Alumni Q&A: Business founder TJ Nance combines valuable lessons from accounting, golf

Alumni Q&A: Business founder TJ Nance combines valuable lessons from accounting, golf

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Media Contact: Hallie Hart | Communications Coordinator | 405-744-1050 | [email protected]

TJ Nance took a chance in September 2023.

The two-time Spears School of Business graduate and former Oklahoma State University golfer was working for Accenture, a prominent global consulting firm. Then, an idea grew out of conversations with Amanda Rodriguez, a fellow leader in Accenture's Oklahoma City office.

They saw a gap in consulting services for mid-sized organizations in Oklahoma and built a firm designed to meet it.

Fewer than three years later, the coworkers' plan has materialized into LYT Group, an Oklahoma City-based consulting firm that recently hired its 18th full-time employee.

"This is the only business I've ever started," said Nance, a Certified Public Accountant who has his bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting. "You leverage the skills and those experiences that you've been stacking over the years - the failures and the successes - and then, you just pull all of that together and work relentlessly to make it successful."

When Nance talks about his 23-year career prior to founding LYT Group, he doesn't shy away from the challenges. After graduating from OSU in 2000, he joined Arthur Andersen, unaware that the firm would become embroiled in the Enron scandal of 2001. Years later, at Chesapeake Energy, he led an internal controls transformation during turbulent times.

Issues in business motivated Nance to help with solutions. After his time at Arthur Andersen and EY, he worked for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the regulatory entity that audits auditors. Today, Nance offers support to various businesses as the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Revenue Officer of LYT Group, pronounced like "light."

In a roundabout way, Nance ended up in this position because of golf.

Nance's favorite golf memories include being a redshirt freshman on OSU's 1995 NCAA champion team that secured a historic playoff win against Stanford and a freshman phenom named Tiger Woods. Although Nance didn't go on to play on the PGA Tour, his time as a young golfer opened doors to other opportunities.

TJ Nance (middle) supports Spears Business MBA students by visiting the Stillwater campus and judging case competitions.

Q: How did you decide to study accounting?

Nance: I knew what I wanted to study when I came to OSU, but how I got there is interesting. I lived in Stillwater, and I had been playing golf competitively since I was 9 years old. My dad worked out at Stillwater Country Club as an assistant pro, and I worked out there starting when I was 14 years old. I parked carts, and I cleaned golf clubs.

One of the individuals whose golf clubs I cleaned was Wilton T. Anderson, a legend in the accounting and academia world. He talked to my dad and told him, "Your son needs to go into accounting. It's a great profession, and I think he would do well there." He introduced my dad to Lanny Chasteen, who was the department head of the School of Accounting, and the rest is history. Dr. Chasteen was an incredible mentor to me and gave me a number of great opportunities.

Q: What lessons or challenges did you face as an OSU golfer that prepared you for your professional life?

A: It's funny, but I feel like I had a career before I even started my accounting career. When you're trying to compete at a very high level in anything, you understand really quickly that if you don't have the right amount of discipline, if you're not willing to put in the work, then it's just not going to happen. You're just not going to get any better. Being devoted to something as much as I was at such a young age, you have failures constantly, and then you recover from those failures, and you fail again, and then you learn that failure is not a bad thing. It's a way to learn.

Q: After working for large, established companies and organizations, how did you approach the process of becoming an entrepreneur and building LYT Group?

A: You almost have to go through the experience before you're ready, fail fast, make your adjustments and move forward. That's what we've done. I'm not sure that there's any book you can read that's going to truly prepare you how to become an entrepreneur and start your own business. Of course, maybe I'm saying this because LYT is a consulting firm, which is probably not the easiest business to start.

Things are going very well. Our growth has been exceptional. I would describe it, though, as riding a roller coaster without being strapped in. Through the highs and the lows, you'd better hold on. We don't let bumps in the road get in the way of being successful.

Q: Who are LYT Group's clients?

A: We're industry-agnostic. We work with just about every size of client. The smaller the client, the more we can help them holistically. The larger the client, the more we can help them surgically. Every single company has accounting and finance and IT and HR. They need to have a strategy, or they're probably going to have a hard time being successful. We help out in all of those areas.

Q: We also want to highlight your focus on philanthropy. What are some of the causes you support in the Oklahoma City community?

A: I was a former chair of Skyline Urban Outreach, and now I'm the treasurer. It is a food resource center in southeast Oklahoma City, right near downtown. It's an incredible organization.

The second one is Warriors for Freedom, which was founded by a good friend of mine. Its mission is to end veteran suicide. I've been the treasurer, and I'm still on the board.

LYT Group works with a number of nonprofits and donates time and money to them, as well. One of the big ones is the Boys & Girls Club in Oklahoma City. It's just cool to see these kids, whenever you're around them, how happy they are to have an organization like the Boys & Girls Club to be there and support them.

Q: Of course, you also give back to Spears Business. What motivates you to stay involved here?

A: Well, there's the selfish part - I just love being up here at OSU. But, it's the right thing to do. The university gave me so much, so many people who used to come and speak and mentor me, that I couldn't repay them. I'm trying to pay that forward. If I can come up here and make a difference in one person's life in a positive way, then I'm all about it.

Q: How would you describe your experiences judging MBA case competitions on campus?

A: It's so much fun. What shocked me was just how good these students are and the great ideas that they have. I would like to think maybe I was that sharp back when I was here in school, but I doubt it.

And, I've got to give a shout-out to MBA director Matt Bowler. What an incredible human being. He works his backside off building relationships, not only with students, but with alumni and donors, and it's paid off. You look at the online MBA program, top 10 in the country, and it's absolutely remarkable. It's always nice to support people and hope for the best, but whenever you see their successes, it makes you want to give back even more.

TJ Nance (left) sings the alma mater at OSU's School of Accounting Wilton T. Anderson Hall of Fame and Awards Banquet.

Q: You mentioned meeting your wife, M'Kayla, in Stillwater. You two are now preparing your kids, Carson and Elle, to be OSU students. What is your advice for Carson when he starts as a Spears Business student in the fall?

A: This is going to sound weird or unusual, but don't focus so much on grades. Focus on learning, and the grades will come. Don't be afraid to take that class that seems scary. Take it, maybe make your B, and learn something. You never know. You might take one of those classes and just absolutely fall in love with it. That can shape your career for the rest of your life.

I'm worried that students today don't get out enough and interact enough in person. So, I'll tell my son, "Get out of your dorm room or your fraternity house. Be around people. Build relationships. Relationships are going to do more for you for the rest of your career than anything else."