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Foreword
The financial services profession is, at its heart, about making dreams come true. Dreams of creating a secure future for loved ones; of achieving personal wealth that enables individuals to experience everything from extreme adventure vacations to helping others in a significant way; of establishing businesses that enrich employees, shareholders, community and the markets they serve. The financial services profession translates those dreams into black and white, puts them onto spreadsheets, into policies and portfolios, and helps them become reality. Finance, for the purpose of this book, includes the entire spectrum of accounting firms, commercial banks, insurance providers, investment banks, brokerages and specialty professional firms. Not so long ago, these were distinct entities with specific functions. But over the past decade or so, this industry has changed a great deal. Successful professionals have had to adapt to a changing marketplace; one where the average worker participates in the stock market, where banks sell insurance and insurance providers offer retirement accounts, and individuals decide where to invest their retirement plan assets. In such a diverse and vibrant arena, there are many paths to success. On the pages of this guide, you’ll find executives from many different disciplines sharing the steps on which their career path took them—whether those steps were taken as a result of careful forethought or in agile reaction to some of the truly seismic shifts that have altered the financial services landscape over recent decades. In addition to major changes in how the industry operates, generational shifts are creating exciting opportunities in the field now and for many years to come. There are essentially four generational “waves” impacting financial services today: • The first wave is one of the largest wealth transfers in history. It is estimated that boomers will inherit trillions of dollars from their parents’ estates over the next few decades.
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• The second wave is the retirement of the boomers. This massive demographic has already begun to retire, but most of its number is expected to live well into their 90s. This decades-long, post-employment period is creating new challenges and opportunities for the financial industry. • The third and fourth waves are the Gen Xers and Millenials. These generations represent exciting prospects as they work to secure their financial futures, buy homes and send their kids to college. Many financial services companies are anxiously eyeing their experienced baby boomer employees and representatives, and wondering where their replacements will come from. The upcoming exodus creates a great opening for people looking to enter the lucrative world of finance. Perhaps you’ve already decided you’d like to be part of this exciting, evolving industry and are looking for some tips on how best to get ahead. Speaking from my own experience—and as the president of the Society of Financial Service Professionals—I believe there are three factors within your control that will make all the difference.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Foreword
These factors—education, ethics and networking—are the core values of our society. First of all, there is no true profession that doesn’t require continuing education. Excellence in this field requires indepth understanding of complex and sophisticated tools, products and regulations. Continuing education provides that understanding and keeps financial service professionals at the top of their game. Having good professional ethics is another key component of success. For many in this business, our livelihoods are based upon the relationships we’ve built with our clients. In the long run, making sure you wouldn’t have a problem telling your client about any action you’ve taken is the best recipe for continued success. Networking is the final critical “leg” supporting professional success. Whether you work for a multinational operation where your colleagues are on the other side of the globe or you are an entrepreneur working for yourself—and both are real possibilities in the financial services profession—you will need to build those crucial relationships to help to advance your career. Look for opportunities to be part of your professional community—it will pay off in surprising and worthwhile ways. This guide can serve as a one-way version of that networking. An eclectic mixture of executives from a broad range of companies provide an excellent peek into the finance world, its positives and negatives, talked about in rare moments of truth. Students looking to enter this field can gain extraordinary pieces of advice and tips on how not only to cope with its sometimes intense demands but also on how to find work/life balance amid those demands. Wishing you success in all your endeavors,
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James J. Tyrpak, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, AEP 2007-2008 President Society of Financial Service Professionals
Introduction
What makes a good leader? Perseverance? Hard work? Tenacity? An opinion? Someone who mentors her staff until they surpass her in skill and knowledge? All this and more is encapsulated in the pages of View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals. These finance professionals serve as chief executive officers, senior directors, partners, shareholders and vice presidents across the finance industry. They were asked to discuss their career, their experiences on the way to the top echelons of the financial world, how they balance work and their personal life, and what it has all meant to them professionally as well as personally. Finance was defined to include accounting, investment banking, commercial banks, specialty services firms and insurance providers. We received many candid responses concerning balancing a family life and professional excellence in the financial world, while others focused on emphasizing academic excellence and solid knowledge of the many products offered by the industry. What connected them all was the repeated insistence on diligence, hard work and accurate knowledge of the many functions and skills required. Build your knowledge bank While it might be unsurprising to advise an aspiring finance professional to concentrate on grades, one executive says, “However corny it may sound, you really have to study hard and get good grades in order to get a better job.” A basic education and skill set lays the foundation for an individual, especially in a highly regulated industry like finance, where the multitude of products and services can be bewildering without proper knowledge. As one of our interviewees says, “It isn’t like the retail world, where if you are a good talker, you can sell anything.”
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They also emphasized gaining a well-rounded academic experience and taking courses outside the main workload. “Whether it’s understanding how marketing works or organizational behavior or business strategy, make sure you branch out in school. At first it won’t feel like the right information to really understand, but over time you’ll tend to use it more than you think.” Getting soft skills on the job—even through failure While college teaches the hard skills or the technical aspects, the soft skills can be acquired only on the job itself. “School prepares you for the technical aspects of your job, but the job teaches you the practical application of it,” says one executive while another aptly states, “we come out of school as technicians and we understand our trade, what we’re not trained well to do in many cases is to communicate, a very basic skill needed to be successful.” Communication, delegating, building and maintaining relationships with clients and co-workers are some of the aspects that you learn on the job. Accepting and learning from bad decisions and failure was another topic of discussion. “Learn from your mistakes and failures, but don’t dwell too long on your successes. Experience is obtained through learning from both failures and successes,” says a CEO.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Introduction
It’s your career—be proactive Volunteering for assignments, accepting new job responsibilities and the willingness to consider the company’s success your own priorities when our interviewees were asked for advice. One of our executives crafted her own climb in the company by suggesting areas of improvement and demonstrating the willingness to reassign herself and craft her job around what the firm required for its growth. “I was an individual that was always looking for ways for the firm to provide more and more resources to our field personnel, and I was vocal on [the] best practices that we should implement,” she says about her proactiveness in creating her own niche within the firm. Another director relocated from New York to Chicago, predicting a two-year stint before he returned to the city he grew up in and never originally thought of leaving. He instead ended up moving around the globe to London where he spent six years before returning to Chicago. “I always thought that it would be two years in Chicago—I’d never been there before—and I would, of course, move back to New York. Ten years later, after spending six years in London, I am back in Chicago,” he says. Respondents also emphasize the need for flexibility if you want to grow with the company. Like one interviewee says, “Embrace your career; don’t treat it like a job. Take ownership of it. Don’t wait for things to come to you. You need to aggressively go for it.” Finance is boring?—acknowledging the myth Most of the executives interviewed vocalized their concerns and surprise at how misunderstood the finance industry is. “I’m always surprised that I frequently have to be on guard against assuming people know what I think they know, and really try to explain to them in fairly simple terms how things work,” says one executive. Another individual expressed concern over the traditional attitude about the industry viewed as a strictly number-crunching institution. “It’s not just about numbers. It’s also cultivating and growing relationships with my colleagues, my clients and the business community,” he says. Traditionally, accounting has had to deal with the stigma of being boring and straitlaced. Not so anymore, with corporate America becoming technologically more savvy, the finance field, including accounting, has slowly but surely begun to attain a more smart, techno-savvy image. Wall Street has been hiring public relations and advertising firms to change its “boring” image for a while now, yet misunderstandings remain. The work/life balance—attainable With the long hours and working weekends, it has often scared many graduates from stepping into the finance field for fear of losing all that’s important to them personally. Yet these executives not only are successful professionally but also have managed to have a steady family life and keep their personal interests intact. While they all stressed the importance of a work/life balance, what they all differed in was their approach to achieving that. “You can’t have a calendar for work and a calendar for home; you need a calendar for life,” says one woman executive. She asserts the need to prioritize days, activities and have one big picture. Another executive offered an example: “Work/life balance can be compared to filling a container (time) with rocks and pebbles. The rocks signify the major items in your life and those are placed into the container first. Once those are placed, the less important items, or pebbles, find their space. The key is making sure the important items go in first.”
