPA practices.
Rick is licensed Real Estate Broker and an inactive Certified Public Accountant in the State of California. He holds graduate and under graduate degrees from Santa Clara University, San Jose State University, and Golden Gate University.
Rick is married to Valerie, and they have one grown son. In his free time, Rick enjoys photography, reading and downhill skiing.
Rick can be reached directly at (888) 295-3716 or via email.
Support and Marketing Team
Ruth Vera-Cedro
Executive Sales Associate
Ruth Vera-Cedro joined ProHorizons in 2004 and has grown into the role of Executive Sales Associate. In this position, she provides service and support to our clients and prospective buyers. Her primary role is as a member of John Ezell’s team supporting our activity in California and the Mid-Atlantic states. Prior to this promotion, Ruth was ProHorizons' Executive Administrative Assistant and Marketing Coordinator. Previously, she was a Marketing Services Coordinator at Sun Microsystems Inc.
Ruth graduated from Santa Clara University with a degree in Marketing. While attending Santa Clara University, Ruth played an active leadership role in the multi-cultural community on campus. She is also a member of the National Association of Professional Women.
Ruth is married to Chris and they have two sons.
Ruth can be reached at (800) 729-3242 or via email.
John Wang
Sales Assistant
John Wang joined ProHorizons in December 2008 as a Sales Assistant. In this position, he provides service and support to our clients and prospective buyers. John’s primary role is as a member of Ken Berry’s team as he supports our activity in the Northwest, Central and New England states.
Prior to Prohorizons, John founded and was sole owner of a residential real estate appraisal company. Previous experiences include a role as senior customer service representative at Graybar Electric, and as sales account manager with Valin, handling top customers such as Lockheed Martin, Hewlett Packard, Applied Materials, and Google.
John Wang is married to Eunice. He was born and raised in the Silicon Valley.
John can be reached at (800) 729-3242 or via email.
Justin Bennett
Office Manager
Justin Bennett joined the ProHorizons team in August of 2009 as an Office Manager. His primary role is to ensure the smooth operation of the company while supporting the ProHorizons team.
Justin graduated West Valley College with a A.A./A.S. in Administration of Justice and continued on to San Jose State University completing a bachelor’s of science degree in Justice Studies. Prior to attending WVC and SJSU, Justin served in the United States Marine Corps, both domestically and internationally, while carrying multiple billets, including Aviation Ordnance Tech and Marine Corps Martial Arts Program Instructor.
During his free time, Justin enjoys backpacking, playing soccer and coaching youth soccer.
