About Us

Shahar is a tax and accounting expert with over 15 years
of experience in the field, He is an Entrepreneur and known
as the “tax guru” in the west coast.

Shahar moved to Seattle from Israel and founded GPL tax and accounting, where he still serves as the chairman of board. Along the years, he served thousands of business owners and perfected the S-Corp management process. Shahar has MBA from Seattle University, and owns several S-Corps himself. In his free time he enjoys sports event and spending time with his wife and 3 kids.

Shahar’s super-powers: Personal Charisma and a loud voice!

Uri is a growth marketer, with over 12 years of experience in the start-up industry. He ran marketing and demand generation at several Seattle startup as well as at Amazon Alexa.

Before founding Formations, he ran marketing at Mindspace, an Israeli global coworking company, where he got to know and learn the self-employed market closely. Uri graduated with honors from the University of Washington and holds an MBA in Marketing. Uri is married with 3 children and he is a huge Seahawks fan!

Uri’s super-power: Separating the important from the trivial

Aaron has worked as an accountant for over 10 years and has certified on numerous fintech platforms.

He has specialized in maximizing efficiency through leveraging cloud-based apps while maintaining compliance to regulations for city, state, and federal agencies. In his free time, he enjoys playing guitar, gaming, and yelling at the TV.

Aaron’s super-power:  The All-father. He’s our accounting SME!

Adi brings over 20 years of experience in marketing, project management, business operation, and relationship development.

She moved to the USA from Israel, lived in Boston, and finally settled in the Seattle area. Adi has MBA in business management and marketing, and BA in persuasive communication, trends, and technologies in media. When she’s not working, Adi enjoys hiking with her husband and daughters

Adi’s super-power: Multitasking

Originally from Wantage, New Jersey, Alli dual-majored earning her Bachelor of Arts from Ramapo College of New Jersey in Education (9-12) and Literature. She also minored in Psychology. She continued her education to earn a Master’s Degree in Organization Leadership. In 2015, Alli traded in a snow shovel for a sand shovel when she relocated to Central Florida. 

Alli has an extensive background in teaching/adjuncting, Customer Success, coaching/mentoring, training, and curriculum development. 

In her free time, Alli enjoys baking, gardening, spending time at Disney with her husband, or watching Law and Order SVU (again) on Hulu in the company of her 6 shelter cats. 

Alli’s Super Power: Making people feel heard. 

Amanda was born in California and moved around before settling in the Pacific Northwest. She is a Seattle resident since 2005, she loves to travel, but misses mountains and ocean if absent too long. After studying Comparative Literature at the University of Washington, she has worked in service, sales, and the beauty industry.

Amanda is naturally curious and driven by serving others. When not working, she balances volunteering, walks and talks with friends, and quality time with Phoebe the cat.

 Amanda’s Super-Power: Curiosity 

Amanda grew up in Beijing, China. She graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Communications. Amanda has lived in Seattle for 13 years and she takes great pride as a resident of the Evergreen State. Amanda has worked in marketing and sales where she developed a passion for connecting with customers. She is a strong believer in finding real values over price tag. Aside from work, she enjoys hiking.

Amanda’s Super Power:  Authenticity

Aria was born and raised in Greensboro, NC and graduated North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University with a Bachelor of Science in Child Development and Family Studies. 

She has been an educator for a variety of subjects (food and nutrition, project management, career management, and interior design. In 2021, she discovered her passion about finance, and pursued finance credentials.

In her spare time Aria enjoys coloring, baking and mandatory HomeGoods, Target and as a coffee aficionado, Starbucks runs.

Aria’s Super-Power: Thought Provoker 

Bram is an American and Dutch dual national that has been living in Seattle since 2004. He graduated from the UW with a BA in Marketing in 2017 and has been working in sales ever since. His hobbies include running and trying new dishes to eat those calories back.

Bram’s super-power: Supernatural Caffeine Tolerance

After living in Seattle for over 11 years, Brian has moved full time to Portland, Oregon. He has studied Business Administration at San Diego City College and currently studies Accounting at South Seattle College.

Brian is an experienced Tax Consultant with a demonstrated history of working in the accounting industry and educating professionals new to taxation. He is skilled in solving complicated tax reports and in risk management. Brian spends most of his free time working in his garden and enjoying the outdoors. He recently started to travel the world and have been to New Zealand, London, Sri Lanka, India, Israel, and Costa Rica and in less than 18 months! Brian’s personal mantra is “Per Aspera Ad Astra.”  It is Latin for through hardships to the stars.”

