A steady path: Spears Business Hall of Fame inductee Boelte builds notable accounting career from OSU to Paycom

Monday, August 4, 2025

Media Contact: Hallie Hart | Communications Coordinator | 405-744-1050 | hallie.hart@okstate.edu

Editor's note: The Spears School of Business is releasing a series of feature stories to celebrate the 2025 Spears Business Hall of Fame inductees and Outstanding Young Alumni. This is the first of six profiles leading up to the Oct. 10 ceremony.

Craig Boelte had a serious accounting job before he ever joined a firm.

His boss trusted him to be thorough and accurate in making calculations that would impact his profession’s future. Boelte, however, wasn’t crunching numbers for a big business — yet.

In the mid-1980s, he worked as a graduate assistant for Dr. Lanny Chasteen, an esteemed Oklahoma State University professor who co-authored six editions of the widely taught “Intermediate Accounting” textbook. With a new edition on the horizon, the professor assigned Boelte to proofread it.

The graduate student didn’t shy away from a tough assignment.

“It was interesting because I proofed not only all the questions, but then had to recalculate all of the answers,” said Boelte, a two-time OSU graduate. “They’re not all easy. I was able to work with him on some of those more difficult accounting problems.”

Building on that solid foundation, Boelte grew from a small-town farm kid into the chief financial officer of Paycom, a multinational human resources and payroll software company headquartered in Oklahoma City. Step by step, he advanced in the accounting industry, listening to his instincts and taking leaps when the time felt right.

Boelte, who retired from Paycom earlier this year, is entering the Spears School of Business Hall of Fame on Oct. 10 at the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center. As he prepares to accept the highest honor Spears Business can bestow, Boelte remembers the educators who laid the foundation for his path.

“There’s always different paths that you could take,” Boelte said. “And, you hope you end up on the right one.”

Boelte’s mentors guided him well.

From Lone Wolf to Stillwater

Forget the phrase, “little fish in a big pond.”

When Boelte stepped into his first OSU lecture hall, he might as well have been swimming in an ocean.

“I walked in, and there were 300 people,” Boelte said. “That was about half the size of the town I grew up in.”

Boelte arrived at OSU from Lone Wolf High School in southwestern Oklahoma. Back home, he was more of a “big fish,” the valedictorian in a graduating class of 21.

Although Boelte had no experience sitting in a room with hundreds of classmates, Lone Wolf prepared him for adulthood in an extraordinary way.

The small school offered an accounting class taught by an influential teacher he knew as Mrs. Roper. At a scholastic meet, Boelte had the chance to measure his accounting skills against students from other Oklahoma high schools.

“I placed first in one of the accounting meets, so I felt like I was pretty good at accounting,” Boelte said.

He isn’t the only family member who gravitated toward the profession. Boelte’s sister, Rhonda McCabe, has an OSU accounting degree and is now the CEO of a Texas hospital.

Despite his obvious skill, Boelte initially had a different plan. Growing up on a farm, he saw veterinary medicine as a viable career, enrolling at OSU on a pre-veterinary track.

Quickly, he changed his mind. Boelte wasn’t comfortable in a chemistry lab, but he remembered his knack for accounting. Changing majors, he worked his way through the 3/2 program, similar to today’s 4+1 pathways that allow an OSU student to obtain bachelor’s and master’s degrees in five years total.

Boelte realized he could stand out in a big pond. At the same time, he immersed himself in the campus community as a resident of Cordell Hall, the historic dormitory that displayed “Give ’Em Hell, Cordell” banners on football game days. He remembers playing tackle football in the snow outside the hall with his buddies.

As a graduate student, Boelte bonded with his professors, including Chasteen. Boelte described his mentor as a tough but fair grader, and Chasteen’s high standards showed the budding accountant how to make it in the business.

After obtaining his bachelor’s degree in 1985 and his master’s degree in 1986, Boelte went straight to work at a major firm. He joined Deloitte Haskins and Sells, which merged with Touche Ross to become Deloitte & Touche. Today, the Big 4 firm uses the stand-alone Deloitte moniker.

Boelte spent nine years with Deloitte & Touche, weathering the oil bust of the 1980s and advancing to senior tax manager.

Eventually, he was ready to open an accounting practice, working with a partner before branching out on his own.

One client changed his career forever.

Growing with Paycom

 Boelte connected with Chad Richison.

Both grew up hauling hay in rural Oklahoma until their fast-rising careers carried them from the farm into the office. In 1998, Richison founded Paycom, where he is the CEO and president.

When Paycom was one of Boelte’s clients, Richison noticed the accountant’s talent. The CEO presented an opportunity in February 2006.

“I sold my practice right before busy season started and went to work at Paycom,” Boelte said.

Paycom, then 8 years old, wasn’t the massive company whose distinctive green glow emanates from its Oklahoma City headquarters today. But, business was already booming, and Boelte had to keep up.

Sometimes, this meant finding physical space for the sales offices to expand. Once, he flew to Colorado for a generator, ensuring an ice storm wouldn’t leave Paycom without power.

“There were things that a traditional CFO didn’t necessarily do, but because we were a small company at the time and really growing, I ended up wearing several hats,” Boelte said.

In 2014, Boelte helped take the company public, which he describes as a career highlight. He and his fellow Paycom executives had the rare opportunity to ring the New York Stock Exchange bell. In 2018, Paycom landed in the top five of Fortune magazine’s list of the world’s fastest-growing publicly traded companies.

From Oklahoma City to the Big Apple, Boelte was going places.

Still, he never forgot about OSU.

Paying it forward

One of OSU’s most distinctive meeting rooms is on the Business Building’s fourth floor.

While one wall features an expansive, round-top window, the other is elaborately patterned with cow hides.

This is the Boelte Family Tack Room, which offers a fitting reminder of Boelte’s farm roots. He and his wife, Paula, recently provided the room’s naming gift, and it wasn’t their first contribution to Spears Business.

The Boeltes donated to Spears Business when the new building opened in 2018, and they invest in students through the Craig & Paula Boelte Scholarship in Accounting. Boelte, who was inducted into OSU’s School of Accounting’s Wilton T. Anderson Hall of Fame in 2019, stays busy in retirement because he’s a passionate philanthropist.

“There’s several reasons that you want to give back to the Spears school,” Boelte said. “Paula and I have donated to OSU throughout the years in different amounts, either through scholarships or to the business school or the accounting school.”

The Boeltes hold multiple causes close to their hearts. They are avid supporters of the arts, and they give to their church. They also made a significant donation to Mayo Clinic in support of their son, Hunter, who underwent treatment there.

“We’re trying to make a difference,” Boelte said.

Boelte spreads his contributions around, knowing one cause might impact another. His Spears Business scholarship, for instance, could fund the education of an accounting student who becomes a CFO or business leader. That person could become a prominent benefactor for cancer research and clinics, continuing Boelte’s mission.

One step leads to another.

For the Boeltes, the next personal step is moving to Rogers, Arkansas, where they will be closer to their son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

No matter where he is, Boelte finds value in reflecting on his path.

“It’s important to remember where you came from and who helped you get to where you are today,” Boelte said. “A lot of that is my family and also the people who inspired me in high school at Lone Wolf, as well as those people at OSU who really made a difference in my life and inspired me to be something good.”