The Dugan & Lopatka Story

In 1974, Mike Dugan was with Arthur Andersen, the premier accounting firm at the time, in their small business practice when he discovered that privately-held business owners wanted more than a number cruncher. They wanted an outside advisor to help them understand the accounting numbers and to help them make important decisions. He saw that there was a need in the market for more planning. Small and mid-sized privately-held business owners needed the financial expertise of a controller but couldn’t afford to hire one of their own. Mike saw that a good accounting firm could fill that void. He wanted to create a firm that not only did the compliance work but also acted as an outside controller and helped business owners look into the future and plan for it.

Like many of our clients who are entrepreneurs, Mike Dugan started the firm out of his house. He formed a relationship with Doug Hoffmeyer and the firm moved to Glen Ellyn and became Dugan & Hoffmeyer. After several years working for a national corporation, Jerry Lopatka joined the firm in 1978. When Hoffmeyer left the firm in 1986 to become the CFO for a large corporation, the firm became Dugan & Lopatka.

Today Dugan & Lopatka offers advice to businesses and nonprofit organizations with and without CFOs and controllers. We don’t just produce the financial reports and tell our clients how they did last period; we look ahead and help them understand what those numbers mean to the organization going forward. Our motto, adopted shortly after our firm started, is The Difference Is Planning. It reflects our focus on the future and on planning opportunities for our clients.