Brian’s super-power: The power of disco!

Bryan was born and raised in Washington State and holds an extensive sales background which covers 25 years. He has a wide-ranging sales background in consultative selling primarily within B2B; creating revenue and finding solutions based on his customers’ specific needs. 

When He is away from work, Bryan’s focus is to spend quality time with his family and friends (and when his wife is not looking, he is constantly playing the Crypto markets!) Bryan enjoys cooking, reading, working out, and taking time to renew his inner self to ensure he focuses on the well-being of those he encounters daily.

Bryan’s  Super-Power: Putting others first

Chandler grew up in Yakima, Washington and obtained a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Central Washington University.

He is passionate about continuous learning and helping others achieve their goals. During his free time, Chandler likes to spend his time at the gym weightlifting, on a mountain hiking, or in the kitchen cooking.

Chandler’s Super-Power: Self-Efficacy

Chi is a highly motivated QA with decent experience in testing, with 7 years of experience in both manual and automation. She was born and grew up in Vietnam and moved to Vancouver, Canada in 2018. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking and painting.

Chi’s Super-Power: Has an eye for detail

Cori is a Californian at heart, Washingtonian in residence. She enjoys all the Pacific Northwest has to offer. She lives with the love of her life Mylee, her 7-year-old feline companion.

Cori comes from a Human Resources background where she managed the employee lifecycle for 350 tax professionals. Customer service, organizational skills, and dedication to the mission are her best professional qualities. Her favorite way to spend an afternoon is walking around the lake while listening to music

 Cori’s Super-Power: Sticky Note & Sharpie Master

Daniel is an East Coaster living in Portland with his wife Samantha and their feisty rescue pup Frankie. He is an avid fan of science fiction, loves the outdoors, and lives for all things music. Daniel brings a holistic perspective to marketing that combines expertise in digital, traditional, experiential, and influencer marketing and spent the early part of his career leading sales and business development teams to develop and deploy highly effective growth strategies.

Daniel is a collaborative team player and creative problem solver known for challenging the status quo and building empathetic, customer-centric brands with the power to scale. He has worked with Fortune 500s and startups alike with clients that include Cisco, Google, Adidas, and Fortnite.

Daniel’s Superpower: Extreme Empathy

Daniel is an S Corp Specialist and Tax Advisor to entrepreneurs. After a decade of self employment in the Surety Industry, Daniel found his passion for supporting other small business owners with two of their greatest challenges, taxes and finances. He is an Enrolled Agent with a degree in Accountancy.

When not working on tax strategies, Daniel can be found enjoying his home of sunny south Florida with his wife and son. An avid car enthusiast and cinema fan, his perfect day is a long cruise with the top down and an evening at the movie theater with a large popcorn.

Daniel’s Super-power: Problem Solving

Denise has a multidisciplinary career, driven by creativity, strategy and communication. She has been working in different industries for over 12 years, from large banks to start-ups, focusing on creative projects, branding and design.

Born in São Paulo – Brazil, Denise moved to beautiful Vancouver – Canada in 2015. She has an Executive MBA, BS in Information Systems and 2 Diplomas in Graphic Design and UX Design. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, movies, travelling and good food and wine. Denise is a devoted wife with 2 children. She has 2 beautiful grumpy cats. Meow!

Denise’s Super-power: The power of trying new things

Gabi has lived in Seattle since 2017, but originally hails from Los Angeles. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English with emphasis in Creative Writing, and has a background in sales, learning and development, and beauty. In her spare time, she enjoys all things creative, including researching dark histories, writing and producing a podcast, and painting.

Gabi’s super-power: Emotional intelligence.

Hongyi was born and grew up in China and move to Vancouver around 14 years ago. He graduated from UBC computer science and has worked as a frontend developer ever since.

On his spare time, Hongyi loves playing video games, reading, and cooking.

Hongyi’s Super-power: Bug finding

Isaac moved to Seattle in 2015, happily trading sunshine for water, trees and volcanoes.

He has been working sales in the last decade. Isaac holds a double bachelor’s degree in Economics and International Relations and Affairs from the University of Colorado Boulder.
On his spare time, he enjoys playing guitar, and Thai food

Isaac’s super-power: The power of listening

James grew up in California and received an economics degree from University of California, San Diego.