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Introduction
Another executive feels, the word “balance” implies that you have to give up something that’s very important to you to be able to conduct your life. “Step back and ask yourself what is really important to you professionally, personally, spiritually and physically. There are certain things that just aren’t that important, so take the burden off yourself and say, ‘I don’t have to do this,’” she advises. Others suggest taking full advantage of benefits like time off, from a CEO who feels that, by taking a vacation himself, he is telling his workers that it is okay to have other interests in life and that it isn’t all about work, to another respondent who describes how he has always kept Friday nights exclusively for his family. Yet another executive suggests, “You’re going to have periods in investment banking when you’re really busy and then you’ll have a free weekend or two, and if you stay in touch with your friends, and they invite you for a weekend getaway, you should be able to spontaneously say yes, knowing that you might not get the chance again soon.” Communication was yet again highlighted as a core element of keeping the balance. From one partner who travels a lot calling his wife religiously every day to a director who makes sure his spouse knows his schedule so there were no surprises, they all stress that in a work life full of curve balls and sudden developments, it was essential to keep the family in the loop. One interviewee chose an idiom to define the fine balance: “You need to be able to see the forest through the trees, and in order to do that, you really need to have a balance between work and your life outside of work.” Know that you are making a difference—it’s more than a “deal” While executives spoke about the importance of hard work, etc., they also stressed the importance of self-confidence and knowing that what you do is contributing to the bigger picture. As one of them says, “Everything you do has an impact on someone and it’s important to understand that, and to value the significance of the impact you might be having.”
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Another executive describes the feeling he gets after a good deal as very rewarding. “Knowing the transaction you’re doing likely is the most important transaction your client is going to do in their entire life and being able to work with them when they’re going through the entire emotional roller coaster of the deal is rewarding,” he says. Even if you are starting at the bottom, they say, know that you are part of the bigger project and that each efficient detail you craft and every suggestion you implement can impact the company in an irreversible way. Find mentors Most of our interviewees acknowledge the importance of having mentors in their lives. While most companies today offer formal mentoring programs, our respondents emphasize informal mentor-mentee relationships, noting that most successful relationships result from a gradual informal interaction rather than a rigid assignment of a senior executive in the company by the human resources department. They also stress being proactive in seeking someone that you want to emulate to become your mentor. “Make sure you have a direct conversation with your mentors and say, ‘I’d like you to help me along the way,’” one interviewee says. When you approach someone, however, they caution that you make sure they are someone you respect and would like to emulate, be it in skills, decision-making or personality. “You want to deal with someone who feels comfortable with you in terms of his or her personality traits as well as [his or her] skills sets. If you’re a mentee, you want to seek someone out who can help you provide those intangibles to make you more successful,” says a managing principal.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Introduction
Others encourage mentees to seek professional associations and alumni groups to find someone outside their industry. One executive says it is important to ask for constant feedback, noting that “feedback is not always an easy thing to hear, but you can’t improve without it.” Words of advice for the next finance wizards—take charge There are many sacrifices and joys in making it to the top. Those who have the capability will need all of the skills, time management abilities and leadership qualities. They advise prudence in assuming the level of competition in the industry and suggest narrowing down what you enjoy doing before picking a career based on remuneration or appeal. One interviewee notes that the financial field requires longtime commitments, adapting to a busy, rigorous lifestyle that often leaves no time for oneself and family, and, many times, postponement of personal plans to accommodate professional deadlines. “Figure out what your strengths are, what it is you want to do and how much of your time you’re willing to devote to this before you pick the career,” he advises. These finance heads, who have anchored many important mergers and acquisitions, crossed many accounting hurdles and pioneered the complex arsenal of products offered by investment and commercial banks, are clearing the path for the future. They all found their niche in this vast industry. It is now your turn.
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ADVICE FROM FINANCE PROFESSIONALS
VIEW FROM THE TOP
Amper, Politziner & Mattia, P.C.
Bridget Day—Officer, Accounting & Auditing
Officer Bridget Day works in Amper, Politziner & Mattia’s Edison, New Jersey, office. With over 19 years of public accounting experience, she currently serves various banking and SEC clients in the manufacturing and distribution industry in addition to a variety of other service industries. She is a member of the firm’s quality assurance team for SEC and other engagements as well as the leader of the firm’s banking industry group. Ms. Day previously practiced with an international accounting firm for more than 13 years, serving as senior manager in the national risk & quality—SEC services group, with an emphasis on banking and other financial services. Ms. Day is a consultant for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and often leads discussions for other accountants in certain technical areas, with an emphasis on banking-related curriculum. Ms. Day was recently appointed to the SEC Practice Committee of the New York State Society of CPAs, which focuses on reporting, disclosure and governance requirements of public companies and their executives, and CPA qualifications to practice before the SEC and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. She is also a founding member and vice chair of Baker Tilly International’s financial institutions committee. Ms. Day is a member of the American Society of Certified Public Accountants, the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. She is also a founding trustee and treasurer for the Franklin Township Foundation of Educational Excellence, which serves her Somerset, New Jersey community.
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Ms. Day received her BS in accounting and associate’s degree in business administration from St. Francis College, where she graduated magna cum laude.
Q&A with Bridget Day
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
Perseverance, dedication and drive are essential. I have identified people that possessed traits that I aspire to attain. I learned when to let them lead me and followed them when necessary. For example, I interviewed with a gentleman when I was in college and ended up working for him once I got to my first firm. I started at the Big Eight at the time, and as he progressed through the firm, and took various career paths, I followed him. He was influential in getting me positions on engagements with a lot of exposure and with challenging issues. In some ways, his success helped my success. My advice: Determine what qualities you aspire to, find them in someone, albeit a mentor, i.e., someone more senior than you and then ask for their advice or follow their example. Ultimately my mentor ended up heading the firm’s regional office and the practice in which I was a part. So what helped me get somewhere was being able to take a step back and identify what I wanted to be when I grew up as a professional, and then find people who possessed those qualities. Then I asked for their advice and followed in their example.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Amper Politziner & Mattia P.C.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
I learned to be flexible. It’s really important to realize that the day you start out with might not be the day you’ve ended up with. You need to prioritize. One thing that is essential for both my professional and personal life is my value system, and that’s something I learned from my family. I always tell everybody you can’t have a calendar for work and a calendar for home, you need a calendar for life. The only way to make work/life work, particularly as people get older and have other distractions apart from work, is to take your value system and apply it to everything.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
Most rewarding is the ability to interact with such a diverse number of companies. When you work with 100 clients in 20 industries, you learn every day. I tell people often that I get smarter every day.
What would you most like to change?
The deadlines. There are constant deadlines and my to-do list never ends. Some things get done due to passage of time, some things get done because I actually do them, and some things fall off the list because they aren’t necessary anymore, but the list never ends. I wish the deadlines weren’t so hard and fast and often, and that my to-do list got done in its entirety once in a while.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
They need to be approachable, intelligent, definitive, opinionated, personable and they need to have a good value system. I absolutely believe they need to have an opinion. It doesn’t have to be opinionated in a negative way, but in order to lead you need to be able to make decisions and communicate those decisions, including your thought process for your conclusions and ideas. That is not to say that other people cannot have opinions and you may be influenced to change your mind. You also need to be a good listener. But I think it’s important for people to have an opinion. You can’t be wishy-washy. That doesn’t really inspire people to follow you, it doesn’t instill confidence in your abilities and it doesn’t afford your business the opportunity to grow.
