Les Merritt

Past

• State Auditor at State of North Carolina
• Partner/President at Privately Held Accounting Firms
• Member at Wake County Board of Commissioners

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Education

• North Carolina State University
• North Carolina State University

Recommended

5 people have recommended Les

Connections

250 connections

Industry

Accounting

Websites

• LesMerritt.com

Les Merritt’s Summary

Leslie W. (Les) Merritt, Jr. served as State Auditor of North Carolina from January 2005 until January 2009. He was the first Certified Public Accountant (CPA) to serve as North Carolina's State Auditor. Prior to being elected State Auditor, Merritt was an owner and partner in privately held accounting firms for over twenty years.

Les Merritt’s Specialties:

Auditing; Accounting.

Les Merritt’s Experience

• State Auditor

  State of North Carolina

  (Government Agency; Government Administration industry)

  January 2005 — January 2009 (4 years 1 month)

  The Office of the State Auditor (OSA) acts as the Taxpayers' Watchdog for North Carolina.
  
  ACCOMPLISHMENTS/DUTIES AS STATE AUDITOR:
  - First CPA to serve as State Auditor of North Carolina.
  - Managed an agency with more than 200 employees.
  - Member, North Carolina Council of State.
  - Member, Local Government Commission.
  - Worked to transform the Office of the State Auditor into a more pro-active agency.
  - Increased the Office of the State Auditor’s emphasis on performance audits by 50%.
  - Reduced a backlog of unfinished investigative audits, some more than three years old, by 76%.
  - Launched a new Investigative Task Force to expose fraud, waste and abuse in state government.
  - Created a new initiative that trained more than 12,000 personnel from state-funded non-profit and other grant recipients on compliance and reporting issues.

• Partner/President

  Privately Held Accounting Firms

  (Accounting industry)

  1985 — January 2005 (20 years)

  - Worked directly on hundreds of audits.
  - Personal and business income tax preparation.
  - Estate and financial planning advice and services.

• Member

  Wake County Board of Commissioners

  (Government Agency; Government Administration industry)

  1994 — 1998 (4 years)

Les Merritt’s Education

• North Carolina State University

  Bachelors , Accounting , 1979

• North Carolina State University

  Bachelor's , Economics , 1974

Additional Information

Les Merritt’s Websites:

• LesMerritt.com

Les Merritt’s Interests:

Effective & efficient government; politics; sports.

Les Merritt’s Honors:

Elected State Auditor of North Carolina in 2004.

Les Merritt’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• getting back in touch