About Us
Our mission is to add value to each and every client by utilizing our extensive experience, expertise and specialized training to deliver excellent, timely service in a focused manner designed to specifically meet their needs.
The Vineyard Group service team is made up of seasoned, talented financial and business professionals with well over 100 years of combined public accounting, executive, entrepreneurship and financial industrial management experience. Each team member is a Certified Public Accountant with a long and proven track record of excellence.
In the complex and complicated business and legal world that we live in, it is valuable and often necessary to be able to bring expert resources to achieve desired results or solve a problem. General knowledge and experience, while providing a solid foundation, is no substitution for specialized training and experience.
Accordingly, each member of the Vineyard Group team has developed expertise and experience in a focused service area. Furthermore, the Vineyard Group and each member of its service team have made the long-term commitment of time and financial resources to complete an extensive certification process. As a result, they have each earned a professional designation that validates their unique and special knowledge, training and commitment to excellence. Each designation required extensive training, testing, case study work and mandates annual continuing education to maintain these credentials.
The Vineyard Group team has established close professional ties with the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts (NACVA), the Institute of Business Appraisers (IBA) and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).
Mr. Thomas P. Benson CPA, CVA, CFFA, CMAP, the Managing Director of the Vineyard Group, has recently completed the certification process with the middle Market Banking Institute to earn the designation of Certified Merger and Acquisition Professional (CMAP). Mr Benson is also a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) and a Certified Forensic Financial Analyst (CFFA).
Joining Mr. Benson on the Vineyard Group team are John F. Whipple, Jr., CPA, CVA; Robert J. Gunderson, CPA, CFE, BVAL (Business Valuator Accredited in Litigation); Scott D. Reed, CPA, CFFA (specializing in Fraud Prevention and Detection); and Michael D. Staley, CPA, CFE. CFFA and CVA are designations of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts, CFE is a designation of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and BVAL is a designation of the Institute of Business Appraisers.
The Vineyard Group is an affiliate of Buffamante Whipple Buttafaro, P.C. 
(BWB), the largest certified public accounting firm in Southwestern New York with offices in Jamestown, Olean and Orchard Park. Accordingly, the vast professional resources of BWB are available to supplement and enhance the primary Vineyard Group team on an as needed as desirable basis.