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What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
You need to schedule your life. It all needs to be one picture. As a professional, you don’t work between particular hours and then get to go home, conversely you don’t have children or parents or activities that only happen after you leave the office. Its one big life. Sometimes I need to volunteer at the school for read-alouds during the middle of the day, sometimes I need to have a repair done on my car or home in the middle of the day, and sometimes I have to go to a work function at night. It’s a matter of prioritizing and using your value system as a guide. So keep your value systems intact at all times and remain professional. Also, I really value both my work and family life, so I have a heightened awareness of how lucky I am. Obviously there have been some financial opportunities resulting from being a working mom. I’ve been able to provide some nicer opportunities for myself, my children, my husband, my dad. There are some days when it’s tough to juggle and there are days when the work/life balance doesn’t seem to be working. There are days when you wish you could work all the time and days when you wish you could be home all the time. But, overall, working has enabled my family to have a lovely home, nice vacations, good educations for my children, and some continuous learning and pride for me personally. It serves a lot of purpose for all of us, but I’d be naïve in saying that it’s perfect all the time. I treasure my time with my family. I think my work—my girls are young, they’re 7 and 9— is fairly seamless to them. They know mommy works but I think they’re proud of the fact that I do.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Amper Politziner & Mattia P.C.
Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
You need to be flexible; you need to keep one constant calendar that you share with your family. The only way it works is that I inform my family where I am going to be and when. I only keep one cell phone. I know a lot of people have different mobile technologies but trying to maintain a variety of phone numbers and things is just confusing so one calendar for everybody, a really good reliable car that gets me back and forth, and a support system, some really good friends.
What has surprised you the most about working in your industry?
I started out at PricewaterhouseCoopers and now I work at Amper, Politiziner & Mattia, which is a big change as far as firm and client th size. I was at the biggest firm in the world and now I am at the 30 -largest firm in the United States. I went from being part of a firm that probably has 40,000 professionals to one that has 400 to 500 professionals, and what surprised me is that despite its obvious differences a lot is exactly the same. I’m still using the same reference material; I’m still using the same thought processes, my clients face similar issues and I’m referring to the same research tools. So a lot of people are really concerned about “what if I don’t get into the big four?”, “what about a national firm, what about a regional firm?” Before I came to Amper, I didn’t really have any awareness of anything outside the Big Eight; because I started there out of school, that’s all I knew about, that’s all I was interested in, but now I know better. Amper is my home away from home What really surprised me about Amper is that it’s a really great place with really smart people and I knew nothing about it. On a more personal level, what surprised me is how small the world of public accounting is. It’s a very traditional environment with a lot of hardworking people no matter how big or small the headcount.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in public accounting?
It’s a wonderful option. The immense diversity of clients and colleagues is unsurpassed. At any one time I could be working with 10 or 12 different clients, it’s amazing. I get to see not only who prepares a company’s financial statements but also how they run their business, and no matter what your long-term goals are, whether you want to be an officer or a partner in a public accounting firm or whether you want to be a COO somewhere, that exposure is invaluable. I get to see how manufacturing company “A” makes their product and how manufacturing company “B” makes their product and that enables me to come up with best practices, even if you don’t have the long-term aspiration of becoming a partner or officer, and you can use that knowledge wherever you might be in the private sector.
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Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
Both. The man that hired me out of college ended up being my mentor for years. Twenty years later I am still in touch with him, he still is an influence in my life. I respect him. He left public accounting to be COO with a bank and I left the same firm [PwC] and came to Amper, so despite our change in career paths, he can still offer advice to me. As far as mentoring others, I do try and do that, particularly in public accounting where there are very few women in senior positions.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
You need to find someone that you respect and you need to find someone with qualities that you aspire to. It’s not necessary that you like everything about them but instead that there are certain qualities about them that you know you’d like to learn more about or you’d like to emulate yourself. A lot of times, at public accounting firms, we are prompted to get involved in the community and specialty groups or technical groups. I always tell everyone, only join the ones you have a passion for. So if you’re really an avid cancer research advocate and you want to volunteer in your community, volunteer at a cancer research organization. There are networking opportunities everywhere. Don’t volunteer for the heart walk just because it’s a great cause. You need to be passionate about it for it to work. Similarly, don’t pick a
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Amper Politziner & Mattia P.C.
mentor who is a good person but isn’t the professional you want to be because then you won’t have as much in common and you won’t be honest with each other during your interactions.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in public accounting? What would your dream career be?
I do Irish dancing, my maiden name was Quinn and I am first generation American. Irish culture was very important in my family and to me personally; it still is. Just when I was about to graduate from college, the first Riverdance came out. I knew some of the people who danced in Riverdance and I knew Michael Flatley. I had an opportunity to try out for the production. But I decided that there was no future in Irish dancing; I decided I was going to become an accountant. Now Michael Flatley owns a castle and I work at Amper! I also considered being an attorney for a while but law school scared me away. I really wanted to get out there and work, I went through college in three years; I took a semester of advanced credits from high school with me, and then went to school over the summer. I worked and I commuted to school, and I just wanted, for whatever reason, to be done with school. When I heard that law school was another three years on top of that, I said no, accounting’s good.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
The accounting profession is always going to be a necessity. Regardless of whether a business does well or not, they’re going to need people to count the beans, people to help them disclose their information in an informative and useful fashion to the public. If people are going to make decisions on companies for investing and other reasons, the only way to do that is with useful data. With the overabundance of available data out there someone needs to get to the important stuff. One of our jobs as public accountants is to sort through that data and decide what’s accurate and what’s useful and what can help make people make the best decisions possible so that companies can do well and the economy can thrive.
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Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc.
Tracy Lowery Whille—Global Director of Compliance
Global Director of Compliance Tracy Lowery Whille joined Bear Stearns after spending four years at Lehman Brothers as the director of fixed income and mortgage capital compliance. Prior to that, Ms. Whille spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs working in the fixed income currency and commodities compliance department as a senior compliance officer and in the controllers department as a manager of proprietary accounting and risk analysis for fixed income products, both in the U.S. and Asia. Ms. Whille is a member of the FINRA Fixed Income Committee, SIFMA Compliance and Legal Executive Committee, and the FINRA Compliance Advisory Group. Ms. Whille received her MBA and a BS in accounting from Seton Hall University.
Q&A with Tracy Whille
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
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I began my career with an accounting degree and a MBA with a concentration in finance. My first job was a financial analyst at a competing firm serving in a proprietary accounting and risk analysis role. I supported the fixed income markets and after a few years, I moved to the Japan office to undertake a management role in a similar department. When I returned, I was asked to take a senior role in compliance supporting fixed income. The role was similar in that it was still in the fixed income space; however the focus was much different. I was now responsible for the legal and regulatory aspects of the business as opposed to the financial aspects. I utilized my experience and skills in the financial arena as well as my expanding product knowledge to tackle my new role. After five years, I was recruited by another firm to set up a fixed income compliance department. Another four years after that, I was approached by Bear Stearns to set up a similar department. Within the first six months, I was promoted to the global head of compliance at Bear Stearns.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
I think in the classroom people usually take very little risks whereas in the business world, in order to be successful, people need to take risks, show initiative and strive to achieve their fullest potential. Sometimes in the classroom, people become too focused on gauging their performance solely on a grade, and this may limit their ability to excel and grow.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
The most rewarding aspect of my career is managing to find balance in my life between my career and my family. I work in an extremely fast-paced and challenging environment, and I am blessed to not only have a successful career but also a good family life.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
It is important for a good, effective executive to be open-minded, a self-starter, determined and well rounded.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
I’m the mother of three boys, and as a woman in a high-profile industry at a high-profile firm, my boys see the role of women in a totally different light than many others. I always say, my biggest achievement to the women’s initiative is that I’m raising three boys. My children have the unique opportunity to view successful working women as the norm and not an exception.
Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
I think the work/life balance has made me a better manager and more productive. I am able to work very hard while I’m in the office and yet turn it off when I leave. I’m definitely available for phone calls and e-mails but, psychologically, I switch gears when I am not here and focus on my family.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
The first thing is be true to yourself, look at your strengths and weaknesses, and decide what type of business you want to pursue. Then go and chase your dreams! Also, today, grades are much more important than when I was in school. People should not fool themselves as to the level of competition out there. Always strive to get the best grades that you can and don’t wait until tomorrow or next semester to get serious about school.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
I have never been formally mentored. There have been people throughout my life that I have considered mentors, whether they have been people that I ascribe to be like or have provided bits and pieces of advice along the way. I have mentored people throughout my career. Firms such as Bear Stearns sponsor formal mentoring programs for young adults outside the firm. If possible, I recommend getting involved in mentoring, whether it is through an organized program or informally.