He moved to Seattle to further his education and is enjoying the Pacific Northwest, rain and all.

While he is not busy being a coffee snob, James splits his time between music, basketball (Go Warriors), and web development.

James’s Super-Power: Discernment

Jason grew up in Seattle before moving to Bozeman MT, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Business Marketing from Montana State University.

Now relocated back in Seattle, Jason is an avid golfer, and enjoys skiing, mountain biking, cooking, and cheering for the Seahawks and Mariners.

Jason’s Super-Power: Building  positive relationships

Javier was born and raised in Bergen County, New Jersey, and graduated from Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, with a bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurship with a focus on economics. He comes from a background in SaaS and has experience in operations, sales, and account management.

He recently moved to Orlando, Florida, after spending almost 7 years in Providence, to get away from the snow and spend time on the beach. When he’s not spending time outside or finding new restaurants and cafes, he enjoys reading up on the latest technology!

Javier’s Superpower: Customer Advocacy

A native of Trinidad and Tobago currently residing in New Jersey, Jeff is a seasoned tax professional with over 15 years of tax accounting experience specializing in helping individual and business clients in various industries.

In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his wife and 3 kids and is also an active volunteer and board member at his Church.

Jeff’s Super-Power: Servant Leader

Jessica brings extensive experience in customer success, program and team management as well as deep love for customers and helping them achieve their goals.

Jessica was born and raised in Seattle. She then spent 12 years in Colorado, including her undergraduate work at the University of Denver, and several years bouncing been Vail, Denver and Aspen. She started her career in working in nonprofits and then made the transition to start-ups and technology. When she isn’t delighting customers, she is spending husband and young son. She enjoys the outdoors, cooking, finding new restaurants and like a true Seattlite – Costco and Nordstrom.

Jessica’s Super Power: Helping customers achieve their goals

Joe was born in Casper, Wy but grew up and lived all over Western Washington. He went to Western Washington University and has been in all different type of sales and management roles  in over 15 years. In his spare time, he enjoys being outdoors and traveling.

Joe’s superpower: Being a Team Player

Julia was born in Riga, Latvia then moved to Israel, then Belgium, landed in Los Angeles (where she spent about half of her life “on and off” and where still considers her second home), but has since happily settled back in Seattle in 2015.

She has worked in retail, banking, in the real estate industry, and has a number of years as an office manager, administrative and executive assistant experience combined.

Julia is a big sports fan: GO Hawks!!! Baseball, hockey, etc. The Olympics are her absolute favorite, both Winter & Summer. She also enjoys movies, concerts, ballet, and the theater.

Julia’s Super-Power: The power of negotiation

Karl grew up in Surrey and now live in Vancouver with his wife and their two bunnies. He has been writing software since childhood, and most of his career has been in game development, notably Relic Entertainment and Gasket Games (which he was a technical co-founder of).

In his free time, he enjoys spending time with family, reading and martial arts.
Karl’s Super-Power: Continuous improvement

Kristen  is a lifelong resident of Georgia, just outside of Savannah. She attended Georgia Southern University to obtain a BA in Accounting and have been working in the finance field for almost 13 years. She is currently in the middle of obtaining her CPA license.

Kristen is particularly experienced in auditing & monitoring corporate finances and streamlining processes within to optimize efficiency. Outside of work, she loves to spend time with her family (fiancé, 2 daughters and 2 “bonus” sons), spending time in the mountains, and listening to good music. There is never a dull moment, and she wouldn’t have it any other way!

Kristen’s Super-Power: Candor and Tenacity

Kyle was born and raised in Snohomish, Washington, and has been working as a Market Leader in various SaaS companies since 2018.

Kyle is a very outgoing and active person who enjoys hiking, fishing, and camping. As an adrenaline junkie, he LOVES motorsports. During the winters he goes snowmobiling every weekend, and during the summers he is either riding his street bike or dirt bike.

