Meet the Team

Mark W. Zion |  Meredith B. Cox |  Diana Saine, EA |  Linda Brown
Nancy Turner |  Julie Zion |  Denise Ward |  Samantha Ridgeway

Mark W. Zion, EA
Business & Tax Counselor

Mark W. Zion E.A. Is the President and owner of Zion & Company, Inc. The firm was established in 1973 by his father Hugh W. Zion as General Business Services and presently employs eight professionals. The business counseling aspect of the practice provides business and financial management advice through financial statement analysis.

Mark's credentials as an Enrolled Agent have granted him the right to practice before the Internal Revenue Service at all administrative levels. This includes all representation matters with the IRS connected with clients' rights, privileges and liabilities under laws or regulations administered by the IRS. Mark received his designation by successful completion of the Internal Revenue Service Special Enrollment Examination (Historically only 30% of those who attempt the exam actually pass) along with maintaining ongoing continuing education requirements. In addition Mark Is an Accredited Tax Preparer (ATP) and an Accredited Tax Advisor (ATA) by the Accreditation Council for Accountancy and Taxation.

A hometown boy, native to Columbia, Mark attended Furman University in Greenville, SC as an accounting major. Mark Is married to the former Julie K. Miller of Columbia and has three wonderful children (His opinion of course). Mark Is an active member of St. Andrews Baptist Church, serving as a deacon and as the church's Treasurer. He serves as board member to the Harvest Hope Food Bank and serves also as its Immediate Past Chair. Fishing and automobile racing are vices that he pursues with vigor.

Meredith B. Cox
Business & Tax Counselor

Meredith just celebrated her seven-year anniversary with Zion and Company on January 9th of this year. "The relationships I have established throughout these years are what I cherish most. The people I've met and the Team here at ZCI are what make my job most enjoyable."

Meredith enjoys both mentoring and coaching clients. In fact, she has even taught Accounting, Statistics, and Business Math at two junior colleges. With additional experience in retail management and manufacturing production, Meredith Is well equipped to assist clients with a variety of business issues.

Meredith was an "Army brat" growing up and traveled around quite a bit. This nomadic lifestyle suited Meredith just fine, and she still loves to travel. And even though she has established strong roots in Columbia, not many people can say they met their husband-to-be in Alabama, received an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina, completed an MBA from Jacksonville State University, and even lived for a while in Alaska!

Meredith's family Is very important to her. Her husband Brad and two children, Grant (10) and Rachel (8), share her love for adventure.

Chapel Hill and Tarheel basketball are still near and dear to Meredith's heart. "I follow the team on television and have even been lucky enough to make a few return visits to the campus since graduation."

One thing you may not know about Meredith is that she is an accomplished pianist. In fact, the whole family loves music, and contributes to the music ministry of their church on a regular basis.

Diana Saine, EA
Tax Counselor

Diana joined the Zion Team 4 years ago, after moving to Columbia from the Washington, DC area. Diana has been in the income tax preparation business for 16 years, first at H&R Block for 3 years, then at a Northern Virginia CPA firm for 10 years.

Diana is a native of Texas and graduated from Baylor University with a double major in mathematics and English.

Diana and her husband Steve, have two daughters Cynthia and Margie. "Our girls are out on their own now, but despite the distance between us (Cynthia lives in Boston and Margie lives in Arlington, VA) we still remain very close."

Steve works in the golf tour business, arranging customized golf trips to Scotland, Ireland, etc. Diana is an avid golfer and regularly competes in women's amateur golf tournaments.

"Golf is a great way to meet people, get a little exercise, and have fun at the same time."

In 1994 Diana took and passed the IRS Enrolled Agents Licensing Exam, and maintains that license by taking the required CPE courses annually.

Linda Brown
Staff Accountant

Linda began her partnership with Zion & Company in 1997. Linda is our resident Quickbooks expert and works closely with Mark handling all of our corporate tax returns.

Linda holds an Associates Degree from Midlands Technical College in Accounting and has been doing corporate accounting for 21 years now.

Linda and her husband, Curtis, live in Lexington with their son, Christopher, and dogs, Emily and Sallie. Linda and Curtis are huge Gamecock fans, having just returned from the Outback Bowl in Florida. When it's not football season, they love to travel. Recently they've taken trips to France, Florida, and Kentucky.

Nancy Turner
Staff Accountant

Nancy has been with Zion & Company since 1999. She serves as a Staff Accountant, handling mostly client write up work, payroll quarterly reports, personal use of company car reporting, and Quickbooks consulting.

In her free time, Nancy and her husband, Al, like to travel. They've been all over the world during the last year, visiting Germany, Chicago and many other exciting places. When they are home, though, they enjoy spending time with their two grown children, David and Leara, and Leara's husband Wally.

Julie Zion
Staff Accountant

You could say Julie has been part of the Zion team since the beginning! Although she has only served as one of our Staff Accountants since 1997, she has been in the background supporting ZCI as Mark's wife!

Julie probably wears the most hats at Zion & Company! Her background is primarily in teaching chemistry at the high school level. But since she began her part-time work with Zion & Company, she only gets to teach in the form of tutoring. Julie also serves as the Women's Enrichment Ministry Consultant to the South Carolina Baptist Convention and coordinator at her church.

Her most important job is that of wife and mom! Julie and Mark have three lovely children; Renee, Matthew, and Sarah. She also loves cooking and gardening in her free time.

Denise Ward
Marketing Assistant

Denise came to Zion & Company in August of 1995 with a background in accounting and administrative work. She worked as an administrative assistant to Mark and Hugh Zion for three years before leaving to work with her husband and become a full-time homemaker. Denise is back now on a part-time basis, assisting us with marketing and bookkeeping.

She is very involved in her church as a choir member, soloist, and Sunday School teacher. She loves spending time with her husband, Glen, and two children, Trey (6) and Emily (4). Being a part of the Zion Team, gardening, exercising and reading are among her favorite past times!

Samantha Ridgeway
Administrative Assistant

Samantha, better known as "Sam", joined our team in August of 2000. Sam is originally from Orlando, Florida, but attended Columbia College as a Music Education and Vocal Performance major. She has been in administration for most of her career, realizing after the first student teaching clinicals, that she was better suited as an administrator than a teacher! She now has 15 years under her belt of experience, and finds her work at Zion & Company the most challenging and diverse of her career.

Sam does much more than answer phones for Zion & Company. She is our "Director of First Impressions" and is responsible for making sure our clients are considered first in everything we do. In fact, if she doesn't have the answer to your problem or question, she would be the one to find out who can!

As much as she enjoys her time with Zion & Company, Sam looks forward to the weekends when she can be with her family! Sam and her husband, Roger, live in Irmo with their two children Mack (15) and Olivia (5) and their miniature schnauzer, Izzy (1), who is definitely the baby of the family! Sam still enjoys music and is very involved in the music ministry at her church.