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How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
I don’t think you find a mentor. I think life presents opportunities and you look to people that you admire and establish relationships with them. It’s usually somebody you worked for or somebody you worked with, and either they see something in you or you see something in them.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance?
I really didn’t consider any other career or life choices. I went to school for accounting and got an MBA, and a logical career choice with that educational background was a financial analyst at a Wall Street firm.
If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
After working for several years, I realized that I would have enjoyed and made a great veterinarian—as I love animal—but at that point, I thought it was too late to start all over again. So if I had to do it again, I may have been a vet.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
This industry will always be dynamic and unpredictable, and there within lies its beauty.
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CAREER LIBRARY
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Beard Miller Company LLP
Lamar R. Stoltzfus—Chairman and CEO
Chairman and CEO Lamar R. Stoltzfus oversees the firm and its executive management team. Mr. Stoltzfus provides strategic vision for the firm, guidance to its partners and management team, and direction for the firm’s 15 offices and over 550 employees. He also serves as an audit partner, concurring review partner or client service partner on selected engagements. Mr. Stoltzfus has been in the auditing and business consulting field for more than 30 years, including experience with an international accounting firm. He has developed a broad and extensive background in providing auditing and accounting services to a wide variety of organizations primarily in the financial services and manufacturing industries. As chairman and CEO, he has governance and management responsibilities within the firm. In addition, Mr. Stoltzfus specializes in providing services to community financial institutions and SEC reporting companies. Mr. Stoltzfus is a certified public accountant licensed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the National Banking & Savings Institutions Committee and an advisory board member of the Shippensburg University School of Business. He is also a past member of the AICPA National Banking & Savings Institution Committee and it’s Regulatory Task Force and the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ Financial Institutions Committee; a past Chairman of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants Financial Institution committee and the Annual Statewide Financial Institution Conference; an associate member of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Banks, the Pennsylvania Bankers Association, the New Jersey Bankers Association; a member of the Berks Economic Partnership, Berks Business Executives Forum, Manufacturers Association of Berks County; and a board member and past president of the Hawk Mountain of Boy Scouts of America. Mr. Stoltzfus received his BA in accounting from Shippensburg University.
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Q&A with Lamar Stoltzfus
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
There were many aspects of my career that served as the foundation for the position I now hold. As an accountant, I practiced and demonstrated excellent client relationship building skills, which have translated into the ability to build relationships with not only clients, but fellow partners, staff and others that I interact with daily as firm chairman. I developed a strong understanding of business issues that has translated into the ability to address the challenges of running a multimillion-dollar organization. By exhibiting leadership in the practice of accounting, I was given opportunities to manage larger engagements, then a large practice group, and ultimately this experience led to management opportunities with the firm.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
No business school can adequately prepare you for the requirements of the job. While technical skills are the foundation, many so-called “soft skills” have been integral to my career growth, such as communication skills, teamwork, leadership and consensus building. I
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Beard Miller Company LLP
I consider myself a lifelong learner and take advantage of opportunities to expand my business knowledge through professional programs, conferences and networking with my peers. My advice to young professionals is to learn from your mistakes and failures, but don’t dwell too long on your successes. Experience is obtained through learning from both failures and successes.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career? What would you most like to change?
The most rewarding aspect of my career has been to see the growth and success of our firm. I take great pride in the accomplishments of the firm, not in my own individual accomplishments. I’ve been fortunate to be able to follow the career track of my choice and have the opportunities to advance and grow. While it has all worked out pretty well, it took some time until I discovered that I had the aptitude and interest in management and business development. I wish I would have been more focused on these activities sooner in my career.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
Being an effective leader requires an even disposition and the ability to be compassionate. At the same time, setting high standards for yourself and others is critical to personal and professional success, and in turn the business. A good leader is a visionary, is goaloriented and focused on building a dynamic, highly functional and productive team.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
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Balancing work and family life requires planning and structure, but can be effectively accomplished. I was actively involved in my family’s activities and attended all of my children’s school, sports and civic activities. I did this by planning my workday around these activities, often splitting my workday around my family and personal commitments. There have been many positive effects for my family stemming from my success in the field of accounting. In addition to strong family values, my children have seen the work ethic, passion, leadership and accomplishments, which they now carry into their own pursuits.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
There is much more variety in the field of accounting than I expected as I entered the profession after college. On the technical side, the practice of accounting requires more interpretation and judgment than presented in the classroom. As an industry, accounting is a dynamic and changing business, with all the inherent challenge that comes with running a business. As a college student, I had no idea of the opportunities that existed and the depth and breadth of the choices that would be presented to me over the course of my career.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
Try to get as much practical experience as you can before you enter the job market. Take advantage of internships and shadowing experiences. This will help you understand if it is the right career for you, get you ahead of the curve on job offers and help you become acclimated to the profession more quickly.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
Yes, I’ve learned much of what it takes to be a leader from a business executive whose approach was to intimidate and humiliate staff into what he believed to be the appropriate course of action. It taught me to treat others with respect, set appropriate goals to be accomplished and work together as a team to be successful. Ultimately, our paths crossed again when he served as a business consultant for some of our clients.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Beard Miller Company LLP
I suggest choosing a mentor with different skills & experience than your own, rather than a friend or co-worker with similar background. I gained a new respect for his knowledge and business acumen in observing him working with our clients and in time, we developed a strong relationship and I learned much about the business aspect of serving clients.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
I always wanted to run my own business. Interestingly, being a partner in an accounting firm is very much like running your own business. I also thought I might like to be a college professor after 20 years or so of professional practice. Honestly, I can’t imagine doing anything else.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
In the future, I expect that the accounting industry will continue to become more regulated, with more international implications and increasing leverage of technology. The role of accounting will become more prominent in the national and world economy, and business environment.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Beard Miller Company LLP
“Learn from your mistakes and failures, but don’t dwell too long on your successes. Experience is obtained through learning from both failures and successes.”
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— Lamar R. Stoltzfus, Chairman & CEO, Beard Miller Company LLP
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CAREER LIBRARY
15
Berdon LLP
Scott T. Ditman, CPA/PFS—Tax Partner
Partner Scott T. Ditman has been with Berdon LLP, a full-service accounting and advisory firm, for more than two decades. Mr. Ditman has developed a specialty in the area of trust and estate taxation and financial planning. As one of the leaders of Berdon’s personal wealth management group, Mr. Ditman advises many of the firm’s most prominent high-net-worth individual and family/owner-managed business clients. Mr. Ditman received his BS in accounting from Brooklyn College and an MBA in taxation at Baruch College. He obtained his license as a certified public accountant in New York in 1984. In addition, he has earned the designation of Personal Financial Specialist (PFS)—the AICPA’s recognition for excellence—in estate and financial planning.
Q&A with Scott T. Ditman
What are steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
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From the day I started at Berdon, I recognized that everything was built on technical excellence. I decided to learn by watching other professionals and firm leaders, and picking up ideas and techniques. Also, I knew I wanted to be a tax professional, so I made sure I found the time to go back to school to get my MBA in tax in order to build a more solid technical foundation. I supplemented what I was learning at work with school to further enhance my abilities. Once I was with Berdon for a while, I saw that I wanted to build a career here and aspire to be a partner. I began to take a wider view of my role and expand my concept of technical excellence to include learning how to build good relationships with all kinds of people— clients, outside professionals and the people within the firm. I understood and bought into the firm’s concept of accountant as advisor, and this is what got me on the road to becoming a partner.
What are some of the things that you learned on the job and not necessarily in the classroom?
