Dick Cisne

Dick Cisne’s company, with 44 employees, is not the tiny accounting firm it was when Cisne and three other accountants founded it in 1987. But it’s still a sliver of the big firm, Arthur Young & Co., that Cisne had worked for before. And he likes it that way.

“What we had to do differently was serve our clients in the way they were accustomed to being served,” Cisne said. Only he wanted to do it better because “they were not being served by Arthur Young the way we thought they deserved to be.”

While big accounting firms make a bright distinction between auditors and tax accountants, it’s taken Hudson Cisne almost 30 years to adopt such specialization — and that’s mainly because younger accountants prefer it.

“And right now we’re able to accommodate that. But when we started, we had to do it all,” Cisne said.

Without separate tax and audit staffs, Hudson Cisne could not serve publicly traded companies — and still doesn’t. Instead, the firm has sought out niche areas like nonprofits, school districts and retirement plans.

Dick Cisne himself is nationally known as an expert in the ultra-niche area of accounting for cooperatives, mainly small farm supply co-ops. This year he chairs the Legal, Tax & Accounting Committee of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives.

Cisne is a director of the Arkansas State Police Foundation and of the Central Arkansas Boys & Girls Clubs and its supporting foundation. He is also a director of Bank of the Ozarks Inc. of Little Rock, whose CEO, George Gleason, is the executive Cisne most admires.

Cisne is planning a slow retirement. “I’m sending letters to clients saying that I’m assigning their work to certain people, but I’ll be around for a few years to help make a smooth transition. I don’t know if I’ll ever quit coming to the office. I’ve had clients for 43 years, and you keep seeing them and talking to them, and I’ll be around to help brainstorm and answer questions.”

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