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Baton Rouge, November 22, 2005 – This year’s 40 under 40 class is what every city in America is chasing: a diverse collection of highly educated individuals, who not only work hard but find time to give back to their city.

R. David Wascom, a partner with Hannis T. Bourgeois, LLP, was recently selected out of over 160 nominees as a Forty Under 40 winner.

David Wascom and his wife, Sharman, were born on the same day, December 13, 1968 in the same hospital within hours of each other. They were born and raised in the Baton Rouge area. Both attended LSU and majored in accounting, yet they did not meet until Wascom’s senior year. “It’s funny how that happens in life,” he says.

Wascom graduated from LSU in 1991. He immediately moved to Houston and worked as an internal auditor at Tenneco. After two years, he moved back to Baton Rouge to join his girlfriend and future wife. Since then, Wascom has held several executive level accounting positions with various firms before joining Hannis T. Bourgeois in 2001 as a senior manager. Wascom continued to climb the corporate ladder and, at the beginning of 2005, became HTB’s youngest partner.

Despite the profession’s reputation, he finds accounting to be rewarding and enjoys seeing local businesses achieve financial success. He particularly enjoys meeting business owners and helping them manage their finances. “I have a client who literally brings in a shoebox of records and documents,” says Wascom.

He also volunteers much of his time to nonprofit, community organizations. Wascom is the treasurer of the Baton Rouge Salvation Army and an active member of the Baton Rouge Rotary. In addition, he shares his love of the business world through his work with Junior Achievement. “I wish I could do more than that,” he confesses.

He was recently asked, “What are your professional goals for the next five years?” He replied that “I plan on getting more involved with charitable organizations and nonprofit community efforts. That’s my number one goal. If you give, you get back.”

When not at work or volunteering, his favorite hobbies are fishing and golfing. “My friends are shocked by how competitive I am outside the workplace,” he says.