The most important thing I learned was how to “bridge the gap” and connect the client’s needs to the best technical solutions… and do it in a way that is readily understandable by the client. An important step in this process is learning to first listen to what the client really wants. And sometimes the client may not be sure of what he wants or needs, or may not be able to fully articulate it. So asking questions that bring you closer to the need is key. Breaking your suggested technical solutions down into understandable terms isn’t always easy since accounting and tax terminology can seem like a foreign language to those outside the profession. But when you do bridge that gap, your clients will be confident that what you are recommending will help them meet their goals and needs.
What do you think is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
The most important thing to me is that every day when I come to the office, I feel like I’m making a difference in people’s lives, especially the clients, but also outside professionals and co-workers. I also get a kick out of learning new things every day. I always challenge myself to make sure I’m growing and improving in both technical and nontechnical areas.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Berdon LLP
If you had a choice, what would you most like to change?
Sometimes I wish I could just sit at my desk, do my work, and not have to deal with the people aspect of the job. Listening to other people’s points of view can be very time consuming and seems inefficient. But, I’ve found that if you’re respectful of people and value their different ways of looking at things, the collaboration and synergy can yield results that are exponentially greater than what any one person could have produced.
What do you think are some personality traits or attributes that make for a good, effective executive?
A good executive needs to be a good listener and that means not only listening to clients and coworkers, but also being sensitive to their needs. You should be able to demonstrate your firm’s vision—both in words and in action—to those within and outside the firm. To be effective, stay focused and help make a positive impact in places where you can be effective and don’t get bogged down in areas where you cannot make an immediate impact. As a leader and an effective executive, people are always looking to you for direction so it’s important to be consistent, patient, persistent and forward thinking. And there is great value in showing people that you’re passionate about your work and having fun doing what you’re doing.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
It’s had a very positive impact on my personal life. Because I’ve been successful, it’s certainly been financially rewarding. Also, I like what I’m doing and that makes me feel good about myself. This confidence and sense of accomplishment contributes to me being a better family member and friend.
Do you have any special techniques, methods or philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional at the same time?
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I try not to compartmentalize myself. I don’t say from 8 in the morning until 6 at night I’m a tax partner and afterwards I’m a spouse or a friend. Instead, I look at myself in a holistic way. Some of the techniques I use to achieve this include planning around my priorities, whether they’re personal or business-related, based on the roles and the goals that I have set for myself. I first set long-term goals—what I want to accomplish over the next year. Then I break it down into weekly goals. From there, I create day-to-day to-do lists for both my work and personal life. Within my day-to-day, I take a “first things first” approach. I try to devote time to what’s most important in my business and personal life based on the priorities that I have set, rather than to what appears to be urgent, but is not necessarily that important.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
For clients, there is an unbelievable amount of information out there with so many differing opinions and so much contradictory advice being expressed in print, broadcasting and on the Web. Early in my career, I was surprised at just how complicated and confusing it could be for clients. Today, I see it as my role to offer our clients independent, objective advice based on what’s important to them while always keeping their big picture in mind. In this way, I help them stay on track and not get caught up with the latest craze or product.
How do you deal with everything? Any special techniques that help you deal with the entire information overload?
I try to stay very grounded. As I’ve said, it is very important to always keep the client’s big picture in mind. I cut through all the information overload and make sure that no matter what aspect of their financial life I’m working on, my focus remains on what needs to be done to meet the client’s goals.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Berdon LLP
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance or accounting?
Accounting in particular is a great profession and I strongly encourage anyone who wants to consider it to do so. My niece was just in from Boston and we had a conversation because she isn’t sure what she wants to do with her life. She took off half a year from school and is working full time. I know that she is a hardworking person who is very good with numbers. I suggested that she take a few accounting courses to try it out. Having an accounting background builds a broad foundation for everything that goes on in the business world and it can open up many opportunities. You don’t have to have a career in public accounting like I do; you can work for a company, or even open your own business. All the successful businesspeople I know are very grounded in the numbers. An accounting background gives you many options and career paths to consider and it can be very rewarding financially. But, most importantly, you should follow your passion and find something you can enjoy doing every day.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
When I started at Berdon 25 years ago, the head of our tax department was the most incredible tax professional I’d ever met. At one point, he asked me to prepare an estate tax return. When I was done, he told me that he would personally review it. I said, “But you’re the head of the department!” He explained that there was no one else who was as knowledgeable in this area. When I heard him say that, I said, “Here is one of the head guys at the firm and he’s brilliant. If I get involved in this area, I could play an important role and I would be able to work directly with him.” So I decided to specialize in estate and financial planning. What’s funny is that if you asked him today, he’d probably say he was never formally my mentor. But, because I made a point of paying attention to everything he did, I learned through his example. I was very fortunate to have the experience of working with him and drawing on his ideas and insights. He never sat down and said, “Here, now I’m going to teach you something.” I just observed, asked questions and tried to absorb everything. It was also through his mentoring that I learned how to communicate highly technical issues to clients in a way that they could easily understand.
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Have you mentored others?
Yes, absolutely. I encourage people to ask questions and to do what I did with our former senior tax partner. You don’t have to go up to someone and say “Hey, I want you to be my mentor.” But, a person who’s good at what he does generally won’t shy away from someone seeking guidance. In fact, it’s very flattering when somebody comes up to me and says, “I love working with you. You’re so helpful!” I’ll spend as much time with them as they need, because it’s good for them, it’s the right thing to do and it’s good for the firm. So don’t be shy. Ask questions and if you find someone you want to emulate, try to work with that person.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding to enter accounting?
I have played the trumpet since I was nine years old and always wanted to be a professional trumpet player. For years and right up until I started working at Berdon, that was my dream. I played professionally when I was in high school and college. But my mother was an accountant, and she knew I was very good at math, so she basically told me I was going to be an accountant and that was the end of that. I don’t regret my decision at all!
If you were not in the field, then what would your dream career be?
Oh, definitely professional musician. Or shortstop for the Yankees. One or the other. Of course, the Yankees already have a good one of those.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Berdon LLP
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
With everybody and everything moving so quickly—e-mail, voicemail, BlackBerries and ongoing globalization, predictions are difficult. But, I would say that in the business world, as fast and complicated as things get, the numbers are still the foundation for everything. So, accounting is always going to be a very important, cutting-edge profession. Accounting is critical because not only is it the means by which we keep score of what’s going on, but the projections and models that we develop serve as a great starting point in helping people intelligently plan for the future.
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CAREER LIBRARY
19
Capital One Services, Inc.
Ramona Lopez—Branch Manager, Capital One Bank
Branch Manager Ramona Lopez has spent more than 30 years in banking, with a wealth of experience in customer service, community outreach and management. She is currently responsible for two branches of Capital One Bank in Manhattan. Ms. Lopez’s career began as a teller in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and over several years, she moved into a management role. Prior to working for Capital One Bank, Ms. Lopez worked for Commercial Bank of New York, which was acquired by North Fork Bank, and further acquired by Capital One in 2006. Ms. Lopez attended the American Institute of Banking and currently resides in New York City.
Q&A with Ramona Lopez
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
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I worked hard. I was always interested in advancement and career development. It was important to me to understand all aspects of my job and how it related to the larger company strategy. At North Fork Bank, and now Capital One, I have had the opportunity to have good mentors along with tools and resources available to help me learn new skills and advance my current skill set.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
While working in banking, most of my learning has been on the job. My banking career began as a teller in Long Island City, Queens. About a year after I started, I was transferred to another location also in Long Island City as an assistant head teller. It was there that I had the opportunity to assist with client inquiries. I was very comfortable dealing with customers and when a position opened I was transferred to a new role in customer service. I made it my business to learn as much as I was could, so that I could advance. After some time, I was transferred to the Wall Street area. Richard Reinhardt, a bank manager, was an inspiration and role model to me. He insisted I take over the operations for that branch. It was during this time that I learned to manage people and run all banking operations. Several years later, I was running the operations for several downtown branches.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career? What would you most like to change?
