About Us
Navigators of Change.
Igniters of Inspiration.
Agents of Progress.
About Winding River Consulting
We are a motley crew of professionals with expertise in various aspects of business – accounting, marketing, digital, diversity and inclusion, risk management, cultural transformations, practice growth, change management, leadership performance, mind/body health, and talent development. Our chemistry is real and our results are impressive. We change people, cultures, and expectations.
We Are...
MAVERICKS
Independent thinkers who blaze their own trails, defying expectations.
VISIONARIES
We see beyond the horizon, anticipating and shaping the future of the industry.
TRAILBLAZERS
Bold and adventurous, we tackle unknown challenges with unwavering enthusiasm.
Meet Our Team
Gary Shamis
Chief Executive Officer
Gary founded Winding River in 2016 after growing SS&G to the 37th largest firm in the U.S. Now, Gary is working hard to help firms stay viable and win in today's climate.
David M. Toth
Chief Growth Officer
A digital powerhouse and a champion of growth, David joined Winding River Consulting in 2019 and became a partner in 2022 after launching their digital practice two years prior.
Brandon Ferris
Director of Marketing & Events
After spending a decade in the accounting industry, Brandon joined the team in 2023. Brandon has a deep understanding of digital marketing and runs our leadership development programs.
Stephanie Schneider
Executive Office and Client Experience Manager
She's the spirit behind our team, managing operations, client communication, team organization, event coordination, and marketing with a focus on innovation, collaboration, and success.
Ilana Isakov Katz
Marketing Strategist
She is an award-winning marketing communications professional with extensive involvement in marketing, branding, and advertising.
Trisha Daho
Culture and DEI Consultant
Trisha, a former Big 4 partner, led diverse teams, delivering billions in value for Fortune 500 companies and startups. As a rapid-growth strategist, she created thriving practices and developed leaders who achieved roles like CFOs and CEOs.
Matt Telop
MPB Trainer
A former law enforcement officer and martial arts champion, Matt now coaches C-Suite executives to peak performance through physical fitness, mental agility, and emotional balance.
Joy Youell
Content Marketing, AI & SEO Consultant
Joy Youell is our incredible content strategist and AI expert who helps firms understand that their content is more than just words on a page.
Bruce Hennes
Crisis Communication & PR Consultant
Bruce has a diverse client list including Goodyear and NASA. He serves on the executive committee of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and has been named to the Lawdragon 100 Leading Consultants and Strategists for five consecutive years.
Ross Henderson
Head of Content Operations
With significant experience leading content marketing efforts for accounting firms, Ross pairs hands-on digital expertise with a strategic perspective that helps firms better articulate their unique values.
Gary Shamis
Chief Executive Officer
Gary Shamis assumed responsibility for his father’s accounting firm in 1981. Over the thirty-five years that followed, he took revenues from $225,000 to approaching $100 million and employees from a dozen to 600. He built the 37th largest independent accounting and consulting firm in the nation, before combining SS&G, Inc. with BDO USA, LLP in 2014.
Today, as principal of Winding River Consulting, a business advisory services company, Gary is a highly sought after speaker, facilitator, and consultant.
In its inaugural list of Managing Partner Elite in Accounting in 2012, Accounting Today identified Shamis as one of only ten people recognized for qualities required of a person in a firm’s leadership role.
He is the “very model of the modern managing partner, and this list is more or less unimaginable without him,” it stated, adding “he invented, codified, or popularized most of the strategies and best practices that are now taken for granted.”
David M. Toth
Chief Growth Officer
David Toth built his marketing expertise around a strong digital comprehension. Understanding the importance of data, he reasoned, should guide each step of the process, using informed decision making to adapt when and where necessary. Armed with the evidence, David challenges the status quo to drive results.
He is a strategic-thinker and believes the path to successful outcomes includes integrating technology with tried-and-true practices. As David sees it, when it comes to digital transformation there will always be new dots to connect. The challenge is having the discipline to make the connections that close the gap between marketing dollars and sales revenue.
David has served as an outsourced CMO, agency executive, and change agent for organizations in sectors from fast-growing start-ups to well established Fortune 500 companies. He has a knack for building meaningful relationships. David has found that while each business and industry is unique, the foundation to success is always the same — know your audience.
Brandon Ferris
Director of Marketing & Events
Meet Brandon Ferris – an accomplished digital marketing leader who leaves no stone unturned when it comes to filling the growth pipeline and delighting prospects throughout their customer journey.
