Qualifications
EDUCATION
BBA Accounting- University of Texas at Arlington
CERTIFICATIONS
Certified Public Accountant, Texas
Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisor
Certified Financial Planner
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants
Commercial Real Estate Women
The Real Estate Council
Financial Planning Association
MARKETS OF EXPERTISE AND SERVICE AREAS OF FOCUS
Real Estate & Construction, Estate and Gift Planning, Tax Compliance, Tax Planning and Advisory, and Business Advisory
Background
Before coming to Saville, Brenda S. Blake was the CEO and Financial Architect at B&J Financial Services. With over 35 years’ experience, Brenda is a highly respected CFO level financial manager, providing profitability guidance and operational leadership. In addition to traditional CFO responsibilities, Brenda has been involved in sourcing debt and equity financing for developers and real estate investors nationwide and coordinated their deal closings from beginning to end. While her experience includes extensive institutional and capital markets transactions, her passion has always been in working with entrepreneurs, which is why she founded B&J Financial Services in 2009.
Before B&J Financial Services, Brenda held several CFO positions, primarily within the real estate industry. Brenda’s experience includes working as CFO for an institutional developer of both multi-family residential and commercial properties throughout the United States. As CFO, Brenda was responsible for financial analysis, investor and lender relations, and management of a $100 million-dollar asset portfolio. Brenda began her career in the audit department of KPMG (formerly known as Peat, Marwick, Mitchell).
Brenda Blake is a nationally recognized author and has received several professional distinctions, including the ‘CPA of The Year Award,’ by the TSCPA Fort Worth Chapter, the ‘Accounting Excellence Award,’ from the TSCPA Foundation, the ‘Future Vision Award,’ from CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) in 2010, ‘Most Valuable Player Award’ from CREW in 2011 and Brenda received CREW’s most prestigious honor: the ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ in recognition of her life body of work in 2017. Additionally, Brenda was one of the national winners of the Enterprising Women of the Year awards in 2017.
B&J Financial Services was a certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) and member of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. B&J was also certified as a HUB by the State of Texas.
Brenda graduated with highest honors in Accounting from The University of Texas at Arlington. She is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified QuickBooks Pro Advisor. Most recently, she earned the Certified Financial Planning designation to better serve clients with estate, income tax and trust planning issues.
Brenda enjoys spending time with her two sons, daughters-in-law and four grandchildren. She recently completed a 100-mile charity bike ride raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Brenda is a past Board member of CREW, a past Trustee for CREW in the Community (a 501(C)-3 organization), a past Board member of DREM (Dallas Real Estate Ministries) and CIPS (Christians in Public Service). She is also a member of 4Word and TREC (The Real Estate Council) and is active in her church.