I attended the American Institute of Banking after my children were older. Going back to school helped me advance my career while I continued learning new skills. I grew up in the projects in Spanish Harlem, went to school there, and now being a branch manager in the neighborhood in which I grew up is extremely rewarding to me. Being able to provide services, including teaching financial education, to people who really need it is extremely satisfying.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Capital One Services, Inc.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
To run a bank branch you have to be aware of many people who depend on you. You have to know how to be a good role model and mentor to your associates, be able to highlight their strengths. You have to be able to build relationships with consumers and small businesses in the community and play a role in giving back. As a manager, it’s not just about business, but how can you truly be involved and make a difference in the communities where you live and work.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
There’s always a fine line to tow with the work/life balance but it’s something you need to do. I was fortunate to have people who believed in me and encouraged me to follow my dreams. I learned a lot through trial and error. I think there’s something to be said for maintaining a positive attitude. I work hard to keep that attitude and it gets me through difficult times as well.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
The financial services industry isn’t just about providing services or products, but the reward comes from seeing others achieve economic self-sufficiency. Writing checks and managing a household budget are not topics typically taught in schools. I think reaching out and teaching members of the community about this critical life skill is something that’s overlooked when people talk about financial services. Knowing that you are making a tangible and important difference in someone’s life, their ability to buy their own home, or save enough for retirement or send their kids to college, is a substantial reward.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
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I would tell them how rewarding it is to be involved at the community level. I would also say that the industry is vast and there are a variety of careers to be explored in financial services. Even at just one company, such as Capital One, you could work in banking, or credit cards or even health care finance. There’s room to grow and learn along the way.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others? How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
I think that being a mentor is rewarding in that you are passing along your lessons learned to someone else. It’s also important to reach out to others and ask them to mentor you. Each step of your career typically has different needs and responsibilities, reaching out to others who you can relate to and who can guide you is important to career development. It’s up to you to guide your own career. You have to take control of your career and finding mentors is just one step.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
When I was younger, I did actually pursue being an airline stewardess. Life has a way, though, of throwing you curve balls and now here I am in financial services. I’m quite content with where I am and have not considered anything else. It’s quite a rewarding and satisfying job. But if I had to choose, I have always enjoyed the idea of being in politics.
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CAREER LIBRARY
21
Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP
Joel Cooperman—Founding & Managing Partner
Founding and managing partner of Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP, Joel Cooperman has more than 30 years of experience providing clients with highlevel consulting services. He is a recognized expert in the fields of mergers and acquisitions, profit enhancement, employment compensation, corporate financing and strategic planning. Under his leadership, the firm has grown to more than 65 partners and 300 staffers in four offices, including New York City; White Plains, New York; Springfield, New Jersey; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is a member of the New York and New Jersey Society of CPAs as well as the American Institute of CPAs. Mr. Cooperman received his BS from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Q&A with Joel Cooperman
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What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I worked as an accountant for a firm in New York City for four years and then, with the help of some clients, started Citrin Cooperman & Company in 1979. My position has evolved from being one partner in a two-partner firm to managing about 330 to 340 people. Every step of the way as we’ve grown, my position has changed. There’s no school for managing partners, so I’ve had to adjust as my firm is growing and in effect manage it differently and grow into the position.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
I learned how to manage people, I learned how to be fair, I learned how to be consistent in my approach, and I learned that discipline in the organization with both partners and the staff is critical for success.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
I’m not sure if it’s the most rewarding, but one of the most rewarding things is the growth in the staff and in the partners, both professionally and financially. I take a great deal of pride in being able to help them maximize their potential, making them think deeper and helping them think in a way that will make them be the best that they can be. When I look back, obviously beyond making money and having a respected firm, I feel very pleased and proud of the fact that the staff and the partners have done as well as they have.
What would you most like to change?
I would love to eliminate e-mails.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
I think the traits for a good executive are the kind of traits that can be found in any business. Without prioritizing, organizational skills are critical, discipline is critical, consistency is critical, fairness is very important because people need to be able to trust what you say and trust you to be fair. You need to be firm with people, you need to tell them what’s on your mind and not let them guess what you’re thinking. I think it’s very important to have an open exchange with all your people, not just your partners. There’s an old adage that you want to treat people the way you want to be treated, and I hope that employees and partners here would say that they know what to expect from me and that they know that I’m going to be fair and consistent.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
Well certainly the good aspect is the financial rewards and the ability to provide a comfortable life for my family. The bad aspect is that this work is an intense, time-consuming business and commuting makes it extra difficult. It can be tempting to bring the pressures of the job home with you, but I’ve learned through the years that I need to leave my work at the office and really be there for my family. I think that when you look back over 30 years, and I’ve been here now for 28, you really see how far you’ve come, how much you’ve changed. Of course there are certain aspects you wish you could do over again, but thankfully I don’t have very many regrets. I coached my sons’ sports teams, attended father-daughter dances and took many wonderful family vacations over the years. Overall I would say I’ve done a pretty good job of balancing my career and home life.
Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
I see my children all the time. They’re little bit older now but they live close by so I get to see them all the time. I like to exercise, so I try to exercise regularly. I love sports so I got into coaching with the kids as a way to be away from work and have the ability to have a relationship with them. I wouldn’t tell you that my work-life balance is in perfect order, because that’s not true. But I would tell you that I am aware of a work/life balance and I try very hard, my very best to achieve it. I’ve also learned that as you get older, things that were critically important when I was 35 don’t seem all that important today. What is important is having a relationship with people who love you. I’m amazed at the evolution and growth as you get older, and I can say that at 54 it’s been an interesting journey.
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What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
I would say what surprised me most probably is that you’ve got to be on your game everyday. When the clients call you, you need to understand their problems immediately. I equate it to having an old time card filing system in my brain. When they call me, I have to immediately remember if anyone in their immediate family is sick, what their industry is, what their gross profits are, what their key problems are, what they’re strategically looking to do. I am surprised that after having the business for 28 years, how intense every day still is. There are very few days when I can sit back and really have a day where I have very little to do. I am even more surprised by that because I was always hoping by now I might be putting golf balls in the hallways here, but that clearly hasn’t happened. I’m also very surprised about how well respected accountants have become in the business community. I think it’s finally becoming clear to business owners and CFOs that top-flight accountants and accounting firms can make a lasting and positive impact on their companies and their futures. I’m also a little surprised—in a good way—to see how many people work here in different positions in the firm and view the firm, as their home and take a lot of pride in what we’ve built together.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in accounting?
The advice would be the same no matter what the career. I’d advise anyone to map out a plan for themselves—a plan that encompasses both the financial and technical aspirations of either accounting or whatever discipline they’re in. Do that with a five-year or a 10-year window realizing that they’re going to have to adjust it periodically. Young people today do not conceptualize where they want to be and therefore they often don’t work towards any goals. Here at the firm our constant effort with clients is to get the focus back on planning strategically on a five-year and a 10-year period scale. Similarly, we spend a lot of time with our young staff trying to make them understand that along with wanting to work hard at their career, they also need to think of how much money they want to make in today’s dollars and what that could provide for them. If it’s going to be a five-year plan, they can’t start planning in the fourth year. It’s got to be a day-by-day, brick-by-brick occurrence of energy and intensity and we work pretty hard at that.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
When I was young there was nothing called mentoring although I had a couple of people who took interest in my career. I have mentored people here in the firm but at this point I think they might find the managing partner mentoring them as somewhat intimidating so the one-on-one mentoring is now done by our partners, directors and managers. I do want to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s happening with my partners and staff, however, so when I don’t have lunch meetings for business, I tend to take three to five people out, and just try to get them to focus on what they’re looking to achieve. I’ve worked with a lot of the partners and some of the staff in buying their first homes or second homes, going on vacations, or saving for other goals. I want them to understand that as they get older, that they also need to enjoy the fruits of their labor. It can’t all be about work.