Brandon got his start as a jack-of-all-trades marketer working for the Top 100 Firm* Skoda Minotti, supporting its growth up to and through its acquisition by Marcum LLP. At Marcum, he redefined digital strategy, helped harness the power of CX throughout the firm, and crafted revenue-generating strategic plans for a variety of industry verticals. In his tenure, he developed deep marketing experience in the areas of real estate, construction, exit planning, transaction advisory, insurance, wealth management, valuation, litigation, emerging companies, and life sciences accounting.
At Winding River, Brandon specializes in growing regional and national-enterprise firms. Driven by his passion for creating positive customer experiences (CX) with results at their core, Brandon meticulously curates every touchpoint, ensuring that each step, from the initial interaction to the final conversion, is seamless and impactful for targeted audiences. Working closely with high-growth firms and thriving on collaboration, he leverages his expertise to help firms make the biggest impact with their marketing dollars, while effectively connecting inbound efforts to revenue generation. Brandon's expertise lies in developing tailor-made inbound strategies and brand experiences that leave a lasting impact on clients for accounting firms of all shapes and sizes.
Brandon firmly believes that the pursuit of excellence, coupled with a results-oriented, people-first approach to digital marketing, is the force behind firm success, propelling businesses forward into a future filled with boundless opportunities.
Stephanie Schneider
Executive Office and Client Experience Manager
A lot goes on behind the scenes at Winding River Consulting. And behind it all, is Stephanie Schneider.
In addition to her responsibility for firm operations, Steph oversees all of our client communication, team organization, and event coordination, promotion, and management. With a strict project schedule, she keeps us on task, on time, and on budget. She’s at the helm of WRC corporate and event marketing management supervising our internal protocols and programs assuring consistency, functionality, and accuracy.
Stephanie is at the hub of our many seminars and conferences, notably MPB, Digital Deep Dive, and Winning Ways. Through consistent communication, extraordinary client service, responsiveness, and business acumen, she maintains uniformity in our complex, multi-layered structure.
Her focus is team-based, promoting innovative ideas, fostering culture, improving outcomes, and ensuring the collaboration and communication that are so critical to our success.
Ilana Isakov Katz
Marketing Strategist
As a marketing strategist, Ilana Isakov Katz relishes the opportunity to combine the art and science of marketing to create integrated marketing communications solutions. Drawing on her experience with Fortune 500 company clients, Ilana designs, implements, and measures performance-driven and results-oriented plans and programs to support dynamic objectives.
She is an award-winning marketing communications professional with extensive involvement in marketing, branding, and advertising. Ilana develops creative and design direction for successful corporate identity and brand building campaigns. She is a speechwriter, ghostwriter, business writer, and copywriter. She is an ardent follower of AP Style standards and an Oxford comma enthusiast.
With comprehensive experience in community, employee, media, and public relations, she has worked alongside CEOs to compose messaging platforms and content that support corporate positioning. Ilana has served as national media spokesperson for purposes of general corporate representation and in times of crisis.
Ilana spent more than a decade as director of marketing for SS&G, Inc. (now BDO) where she oversaw the advertising, PR, website and social media, and events, as well as business development engagement and client service delivery.
- BA, Advertising and Public Relations, Simmons College
- MBA, Global Marketing, John Carroll University
- Accredited in Public Relations, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
- Certificate in Reputation Management, PRSA
Trisha Daho
Culture and DEI Consultant
Trisha spent most of her career leading large, diverse teams toward the delivery of value for her clients at a Big 4 Accounting and Advisory firm, wherein she served as a partner. She has been pivotal in the discovery and sustainability of value in the billions of dollars for her clients. She has worked with executives and their teams in dozens of Fortune 500 companies in the majority of states. She has also created enormous value for entrepreneurs, high growth companies, and aspiring start-ups.
Having made partner in a Big 4 accounting firm in 9 years, Trisha was charged with building thriving practices from scratch in 4 different regions of the country. Through laser-focused strategies and the ability to scale talent and service delivery quickly, she was able to create growth businesses that have expanded exponentially. The leaders she’s cultivated have gone on to be partners, CFOs, CEOs, and much more.
With her own company, Empowered Leadership Cultivation, Trisha partners with C-suites and managing partners to think, plan, and execute strategically for the purpose of accelerated and sustainable growth, primarily in professional service firms. She also partners with larger firms to create success for women and diverse people who are entering leadership positions through a diversity and inclusion peer advisory experience focused on strategy, high performing teams, and advocacy in leadership.
With a law degree from Case Western Reserve University and a business degree from Miami University, Trisha brings practical results-driven insights as well as leadership acumen. She regularly writes and speaks on a variety of topics, including authenticity in leadership, high impact teams, creating growth cultures, diversity and inclusion, and many more.
