JAMES CRANE
AI NATIVE, ENTREPRENEURIAL AND GLOBAL TAX PRACTICE

James is a businessman first — and a rare-breed CPA with 25 years of experience working with businesses of all sizes, from U.S. startups to mature businesses with an international footprint. He has a pervasive knowledge of the entire investment cycle and serves his clients in whichever cycle they happen to be in - from the startup phase to the exit phase. His combined expertise includes accounting, tax, finance, M&A, the going public process, management, and entrepreneurship. His immediate focus is driving an all-in effort to advance artificial intelligence inside the accounting profession and across the industries his clients serve. 

 

For clients, James serves as a fractional CFO. He leads the firm’s global tax practice and has specific expertise serving venture and hedge funds, tech founders, real estate developers, active traders, and American entrepreneurs living and working abroad. He brings more than 30 years of tax and CFO judgment to guide decisions about when AI is the right solution versus structure, people, or process — and has saved clients more than $50 million in R&D tax credits.

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James began his career at Ernst & Young in external audit, founded his own practice in 2001, and joined Charles River CFO in 2014. He holds a B.S. in Accountancy from Bentley University and is a licensed CPA in Massachusetts.​