Our Staff

Wendy Baumgartner began her career working in the Environmental industry Marketing field which is where her degree led her, realizing her abilities to reveal financial issues the company moved her into the accounting side where she quickly moved up the accounting ranks to becoming the West Coast Regional Accounting Manager. After starting a family Wendy decided to co-start Financial Connections which allows her a unique opportunity to work with business owners in multiple fields.

Professionally, she enjoys the challenge of identifying and solving problems, listening to the needs of business owners, and managing the firm. Wendy’s passion as a business owner is to promote small businesses, encourage the small business owners, develop accounting and communication skills, and to promote the firm as a group of talented and ethical professionals. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Marketing with thirty years of professional accounting experience.  She is an expert in the area of data analysis and handles large accounting contracts.

When not working, she loves to spend time with her family. Her favorite activities include going to the beach, concerts, UTVing and traveling.

Patti Pearse is an accountant with many years’ experience. She has worked for a variety of business which included manufacturing, non-profit and the service industries. After several years working in the accounting field, she returned to school and receive her Bachelors of Science degree in Accounting from Portland State.

She joined the team at Financial Connections in 2015 where she enjoys getting into the nuts and bolts of accounting/bookkeeping and making sure the details are correct. She is delighted to be able to take care the accounting needs for small business and entrepreneurs, so that the owners can do what they do best, run the business.

When she is not working she enjoys spending time with family, reading and her dog Ralphie.

Neal Hanson is an accountant with over 20 years of experience in a variety of accounting positions and varying industries. He got into the accounting field because he always enjoyed math and working with numbers. He moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2014 after spending most of his life in Northern California.
Neal joined Financial Connections in 2019 as a Staff Accountant where he takes pleasure working in all aspects of accounting. He is well versed on both the online platform of QuickBooks as well as Desktop.

When he is not working he enjoys traveling, camping, mountain biking, skateboarding, kayaking, watching sports, live music, and movies.

Theresa Magno-Mendoza is an accountant with many years of experience. She has worked in accounting for a variety of companies doing full-charge bookkeeping, payroll, tax preparation, and so much more. She has worked on the books for businesses in construction, manufacturing, retail, professional services, restaurants, motels, and even a non-profit school.
She joined the team at Financial Connections where she enjoys getting the books in order and keeping them that way.

When she is not working she enjoys traveling the world, spending time with her family, friends, and dogs. Her favorite places to go are the beach, and Europe. She plans to see the whole world.

Craig Chappel has worked with many different businesses and is always looking for the best way to refine a process. After finishing his education he recently returned to his home in Vancouver to enjoy the beauty of the Pacific Northwest. He loves understanding the full process of anything he is working on so he can assess the best solution. After he returned home he started working with Financial Connections in 2022 and is excited to work with a wide array of client’s books

In his free time, he enjoys endurance bike rides, plants and gardening, playing piano and gaming with his friends.

Natasha Leandre is the newest addition to join our team. She moved to Vancouver in 2015 after spending 8 years on the Oregon Coast. With a BA in business and accounting she has held many positions that contribute to her being a well-rounded asset to our team. She thrives in building relationships and helping clients solve their problems. Any task large or small will be handled with the utmost care and diligence to completion. Her attention to detail and ability to multitask bodes well for accomplishing the various tasks at hand. She feels honored and excited to have the privilege of working and growing with our team and clients.

When she’s not at work, Natasha loves spending time with her husband, 6 kids, and friends. Some of her favorite activities are hiking, camping, traveling, enjoying music or finding a moment of solace in her hot tub.