HISTORY

At Windham Brannon, we trace our roots back to the 1926 hiring of William J. Carter by Mount & Clapp CPAs, an established firm with offices in New York, Boston and Atlanta. A self-made man, Carter was both a brilliant accountant and an ambitious professional. Just two years after joining the firm, he was made a partner and the firm was reorganized as Mount, Clapp & Carter. Shortly thereafter, Carter bought B.K. Clapp’s interest in the firm and took operational control of the Atlanta practice.

Under Carter’s stalwart stewardship, Mount & Carter, unlike so many other firms, continued to prosper and grow through the turbulent economic times of the 1930s. In the early 1940s, he brought Ben Brannon and Fred Windham to the firm – followed by Stuart Cashin and Richard Simons in the mid-1950s. (During this period, Ted Mauldin was also hired to run the firm’s Albany office – a successful practice that would become today’s Mauldin & Jenkins.)

In 1957, Fred Windham, Ben Brannon, Richard Simons and Stuart Cashin left Mount & Carter to establish their own firm with the goal of focusing on superior client service and collegial staff relations. In the transition, more than half of the firm’s local clients moved to the new firm. Within three years, Mount & Carter was acquired by Lybrand, Ross Brothers and Montgomery (later Coopers & Lybrand).

Windham Brannon Simons & Cashin’s focus on superior client service led to such success in its first year that Fred Windham warned his fellow partners, "We probably cannot hope to do as well next year." A caveat he would express each year until he retired – 25 years later.

Under Managing Partner Ben Brannon’s dynamic leadership (1957-1980) the firm continued to grow through the sixties and seventies. During that period, it was reorganized as Windham Brannon Cashin & Duval (1965), then Windham Brannon & Company (1980).

The firm was finally organized in 1988 as Windham Brannon, PC CPAs (WBPC). In 1993, Windham Brannon Personal Planning Services PC CPAs (WBPPS) was established by John Edgar to provide family wealth management, counseling and planning. And Jim Heard founded the most recent addition of the growing Windham Brannon Companies, Windham Brannon Financial Group, Inc. (WBFG), in 2000 to provide objective, independent investment strategies and advisement.

Successive Managing Partners of WBPC, Stuart Cashin (1980-1986), Charles Doggett (1986-1991), and William J. Bomar (1991-1996) have continued the vision of the Firm’s founding partners: going beyond the valuable information available from other firms, to provide invaluable planning and superior client service from the highest quality professional staff. A tradition summed up in the motto of Windham Brannon’s current Managing Partner Charles L. McGimsey (1996 - present): "Great People, Great Clients" – a motto true of the firm from its inception.