Kyle’s Super-Power: Enthusiastic

Lauren moved to Portland, Oregon in 2009 where she planned on living for one year. Twelve years later this southern runaway is an official Pacific Northwester. Born in Savannah, GA, she went from drinking sweet tea and catching fireflies to eating pizza at midnight in New York City. There she attended Fashion Institute of Technology while earning her B.S in Cosmetics and Fragrance Marketing with a minor in Fashion Merchandising.
Prior to Formations, Lauren’s last 15 years were spent as a Regional Account Executive for a luxury haircare brand. There she got to help small business owners not only build their brand from inside out but financially set goals and achieve them, thus making their professional dreams become a reality.

When she isn’t working, she is planning adventures to foreign lands, building forts with her two boys, watching sci-fi/fantasy/historical dramas, and embarrassing her family with 90’s dance moves in public. She takes pride in self-care and loves acupuncture, Pilates, Yoga, and could write a book on her interesting spa experiences from around the world.

Lauren’s Super-Power: Intuition

Leelah was born and raised in Loxahatchee, FL, but lived in Israel, Canada and Taiwan. Leelah currently lives in Orlando, FL with her partner and dog. Leelah graduated from University of Central Florida with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and Nonprofit Management and a Master’s Degree in Intercultural Education and Entrepreneurship.

In her free time, she enjoys being traveling, spending time at the beach, volunteering at Nonprofits, and playing with her dog.

Leelah’s Super-Power: Empathic Resourcer

Max grew up in Bellevue Washington and received a finance degree from Central Washington University. He is a gamer, and loves coffee, music, and football. His favorite team is the San Francisco 49ers.

Max’s Super-Power: Bringing people together

Marcus is an experienced tax consultant who graduated from Western Michigan University and moved to the Washington area in 2016. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Accountancy and is an Enrolled Agent.

Marcus has a passion for helping customers through their tax issues and implementing tax saving strategies. When not doing tax work, he enjoys playing games with his friends and exploring the Seattle area for food and fun. He and his wife live with their cat in the SeaTac area.

Marcus’s Super-Power: Getting Things Done

Marissa is a forever Chicagoan (at heart), where she completed her Bachelor of the Arts degree in Fashion Marketing and Management with The Art Institutes and gained valuable exposure to client-centric skills with a Seattle-based retailer. These experiences sparked Marissa’s love for service through creating custom-fit solutions and empowerment through education. This expertise guided her career with 12+ years in learning & development and project management roles throughout the east coast with multiple global brands.

Marissa loves plant-powered cooking (and eating), exploring the nature and wildlife surrounding her Florida abode (from alligators to manatees), and creating education content for non-profit organizations.

Marissa’s Superpower: Compassion

Melissa, originally from Portland, OR, received her Bachelor of Science in Finance from Portland State University.  She Spent 9 years in Aspen, CO and then settled in Seattle in 2014. 

Melissa has an extensive background in customer service, luxury retail management, and even spent a few years in the mortgage industry.

When Melissa isn’t helping customers achieve their goals, she enjoys hiking in the Cascades, paddle boarding on lake Washington, cooking healthy meals, exploring PNW wineries, and spending time with her husband two kids

Melissa’s Super Power: Multi-Tasking 

Monica is a Customer Success Manager, with experience working with business owners to help achieve their goals. She also has a background in marketing at a tax and consulting firm where she learned to translate technical tax jargon. 

Monica grew up in Sacramento, CA, and went to Loyola University Chicago for her undergraduate degree, double majoring in International Studies and French. She moved to Seattle right after graduating and hasn’t left since! Outside of work Monica spends time outside with her dog and loves cooking and eating locally grown food with friends and family.   

Monica’s Super-power: Relationship Building 

Mylah was born and raised in Oklahoma, lived in California for 13 years and obtained a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice with a concentration in Human Services from the University of Phoenix.

Her background includes sales and customer service. She loves going the extra mile to help her customers achieve their goals!

When Mylah isn’t working she loves listening to music, cooking new recipes, traveling and watching sports.

Mylah’s Super-power: Natural Developer

Nick is a Seattle native who has enjoyed living in the Pacific Northwest his entire life. He graduated from Washington State University with a BA in Strategic Communication, a minor in Business Administration and has been working in sales for the past 4 years. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking and being outside fishing, hiking or skiing.

Nick’s Superpower: The power of kindness  

Patrick was born and raised in Billings, Montana. He brings a broad sales background with him, primarily focused on IT, but most recently in helping launch a specialty beverage brokerage in eastern and central Montana. He is committed to providing world class customer experiences.

