About Kari Lim, CPA

I spent the first stretch of my career auditing financial institutions in the San Francisco offices of PwC and Deloitte. That is an unglamorous way to describe the best training available in investment accounting: when your job is to challenge how someone else valued an illiquid position or documented a hedge, you learn quickly what a defensible conclusion looks like — and what an indefensible one looks like three weeks before a filing deadline.

Then I went in-house, as Assistant Group Controller at Wells Fargo Bank and later as Senior Compliance Manager at Standard Chartered Bank in Korea. That is where I learned what auditing never quite shows you: how these positions are actually originated, recorded, and controlled day to day.

I have also worked in-house at Apple, leading SOX compliance and lease accounting for the Real Estate & Development organization, and as a consultant through The Siegfried Group, DLC, and RGP — including an engagement at Google on the revenue recognition workstream of a $5 billion M&A integration.

Kari Lim Professional Corporation exists so companies can get that specific expertise for exactly as long as they need it. When you engage me, I do the work — not a staff accountant with my name on the cover page.

Background

  • PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte, San Francisco — auditing banks, broker-dealers, hedge funds, mutual funds, and venture capital funds

  • Wells Fargo Bank — Assistant Group Controller, overseeing accounting for their investment businesses including Capital Markets, Private Clients, Mutual Funds, and Insurance

  • Standard Chartered Bank, Korea — Senior Compliance Manager

  • Apple — SOX Lead and Lease Analyst, Real Estate & Development

  • Google (through RGP) — revenue recognition workstream on a $5 billion M&A integration; SAP Treasury implementation for in-house banking

  • Consulting — The Siegfried Group, DLC, and Resources Global Professionals

  • Deep experience across — ASC 320/321/323 (investments), ASC 820 (fair value), ASC 815 (derivatives), ASC 606 (revenue), ASC 842 (leases), and SOX/internal controls

  • Licensed CPA, State of California — License No. 79022

  • University of California, San Diego — Bachelor of Arts in Economics with honors

How I work

I tell you when you don’t need me. If your question takes twenty minutes on a call, that’s what it takes. I’d rather be the person you call next year with the hard one.

I write for the reader who will challenge it. Every memo is drafted with your audit team in mind, because that’s who it has to survive.

I scope before I start. You get the deliverable, the timeline, and the fee in writing before any work begins. No surprise invoices.

I stay available afterward. Questions on a deliverable I wrote don’t start a new engagement.

Bay Area Based, Working Nationwide

Kari Lim Professional Corporation is based in Silicon Valley. I take engagements on-site throughout the Bay Area - San Jose, the Peninsula, the East Bay, and San Francisco - and remotely with clients anywhere in the country.