Holmdel’s Tom Angelo to Lead Top 50 U.S. Accounting Firm at Bell Works

It's another feather in the business cap of Holmdel Township as HBK, a Top 50 U.S. accounting firm, has consolidated regional offices and set up shop in Holmdel’s historic Bell Works. Why Holmdel? Because of an increasingly vibrant business community, the renovation of Bell Works, and, not coincidentally, Holmdel resident Thomas M. Angelo, CPA, CITP, will assume leadership of the firm as of January 1, 2024, as its Managing Principal and CEO.

Angelo, who grew up in Linden, has lived in Monmouth County for more than 20 years, the last three in Holmdel. He had been directing HBK’s Mid-Atlantic Region regional operations as Principal-in-Charge of HBK’s Clark office since the merging of his previous firm, Spire Group, with HBK in 2018. With the consolidation of the Clark and HBK’s Princeton offices, the combined staff began operating out of their new offices in Bell Works on May 1, 2023.

“Holmdel is the kind of community that is attractive to the kind of talent we want to attract,” Angelo said. “We’ve got great schools and restaurants, arts, and entertainment. It’s a relaxing environment, with parks and other open spaces, and close to the beaches. People are tired of long commutes and heavy traffic, so a lot of people are relocating here from Manhattan and the more congested areas around the region. Our team loves this place, all the amenities of the Bell Works and the area, the whole environment.”

On the heels of his graduation from St. John’s University in 1995, Angelo joined AV Salerno & Company as a staff accountant, where his entrepreneurial spirit was not only given free rein but encouraged by Tony Salerno, whom Angelo credits as his earliest and most influential mentor. As the firm’s business grew, so did its headcount, expanding from four when Angelo joined the firm to 19, then through a lateral merger in 2012 and the resulting Spire Group.

Angelo had studied computer science at St. John’s and was noticing the growing need for information technology (IT) support by the small- and mid-sized businesses that made up most of Spire’s client base.

“I talked to the partners about requests I was getting from clients for help with their IT,” he said. “I thought we could launch an IT support business as part of the CPA firm. We hired a guy who had been providing us IT services to get the business started and it grew quickly. We had 10 employees in that business by 2018 when we merged with HBK.”

At the announcement of the merger, Angelo noted, “The Spire Group was built on the pillars of client service, entrepreneurship, and a culture that is centered around our team members’ success. We found those same pillars in the HBK family. We are excited to be able to bring our talents and expertise to scale collectively with the breadth and depth of HBK."

Under his leadership, HBK’s IT practice continued to grow, including substantially during the COVID crisis, as businesses needed to rely increasingly on remote communications and their digital networks. HBK IT added another technology company, Unicom, in 2019, then in August 2021, acquired Pittsburgh-based managed services provider (MSP) Vertical Solutions.

Vertical Solutions, founded in 1983, was providing MSP services to nearly 5,000 clients, and operated out of Denver as well as Pittsburgh. The merged businesses were generating $10 million in annual revenue.

“We knew we needed separate leadership, a sales team, and a bigger platform to work from,” Angelo said. Then in 2022, HBK acquired another IT provider and rebranded the practice as Vertilocity.

Angelo’s entrepreneurial nature has been fuel to the fire of HBK’s growth. Today, nearly 500 professionals provide traditional accounting, tax, and audit services, plus compliance and business consulting with deep-rooted expertise in multiple industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, construction, dealerships, nonprofits, and cannabis, as well as in delivering IT support.

Entrepreneurialism is in Angelo’s DNA. He ran a paper route and a landscape and snow removal business as a youngster, then worked with his father and mother in their family business – a florist and Hallmark store in Linden – delivering, selling, and later keeping the books. So it’s no surprise that entrepreneurialism will be the cornerstone and brand of the firm he will lead when he succeeds HBK CEO and Managing Principal Christopher M. Allegretti in 2024.

“We want to continue to foster the entrepreneurial culture,” he explained. “It’s a combination of where the market’s going and how our work is changing. We offer different services now than 10 years ago and five years ahead, we will evolve into more services. We have to continue to listen to our customers about what they need from their trusted advisors and add services that help them grow. We have to think beyond compliance to go narrow and deep into their industries, to be way more than a CPA, to be involved in their finance, accounting, tax planning, wealth management, and succession planning; to work with them on structuring debt, on executing mergers and acquisitions, to help them through their digital transition, to focus on their industry niche and deliver comprehensive solutions – all things they need but can’t build internally. That’s our future, providing the expertise that will help small businesses grow beyond even what they might imagine for themselves.”

Tom Angelo and HBK’s Holmdel-based professionals and staff are located in the Bell Works building at 101 Crawfords Corner Road, Suite 2216, Holmdel, NJ, and can be reached by phone at 732-381-8887 or email Tom at tangelo@hbkcpa.com.

While HBK provides the resources of a large national firm, our service is local. Our offices operate with local autonomy and our professionals are participating members of their communities. Our Holmdel professionals serve local businesses and families as members of key community organizations, including:

Association of Corporate Growth (ACG NJ)

Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce (MRCC)

Monmouth Ocean Development Council (MODC)

New Jersey Food Producers Association (NJFPA)

Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce (PRCC)

Estate and Financial Planning Council of Central New Jersey (EFPCCNJ)

New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA)