Bauknight Pietras & Stormer, CPAs, Promote Lindsay Medlin, Paul Medlin to Principals

Listen to this article

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Bauknight Pietras & Stormer, P.A. (BPS) today announced that Lindsay Medlin, CPA, and Paul Medlin, CPA, have been promoted to the firm’s leadership team as principals effective January 1, 2024. Both are currently senior audit managers with the firm’s audit and assurance practice. With this announcement, BPS’s leadership team includes 17 individuals.

What makes these promotions unique is in addition to having a successful professional relationship at BPS, the Medlins are also married and recently added a new baby to their family. In the challenging profession of public accounting, this achievement is worth noting. However, at BPS, which was recently named among South Carolina’s Top Ten Best Places to Work among mid-sized companies, helping team members balance personal lives with professional growth go hand-in-hand.

Managing Shareholder Russell Bauknight says BPS has worked exceptionally hard to create a culture that supports individuals’ professional and personal goals, recognizing that work-life balance makes for a work environment where people excel. “Lindsay and Paul are a perfect example of what happen when people are not stressed out by work or home and instead know the firm has their back. Both are exceptional professionals, leaders and mentors to younger staff, and have earned their promotions to the BPS leadership team.”

A native of Columbia, Lindsay Medlin earned a B.S. and a master’s degree in Accountancy from the University of South Carolina (USC) Darla Moore School of Business. After working for a national accounting firm for a year, a role that included a heavy travel schedule, she joined BPS in 2013 as an audit associate. Today, she is the firm’s telecommunications and electric industry group leader, managing audit engagements, special projects, and internal and external trainings on the industry. Additionally, Lindsay Medlin works with clients in captive insurance, manufacturing and distribution, nonprofits, and mergers and acquisitions projects. Her business travel is now manageable.

Paul Medlin, a native of Columbia, also earned a B.S. and master’s degree in Accountancy from the USC School of Business. Post-graduation, he joined a national accounting firm as an audit associate. Though it was a great learning experience, he was traveling most of the year, which didn’t leave much time for his then girlfriend Lindsay.

“I saw the professional flexibility she had at BPS and decided to apply for a job there,” he says. “At the time, BPS was fully staffed but saw my potential and hired me.”

At BPS, Paul Medlin spends far less time traveling and has developed an active audit practice with clients in manufacturing and distribution, construction, and technology. He also performs employee benefit plan audits and works on mergers and acquisitions, business consulting, and financial modeling. While both Medlins are part of the BPS Audit and Assurance team and both achieved senior manager roles before their promotion to principals, they aim to keep their professional and personal lives separate, and between client onsite work and individual schedules, they don’t often see each other at work.

Says Lindsay Medlin, “Although we got promoted at the same time, we each did it on our own, while rooting each other on. Both of us being accountants, we understand and respect each other’s workloads and the long hours the job sometimes requires. This takes a lot of pressure off as both of us are competitive and have strong work ethics.”

The Medlins were put to the test in June when Lindsay was unexpectedly hospitalized for over a week before their baby was born six weeks prematurely. The newborn was in the neonatal intensive care unit for two weeks before coming home with his new parents. In all, Lindsay took 15 weeks of maternity leave and Paul took five weeks to care for their baby. BPS leadership never blinked and told both parents to do what they needed to do for their family; their work would get done by the team.

Today, the Medlins are back to work full-time at BPS and looking forward to January 1 when their promotions go into effect, and they assume more leadership and managerial duties. As for parenthood, they aren’t worried about making their busy, rewarding careers and family work.

“At BPS, your life and family come first,” they say.

About Bauknight Pietras & Stormer, P.A. (BPS)
Established in 1991, BPS is among the Southeast’s premier accounting and consulting firms and among the largest locally owned public accounting firms in South Carolina with nearly 100 Certified Public Accountants and professional staff. BPS is a strategic, trusted partner to clients in the insurance, construction and real estate, trusts and estates, hospitality, manufacturing, distribution, professional services, telecommunications, and technology industries. BPS is a member of Prime Global, an association of private accounting firms. The firm was recognized among America’s 50 Best of the Best Firms in 2020 by INSIDE Public Accounting, a top three advisory firm in the U.S. by Captive Review in 2023, and named among the top recommended tax and accounting firms in America by Forbes. In 2023, BPS was named among the top 10 Best Places to Work in South Carolina. Learn more at www.BPS.CPA