“He has been a guiding force and thoughtful counsel for those leading HLB for many years, and we are fortunate that he has decided to ” join HLB as CEO, commented Walter Herbst, founding partner of HLB. “Everyone is more than pleased with his very personal humanistic style, his sense of business, his acute awareness of client relationships, and his ability to take us where we all need to go.”

Mr. Pearson's professional experience encompasses a broad range of strategic and tactical endeavors in a wide variety of industries, including service, transportation, finance, commercial banking, travel, and product design and development. His most recent position was with Wheels, Inc., a privately-owned fleet management company, where he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. In this role, he was involved with all facets of Wheels' domestic and international businesses, which led them to become the industry's premier service providers.

Mr. Pearson previously worked for Continental Bank as a commercial lender. His management responsibilities included the securities and commodity firms, and exchanges in Chicago and on Wall Street. He assisted in the reorganization and restructuring of the bank's commercial finance services to metropolitan Chicago businesses, focusing on companies requiring asset based and leveraged buyout loans.

In addition to his directorship with HLB, Mr. Pearson has also served on numerous other boards during his career, including Frank Consolidated Enterprises, Wheels Inc., Priority America, Fleet Logistics Inc., American Automobile Association, Fleet Synergy Inc., Dynascan, Inc., and others.

Mr. Pearson obtained his MBA from the University of Chicago, with a concentration in finance; and his BSB in accounting from the University of Minnesota. He has taken numerous other courses in business and information technology at Harvard, Northwestern University, and the Wharton School of Finance.