Trisha is married to a Frenchman named Bachir, whom she met while on vacation in Paris. They plan to travel the world together as soon as he is permanently stateside. In her spare time, Trisha fosters Labrador Retrievers, travels to faraway places, and watches lots of foreign films.
Matt Telop
MPB Trainer
As a former law enforcement officer and border patrol agent, Matt Terlop knows the importance of discipline and the value of a healthy, active lifestyle. As a coach to many in the C-Suite, Matt helps executives attain physical fitness, mental agility, and emotional balance, combating daily stress to achieve peak performance in their personal and professional lives.
Through his “executive athlete” structured programs, clients gain increased energy, clarity of mind, sharpened focus, and an improved sense of well being.
As a local, state, national, and international martial arts champion, Matt is well versed in understanding an individual’s motivation and philosophy behind competition. He works with clients one-on-one to optimize their wellness, creating custom tools to manage stress and maintain a superior performance standard. His methods of training are modeled off those used in the armed forces and in law enforcement agencies worldwide ensuring results.
- BA, Communications, John Carroll University
- Former Member, U.S. Martial Arts Team
- United States Federal Law Enforcement Academy (FLETC)
- Certified, International Sports Science Association (ISSA)
Joy Youell
Content Marketing, AI & SEO Consultant
Joy Youell is a content strategist who helps companies understand that their content is more than just words on a page: it is a powerful tool that magnetizes a brand, providing essential differentiation in crowded markets. Her academic background in philosophy and psychology equipped her with a deep understanding of human behavior. She spent many years as the Chief Editor of an education franchising company, which gave her a taste for the winning power of marketing copy and its ability to transform the trajectory of businesses of all sizes.
Joy now provides both consultation and content production services for Winding River Consulting clients. She works closely with the digital marketing team to conceive and execute on creative strategies.
Joy is also the founder of Hire a Writer, a copywriting agency and training ground for copywriters worldwide. She is an avid student of human communication, a leading expert in on-page SEO, and a capable leader and instructor.
Bruce Hennes
Crisis Communication & PR Consultant
Bruce Hennes is chief executive officer of Hennes Communications, one of the few firms in North America focused exclusively on crisis communications and crisis management.
With a client list that includes Goodyear, NASA, Avery Dennison and Kent State University, Hennes Communications serves over 180 clients a year in virtually every market sector – including scores of government agencies, municipalities, nursing homes, nonprofits, school districts, accounting firms, law firms -- and their clients that are “on trial in the Court of Public Opinion.”
A former keynoter at LeadingEdge and American Bar Association conferences, Bruce currently serves on the executive committee of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association. In 2023, he was appointed Assistant Professor at Ohio University’s Scripps School of Communication. Bruces also serves as an adjunct professor at Cleveland State University’s College of Urban Affairs and, for the last four years, he has served on the faculty of the Ohio State Bar Association’s Leadership Academy.
Bruce was named a “Go-To Thought Leader” by the National Law Review for columns he contributed to one of the most widely read business law websites in the U.S. And for five consecutive years, he has been named to the Lawdragon 100 Leading Consultants and Strategists, the definitive guide to the financiers, recruiters, marketing and communication gurus on whom the legal profession relies. According to Lawdragon, "These are 100 of the most trusted advisors to the legal profession."
Ross Henderson
Head of Content Operations
Ross Henderson is a content marketing leader focused on helping firms build deeper connections with their prospective clients. With a decade of experience spanning CPG, tech, and consulting, Ross brings a rich perspective to every engagement, taking a strategic approach that helps firms articulate their unique values.
Ross provides a variety of content marketing solutions to Winding River Consulting clients, partnering closely with leaders and marketers to create winning strategies that deliver real business impacts. He helps firms define their target audience, shape their message, and tell their stories in new and compelling ways.
Ross is also Head of Operations at Hire a Writer, a boutique copywriting and consulting agency, and leads courses on SEO and other digital marketing topics. He has served in fractional marketing leadership positions at several technology companies and is passionate about creating and refining growth strategies.
Originally hailing from Scotland, Ross holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Strathclyde and earned his master’s degree from the University of Southern California. He now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Mission
To become the preeminent consultant to firms dedicated to transcending excellence.
Values
- Trust
- Professionalism
- Dedication
- Entrepreneurial Mindsets
Our Belief
We believe that every firm and every professional has the potential to be WORLD-CLASS.
Consulting by the Falls
We're called "Winding River Consulting" for a reason.
We are located in the gorgeous town of Chagrin Falls, OH. With historic architecture, a vibrant restaurant scene, and plenty of local shops and galleries to explore, our office setting is truly picturesque.
Stop by sometime for a slice of historic charm.
Address: 210 Bell St, Chagrin Falls, OH 44022
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