In the absence of a formal program, how can students or new and young employees look for a mentor?
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When I grew up, there was no such thing as a mentoring program, so I took the matter into my own hands. I studied the four or five people who were most successful at the firm and I tried to emulate a couple of things from each, whether it was their personality, or the way they dealt with people, or the way they spoke to clients, or the way they comported themselves in the office. I tried to take the best of the five and make bits and pieces of it my own and that worked very well for me.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in accounting?
I really didn’t consider anything else. My parents told me I was going to be an accountant or a doctor and I said I don’t like blood, so here we are. That’s pretty much my story.
If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
If I wasn’t in the accounting profession and I could choose what to do, I would choose to run a professional sports franchise. I’m a lifelong Philadelphia sports fan, and would love to play a role in helping my hometown teams succeed. But the phone hasn’t been ringing with any offers, so I figure that’s not happening at my age.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
The accounting industry clearly is in an evolving stage right now. The way I see it is that staff is in very short supply and there’s tremendous pressure on firms to pay staff much higher amounts and give greater perks than they were offering even five to six years ago. In additional, more than half of the professionals at firms are now women, so I think over the next 15 to 20 years, women will make up more than 50 percent of the partner population at public accounting firms. And that will have a huge impact on the profession and the industries and clients we serve. I also think there are going to be huge succession issues. There are already with replacing the generation that’s a little bit ahead of me as well as my own generation.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Citrin Cooperman & Co., LLP
I think going into the industry has been made very difficult due to stricter educational requirements, i.e., the 150-hour rule. Students who have to choose whether to go into investment banking right out of college, or spend extra time and money to qualify as a CPA might think twice about choosing public accounting as a career, thereby narrowing the number of people entering the field. If this continues, it could drive up compensation to a level that would be dangerous down the road, particularly if we hit a recession. But in any business or industry, good or bad, I think the management is going to prove to be the difference-maker. In accounting as an example, I find most successful firms tend to have the best managing partners and the firms that have a lot of talent but are not well managed tend to be okay but not great. So just like we try to get our staff and our clients to run as efficiently and smartly as they can, the managing partners have to be as good as they can be. In the next five to 15-year cycle, there are going to be tremendous changes in the industry in terms of mergers and acquisitions, retirements and generational replacements. Those with their eye on the ball, and their focus squarely on meeting the changing needs of their partners, staff and clients, will have the edge. As the Chinese saying goes, “May you live in interesting times.” These are interesting times indeed and I’m actually looking forward to seeing what the future will bring. One thing’s for sure. It won’t be dull.
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CAREER LIBRARY
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Clifton Gunderson LLP
Krista M. McMasters—Chief Practice Officer
Chief Practice Officer Krista McMasters leads strategic initiatives across the firm and has been named chief executive officer, effictive June 1 2009. She is currently responsible for the firm’s service to clients by managing the service and niche leaders, and ensuring the firm has the resources to promote regulatory compliance, provide quality client service and minimize firm risk, as she transitions into her new role as the first and only female to serve as CEO among the nations top-25 certified public accounting firms. In addition, she provides strategic oversight to the firm’s growth strategies to best position existing and new services offered and to the human resource area, called “Priority One,” to support a structure that enables the firm to hire the right people, develop their talents and create an exciting and flexible work environment. Ms. McMasters is a member of the Financial Accounting Standards advisory council (2007 to the present) to advise the Board on FASB projects and issues, Member at Large of the AICPA Council (2006 to the present), and the governing council of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants determining the Institute’s programs and policies. Ms. McMasters’ professional affiliations include the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Illinois CPA Society and Wisconsin CPA Society. She received her BS in accounting from the University of Illinois.
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Q&A with Krista McMasters
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I had what could be called a typical progression in a public accounting firm from staff to client practice partner. But, I was an individual that was always looking for ways for the firm to provide more and more resources to our field personnel, and I was vocal on best practices that we should implement at Clifton Gunderson. My insistence and perseverance led to my appointment as assistant director of assurance services and later as director of assurance services. While in that role, I saw opportunities to improve our human resource practices and I wrote a position paper on action steps we should take to improve. That led to my appointment as a partner in charge of our HR programs, which we call “Priority One.” Both of those job responsibilities, director of assurance services and partner in charge of Priority One, led to my current position as chief practice officer with the firm.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
You learn so much on the job. The classroom teaches you the techniques, but experience helps you apply those techniques and make them real.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
Being in a position in the firm to influence strategic direction and instigate and implement change.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Clifton Gunderson LLP
What would you most like to change?
Things that are out of your control like regulatory changes provide the biggest challenge in our industry.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
Primarily, having integrity, always being honest and being someone who can be trusted. It’s also critical that you believe and live in the importance of developing people. I believe your goal as an executive should be to develop those that you supervise to the point where they surpass you in knowledge and skill.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
The good thing about public accounting is that it allows you flexibility to control your career and personal life, and work the way it works best for you depending on your individual goals and needs. In my case, my personal life is pretty integrated with my work life but that’s my choice and that’s what’s great about public accounting.
Do you have any special techniques or philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
For me to be at my best, I have to really focus on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. I’m really faithful to exercise and eating responsibly. It’s also important that I get away from work completely at times. That’s very difficult today with 24/7 access to everyone and everything between e-mail and text messaging, and all of those avenues. But, it’s very important that I take time to enjoy what I enjoy most, spending time with my husband, reading, exercising, traveling, anything apart from Clifton Gunderson. I always come back refreshed and complete.
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What has surprised you the most about working in the accounting industry?
Each day is very different, at all staff levels, because of the diverse nature of all of our clients and all the different services we provide. That was a surprise.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in accounting?
Public accounting is a tremendous career with unlimited opportunities if you really invest in it. It’s challenging, diverse, rewarding but flexible enough to allow you to mold it to what’s best for you. It’s also great that there are opportunities in all geographical areas of the country and all size firms.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
Clifton Gunderson’s core existence is about coaching and mentoring those that you supervise so that they can develop and grow in their career and the firm can grow. Our mission statement is “Growth of Our People, Growth of Our Clients. All Else Follows.” I’ve been mentored by many from the senior staff and partners in the practice office that I worked early in my career, to the chief practice officer, when I was the director of assurance services and the CEO and board of directors in my current role. I have also been very fortunate to have been mentored by many people outside our firm, professional colleagues and friends.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
It’s really important to find a mentor that understands specifically what you do so they can really help you develop and counsel you towards professional success. I believe it’s very important that you look for individuals that are successful at doing what you’d like to become.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Clifton Gunderson LLP
People need to look within their firm, the best mentors are going to be people they work with or work around on a daily basis because they are really going to understand what they do.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in accounting?
I knew in high school that I really wanted to go into accounting in college so I didn’t really look very hard at other careers. When accounting got difficult in the latter part of college while studying for the CPA exam and taking college classes at the same time, I thought briefly of doing something other than accounting, but I stuck with it and it certainly all worked out.
If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
I would love to be a novelist, specifically fiction and murder mysteries. That would be a dream job.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
Public accounting has a very strong future. Companies are always going to be in need of our services—audit, tax and otherwise—and the pipeline of individuals coming into the field is nowhere near the demand, so the future is very bright.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Clifton Gunderson LLP
“Public accounting allows you flexibility to control your career and personal life, and work the way it works best for you depending on your individual goals and needs.”
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— Krista McMasters, Chief Practice Officer, Clifton Gunderson
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Commerce Bancorp, Inc.