In his free time, he loves spending as much time as possible with his two boys, cooking, CrossFit, chess, writing, and building epic charcuterie boards.

Patrick’s Superpower: Curiosity and building meaningful relationships 

Penny is a product designer with 7 years of design experience in e-commerce and marketing industries for companies and platforms of all sizes.

She was born and grew up in South Korea and came to Vancouver, Canada 5 years ago.  In her spare time, she likes outdoor sports and enjoys cycling, hiking, snowboarding, and golfing.

Penny’s Super-Power: Seeing the big picture

Peter moved around a lot growing up, lived in Toronto, Dallas, New Jersey and settled in Vancouver, Canada. He graduated  UBC computer science and has worked as a backend developer ever since.

In his free time, Peter enjoys bouldering and rock climbing, league of legends, archery and cooking.

Peter’s Super-Power: Intuition

Samantha was born and raised in the Seattle area and graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. She is also currently enrolled in her M.B.A. program through Colorado State University.

In her free time, she enjoys being outside, spending time with her dog, and cheering on her favorite teams.

Samantha’s Superpower: Efficiency

Sarah hails from Tennessee but considers the PNW her home since moving to Seattle in 2016.

Sarah joins Formations after a career in public education, and more recently from the world of small-scale sustainable agriculture. Through these roles she developed skills essential to the CSM position – defining goals and objectives, effective communication, and relationship building. When she’s not supporting customers, Sarah enjoys working in her dahlia garden, attempting the Sunday crossword puzzle, and exploring the many park systems with her partner and their goldendoodle!

Sarah’s Super-Power:  Anticipating Needs and Next Steps

Sean has lived in the northwest his entire life. He has a bachelor’s degree from Liberty University and has been working in sales to help people reach their goals for over 10 years. In his spare time, he enjoys woodworking and brain teasers.

Sean’s superpower: Empowerment

Shelby is a NW local who explored the world!  She lived in Australia for a year and had a few loops through Europe, the U.K. and Morocco. Shelby has been in the Financial Industry since 2017, and in the hospitality industry for many years before that.

Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, hiking; fishing, crabbing, kayaking and generally soaking up the sun with her partner Andrew and Dog Dikky.

Shelby’s Super-Power: Problem Solving

Shiri has been in the HR arena since 2002, and most of her career has been within the High-Tech industry. People are her passion, and her goal is always to provide her colleagues with excellent HR service, to be a strategic partner and to act as a strong employee advocate. 

In her HR jobs, she brings a sense of team and culture to engage employees. She has sincere passion and love to make sure that people are treated right and in the right place to maximize their skill and reach their objectives. Shiri always looks at raising the bar and taking people, processes, and the company to the next level.

When she is not in the office, she enjoys the little things in life: spend time with her lovely family, go horseback riding, skiing, wall climbing, hiking, eating well and keep smiling.

Shiri’s Super-Power:  “Reading” people and strong empathy 

Sonia is a Front End Engineer with 6+ years of experience in web development and have worked on various domains like Industrial, Medical, Telecom and Pharmacovigilance.

Prior to Formations she worked in Japan on web applications for Rakuten.
Sonia was born and brought up in India and now settled in Calgary Alberta, Canada.
She love travelling, listening to music and playing scrabble.

Sonia’s Superpower: Motivational optimism

Taylor was born and raised in the Greater Seattle Area.  Graduated from Central Washington University with a Bachelor’s degree in Clinical Physiology.

Straight out of college, she primarily focused on coaching/training clients to their health & wellness goals and transitioned into sales management a little over 3 years ago.  In her spare time, Taylor loves to go mountain biking, and wine tasting!

Taylor’s super-power:  The power of observation

Toan has been working as a Software Engineer for over nine years and has been involving in various projects.

He was born and raised in Vietnam and moved to Vancouver, Canada in 2017. Toan loves hiking and playing badminton.

Toan’s Super-Power: Problem-solving

Vanessa was born and raised in the PNW and currently reside in Snohomish, WA with her husband, two daughters and the hedgehog, Sir Hedgeworth Von Prickleton.  Over the past 18 years, she has been working with a wide variety of companies, and gained not only a love of accounting, but a skill set we are excited to utilize here at Formations.

Vanessa is an avid gardener, lover of outdoor adventures, “newbie” cycling enthusiast, a lacrosse Mom, and a die-hard Seahawks fan.