IN PLAY: Mark Gallegos, CPA, MST

Tax season just ended, and a 20-something Mark Gallegos, CPA, MST, was celebrating with a week of surfing with friends in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. One morning on the trip, he paddled into the Atlantic where he would encounter a trauma only a small percentage of the world’s population ever experiences: a shark attack.

“I felt something hit the board, and it dragged me under, thrashing me around,” Gallegos recalls. “It felt like it was happening forever, but it was really just a matter of seconds—then, all of a sudden, it let go.”

Fortunately, Gallegos’ board got the brunt of the attack, and he only ended up with stitches on both sides of his hand (the scars are still present to this day). Interestingly, the most shocking part of Gallegos’ story isn’t the shark attack itself, but what happened next: He went back out in the water the next day.

“I knew if I didn’t, I’d never go back,” Gallegos says. “I couldn’t let that fear stop me—I had to keep moving forward.”

That mindset has long guided Gallegos’ personal and professional life, helping him stay positive and come up with the best solutions for whatever challenge was at hand. It’s a trait that’s served Gallegos well in his 20-plus-year tax career: “Tax is really about people making decisions under uncertainty—it sits right at the intersection of business, law, timing, and human behavior.”

Gallegos, who currently serves as a tax partner at Porte Brown LLC, believes his career is less about calculations and more about judgment, perspective, reading the room, and emotional intelligence—all skills that have transferred into what he describes as the core part of his professional purpose: knowledge sharing.

“For me, knowledge sharing is the most powerful thing that’s out there,” Gallegos says. “As tax professionals, we’re involved with someone who’s building or selling something, or maybe navigating a very stressful transition—being invited into those moments is a big responsibility that I’ve always taken very seriously.”

His commitment to knowledge sharing has led Gallegos to become a sought-after public speaker at tax and accounting conferences across the country and positioned him to serve as a trusted media expert, where he regularly shares his expertise with various news outlets, including Bloomberg, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and others.

Though, despite his prevalence in the media and numerous public speaking engagements, it didn’t always come easy to him: “When I’d speak publicly in college, I was nervous, like where your heart feels like it’s going to jump out of your chest. Even after college, I’d do these lunch and learns at my firm that felt nerve-racking.”

Over time, Gallegos found the key to overcoming his nerves was to always be well prepared. He recalls a time when he was asked to do a “small talk” in Las Vegas: “It wasn’t a small talk, it was a big talk; I was really, really nervous, but I came prepared.”

In that moment, Gallegos realized that by sharing his expertise with an audience, he had the opportunity to teach, connect, and make an impact: “I had the platform, the microphone, and people were listening—whether they agreed or not. When I was done, I realized it wasn’t that bad, and I really enjoyed it.”

What began as a challenge has evolved into a passion, fueling his drive to share knowledge and connect with audiences wherever he goes: “It’s almost like a craft where I just want to keep practicing it. No matter who’s in the room, I get fired up to go and speak. I’m always hoping there’s a chance to inspire someone or give them something to walk away with.”

For others looking to be seen as thought leaders in the profession— whether on stage or in the media—Gallegos says the best place to start is by writing and getting more involved: “No one’s going to take you seriously if they don’t think or know you have a message that’s relevant and coherent.”

Being a longtime active member of the AICPA and the Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS), Gallegos is no stranger to professional involvement. In fact, he’s been a dedicated ICPAS media expert for several years now and is beginning his first year on the ICPAS Board of Directors this spring. For him, it’s a chance to give back to a profession that’s given him so much: “It gives me a voice to say how we should keep moving this profession forward. We’ve all benefited from it, we all continue to benefit from it, so how do we inspire others to want to come into it and do the same thing but even bigger and better?”

As Gallegos embarks on his new leadership role, his commitment to advancing the profession echoes back his belief in facing fears head on and moving forward: “My hope is that people will continue to walk away believing that a meaningful career in accounting isn’t about a perfectly planned path—it’s about curiosity, courage, generosity, and being willing to grow even when it’s uncomfortable.”