Our Team

My name is Andrew, and I am originally from Pittsburgh, PA. (Go Steelers!) I enlisted in the Marine Corps immediately following high school as a field radio operator and had the pleasure to be stationed on both the east and west coast during my career. My last duty station was with
a reserve component in the Philadelphia area where I served as the Communications Platoon Sergeant. During my time in the reserves, I attended college at Wilmington University for Accounting and Finance and began my career with State Farm as an Insurance Agent in 2015.

My wife and I decided to move to Wyoming to be close to family and be near all the great outdoor activities we love. This is when I discovered an opportunity at LEAF. I had interviewed with several other companies but what drew me to LEAF is the people and culture. I am excited to be a part of the team and help grow an already growing business! I have been married seven years to my amazing wife Shanyn who is also in the finance industry as an auditor. We have an adorable dog named Roxy that is a miniature pinscher mix. We love to enjoy the outdoors either camping or boating together. My favorite hobby is a tie between playing guitar or fishing.

Hi, I’m James Theisen, Last name pronounced “Tyson.” I have a varied background in both education and experience. My passion for education was in sociology, where I enjoyed learning to understand how people think, function, and respond to one another. My work experience has taken me from Orlando Fl where I worked for Disney, Universal Studios, and LEGO to Raleigh, NC where I have worked in special education and was a game master at a local board game café, Meeple’s Brew.

I am textbook nerd. My passions include video games, board games, reading, writing for fun, and watching content that increases my learning and passions. Related to video games, I have been a big Minecraft player for over 10 years, and have been a passionate Nintendo player since the mid 90s. Board games are my ultimate personal passion. My collection has well over 200 and I helped to maintain a library of over 500 board games at my previous job. I love playing them as much as I love teaching them. It is not easy to tell which is my favorite game at the time because there is always more to discover. I love reading, especially satirical fiction, and writing my personal reflections about the world. When I have time, I also enjoy engaging in content that increases my understanding of the world including science, math and writing podcasts and videos. I am always willing to try any new hobby, especially ones that engage my brain.

My hobbies have now transitioned to my greatest passion: my wife and kids. I have been married for almost 10 years and consider myself lucky to have found someone who views the world in a similar way but who challenges and supports me to be the best and better version of myself. We have two amazing kids, 7 and 4, who have started to adopt all of my nerdy tendencies. We love to play pretend, go on adventures, try new things, and get into their passions. They always come first as my focus and I am so honored to be their dad. I am excited to join the LEAF team and hope to be an asset to it. I was recommended the company through a friend, Sean, who has been with the business for a little while. After he explained the mission of the company and what the worked entailed, I was excited to learn more about it and to apply. I hope to use my understanding of people, my passion for learning new things and my skills at making connections to thrive at LEAF.

Hey There, My name is Ben Knighton and I have been the Sales Director at Leaf Specialty Tax Consultants since January of 2022. Working with Leaf has been such an amazing and fulfilling experience. In my current position, I thrive by meeting new people through networking, sharing ideas, and solution-based planning, as well as working closely with a team that is as passionate about helping others as I am. I have a background in business development and the transport industry my years before starting with LEAF. Those experiences helped me to cultivate a true understanding of people and a desire to build relationships based on trust, dedication, and values. I am married, with two daughters and we like to stay busy outside of work, too! My family and I enjoy sending time outdoors camping, fishing, and getting together with our family. We like to take trips and see the world as often as possible and to make sure that we never take life for granted. In a perfect world, I live in wide open space with my family and two dogs and we make awesome memories having fun and playing hard. In my downtime, I love to read and listen to audiobooks. My library consists of both fiction and non-fiction, though I enjoy reading some sci-fi fiction as well. Some of my favorite authors include Cormac McCarthy, Jack Carr, and Frank Herbert. Working with LEAF has been a great adventure so far and I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds. The more people we can help, the better.