To meet the needs of our clients, 10,000 Lakes Accounting and Small Business Consulting was established as a Minnesota CPA firm to provide accounting, tax, and business advisor services to corporations, small businesses and individuals throughout the Twin Cities. We provide quality service for our clients by staying abreast of accounting and tax law changes and by taking a proactive interest in the smooth financial management of your business. At 10,000 Lakes Accounting, we make it our goal to understand the individual needs of every client including addressing industry specific challenges, compliance needs and standard tax practices.

Mark S. Gleason, CPA

Mark Gleason has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1977 and has been helping taxpayers manage their tax burdens for over 25 years. Before that he worked for the Office of the State Auditor, auditing Minnesota cities and other local units of government. Over the course of a dozen years working for large national and regional CPA firms, Mark performed tax planning, tax research and tax compliance functions across a broad spectrum of industries including retail, manufacturing, construction, real estate, professional services, and wholesale. He has significant experience working with estates and trusts and with taxpayers needing IRS representation. His focus has always been on helping small, closely held businesses and their owners manage their federal and state tax income and employment taxes.

Mark has been teaching tax and accounting classes at Metropolitan State University since January of 1992. He has taught Business Income Taxation, Individual Income Taxation, Financial Accounting, Financial Reporting and Advanced Financial Reporting at Metropolitan State. In addition, Mark has presented CPA review programs for Kaplan CPA Review, has lectured at the Minnesota School of Business and is scheduled to begin teaching Business Income Taxation at the University of St. Thomas in the spring of 2008. Mark works as a consultant to accounting textbook publishers to help them make sure their textbooks are correct and works with their editors on test-banks and other supplementary materials for the students and instructors.

Mark is a former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives (1998 – 2001) representing District 63B (Richfield and South Minneapolis) and serving on the following legislative committees: Governmental Operations, Taxes, Regulated Industries, Local Government and State Government Finance. He currently serves as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association and for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Mark has a BA in Business Administration with an emphasis in Public Accounting from the University of St Thomas (1975) and a Juris Doctor degree from William Mitchell College of Law (1981). He has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1977. Mark is a member of the Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Mark is married to Shelley Ansorge and has two daughters, Kelly and Michele (ages 26 and 24). His favorite activities include cooking, brewing, hiking, reading, politics, and trying to learn Spanish. He gave up golf (about the time he met Shelley) as a courtesy to the other golfers. Mark loves rock ‘n roll music and frequently attends live performances. You will see him walking around Lake Harriet or Lake Calhoun on nice days.