Laura Yamanaka

Laura Yamanaka is President and co-founder of teamCFO Inc., a financial and accounting firm offering CFO/Controller services to businesses and nonprofits. teamCFO was founded to improve performance and support the growth of the private business community.

Today, teamCFO has a dynamic group of professionals focusing on both growth issues and turnaround operations for its clients and offers a wide variety of operational accounting services to their clients including remote office support as well as onsite services.

Since its inception in 2000, Laura and teamCFO have received several national and regional awards including the NAWBO Gillian Rudd Business Leadership Award, NAWBO-LA Leadership award, Asian Business Leadership Award by Wells Fargo/US Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce and the Women in Business and Accountant Advocate Award by the SBA.

Laura’s career began with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young where she managed a diverse portfolio of clients and provided services including audit, mergers & acquisitions, litigation support, IPO and SEC projects and filings. Her extensive private industry experience includes tenures with GE Capital, Zenith Insurance, Quaker State Corporation and the Heritage Insurance Group where she served in various senior financial and operational capacities. Laura’s participation with numerous acquisitions in various roles including responsibilities for the financial assessment and integration to company-wide integration of all operations has given her the opportunity to drive strategic planning, assess business risks, integrate and streamline systems and processes.

A passion for education, helping others, and serving the community locally as well as nationally has also led to various volunteer efforts. Laura was also appointed to serve as a member of the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies, Council Member of the National Women’s Business Council, a non-partisan advisory council to the President, Congress, and the U.S. Small Business Administration on economic issues of importance to women business owners. Laura also has significant service with the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) serving as Chair of the National Association of Women Business Owners – National Board as well as serving on the Leadership Advisory board of NAWBO-LA.

As a long-time champion of financial literacy for women business owners, Laura has lectured on the subject to diverse audiences, including young girls who are aspiring business women. Laura also has developed school-based programs to teach teamwork and facilitation skills to students – bringing effective business skills to the classroom. Laura has been featured in various national publications and locally in the Los Angeles Business Journal, the Los Angeles Times and is an expert for the Los Angeles Times Small Business makeover series.