Linda Verba—Executive Vice President, Retail Operations
Executive Vice President, Retail Operations Linda Verba has led the strategic growth of Commerce Bank’s retail operations from 75 to more than 450 locations. During her eight years, she has overseen the front lines of the company’s retail stores, which stretch from Northeast to the Southeastern U.S. Her expertise, dedication and approach have guided a unique corporate culture of innovation and service. Ms. Verba is a champion of Commerce Bank’s unique corporate culture that celebrates service, dedication and fun. She has led the development of engaging and exciting customer and employee events in corporate and store locations to recognize achievements, celebrate the company culture, build morale and thank customers. She is also actively involved in mentoring new managers and motivating team members on the front lines. Early in her career, Ms. Verba held management positions with industry-leading companies including PHH Mortgage. There, she effectively led the human resources department, was involved in sales and account management, developed and managed the company’s call center operations and spearheaded product development. Prior to that, she worked at two industry-leading retailers, Strawbridge & Clothier and Filene’s department stores. Ms. Verba has served on the board of directors of the South Jersey Chamber of Commerce, American Heart Association and Arts & Business Council/Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. In 2005, she was honored with a Shatter the Glass Ceiling Award from the National Association of Women Business Owners. She was the chairperson of the board and keynote speaker for the Metavante FURST Senior Management Conference in 2007. Ms. Verba received her BS from Penn State University.
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Q&A with Linda Verba
What are some steps that you took to get to the position you are in now?
I think the most important thing was my open-mindedness about career choices. I wasn’t trained to be a banker. My degree is in elementary and kindergarten education. I worked in retail and when folks approached me about assignments at whatever company that I was at, no matter how frightening it might have been to accept change and move to a new assignment or move to a different industry, I always made those choices. It’s given me a terrific and very broad experience. I have always been in the people business. I also have a background in HR. I think it’s about your ability as an individual to learn, to communicate with people effectively, whether you are delivering good news, whether you’re delivering news that they don’t necessarily want to hear. So I really think for me it is embracing the people and understanding their perspective, and that takes time. If you would have had this interview with me in my first job and maybe even in my second job, my response may have been much different. But now I think the real connection is about the people connection, and I think it’s about being connected to our employees and customers.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Commerce Bancorp, Inc.
What are some things you feel that you have learned on the job and not in the classroom?
I would tell you from a practical perspective, most of what I learned, I learned on the job. I’m degree-ed, I’ve gone back to school, I’ve been in classroom situations, but I think each and every one of us has a healthy dose of a fear of failure. We learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. So it’s okay to have a fear of failure, but I also think its how you recover from failure that teaches you the most. It could be small, it could be large, but I think the failures are probably what have catapulted me a little faster.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
That I have fun every day; that I still love coming to work; that it’s not a job to me. It’s an assignment, it is a way of life, it is part of who I am, but it’s also because I have fun. And whether I’m having fun developing people, solving a challenging problem, I have always worked in high-growth environments, and that meant every day was different, and so in many instances my job title didn’t change and yet my role changed exponentially in the same job. I can also tell you that my job is absolutely different every day, and so although I can plan my way through it, I’ve also learned not only to manage, but take advantage of interruptions for what they are and what they bring to the table. It also has a lot to do with your own personal attitude. If you don’t like it, it’s not worth it, get out, it doesn’t matter how much money it pays you. So even on challenging days, I literally come to work and recognize that I’m going to have one hell of a good time.
If you had a choice, what would you most like to change?
Well I’m pretty straightforward and impatient, and sometimes those two could be a very dangerous combination. So one of the things I work on is learning when to bite my tongue and listen more. I’d like to listen more; I still have a tendency to get on to the end so much that I interrupt.
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Anything you would like to change about your career?
Actually, no. I think I have taken advantage of opportunities, and that would be the advice that I would give to people. Sometimes opportunities come in the most unlikely way that make you look at everything in terms of what it might do to broaden your knowledge. I think for successful businesspeople, there needs to be an absolute balance between what I would refer to as IQ and EQ, IQ being the intelligence quotient, EQ being the emotional quotient. I think that in the various assignments I’ve had over the number of years that I’ve worked, that balance is pretty good with me.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
I think, first of all you’ve got to work hard. You’ve got to work harder than everybody else. Being smart is important because you can’t teach people to be smart. But smart only takes you so far. I think you have to be functionally schizophrenic, I think you need to know when to get into the details and when to keep your eye on the long-term ball. What’s also important is the ability to talk to people at every level—I have as much of a good relation with our van drivers, who breathe our culture in such a way, that it just warms my heart to give them a hug. I think you need to be able to talk to people in every single walk of life. I’ve always believed, in job interviews or when I’ve been with people, that a measure of their character is watching how they treat the help. Whether that help be in a restaurant, whether it be in a service station, whether it be in a fast food restaurant, watching how people treat the help, to me, is just a real defining moment in their character.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
It’s what I refer to, in banking in particular, as a herd mentality. For example, if an article gets published and somebody indicates that they had great success with it, everybody follows. So if you look at online banking and billpay, everybody does it for free now but everybody gave up a revenue stream and so none of us can go backwards. So I think there’s a bit of a herd mentality in the financial
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Commerce Bancorp, Inc.
services business and that surprises me, because outsiders look at banking and the finance industry as the movers and shakers in the world, so I would hope that they would be a whole lot more creative I guess than some of what I’ve seen. I think that’s why we [Commerce Bank] are different and the reason why I am successful here. I’m not convinced I could be as successful in another financial services business.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
It’s been pretty cool for my daughter to see my ability to multitask. From the time she was born—she’s 18 now—I’ve worked her entire life. I’ve not missed much of what she’s done, whether it was soccer or field hockey games or plays or presentations. I’ve been able to juggle my schedule to be able to be at work and be where she needs me to be, so as I watch her getting ready to go to college, she has a greater appreciation for that ability to multitask. But it’s also kind of cool for her to see that she can be all she wants to be, that there is no box; people talk a lot about thinking outside the box, but I think my daughter has kind of learned that for women in particular, there is no box. When I watch her, I’m really very, very proud of that. I also think I’m married to a really cool guy who has been an excellent corporate spouse. So I think it’s always good to get yourself hooked up with somebody who understands, to choose your mate carefully, because we work a lot, and it’s important for them to understand that. I don’t make dinner during the week every night, but I know how to do a family dinner, I know when we need to do a family dinner, even though it may be a little less traditional than the way my mother did it. Also, because my husband is not in the financial services business, I think my family has probably done more for me than I for them, because my husband can look at situations and get to the crux of the matter in a nanosecond, because he’s not in the fray of it. However, when you go through trying times in business, I shield. When I say I shield my family from it, I mean I don’t talk to them about it and that’s something that I learned over the years, sometimes it’s just better for them not to know, and they’ve learned not to ask. That allows us to focus on dialogue that is not work-related, and I think that’s a good thing for families.
Do you have any special techniques or philosophies that help you maintain this balance between work and life?
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I think it’s helpful if you have a whole lot of energy, and I do. So whatever you need to do, whether you have a glass of wine, whether you go and work out, whether you run, whether you go out and have dinner with your girlfriends, whatever it is that energizes you, make sure you take time out for it, because it is important. I call it mental food, or food for your head—whatever you do to get yourself food for your head, and I think everybody’s different. Like, if I go out for a long walk, or if I’m running or exercising, I find that it clears my head, and I miss it when I don’t do it. But it’s always one of the first things to go when I’m busy, so you almost have to like smack yourself upside the head and say, “Okay, it’s time to do whatever.”
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance or banking?
If they are going into college, my suggestion would be that they broaden their horizons. They need the finance courses, they need the business courses, those are important, but the electives should be in liberal arts so that they can talk about something other than the numbers and business. I would encourage them to have a broad brush of education experiences. I would also say that some form of either community service or a part-time job shows that you have balance in your life, and that balance is very important to me. If I were interviewing somebody and they had a B average but they were active in sports, maybe did some things at school, maybe had a parttime job, versus somebody that only went to school, I always feel better about hiring somebody that can juggle a variety of their priorities. I think that folks need to learn to speak for themselves. I think one of the things about young people in this day and age that drives me to distraction is when somebody’s mother calls me, or grandfather calls me, to plead their case. Like, hello? Clearly as a parent, I would coach my daughter, but I don’t speak for her. At the same time, I think young people today take themselves way too seriously and in their quest for a career and good grades—and maybe some of that is our fault, because everybody’s got to compete—people just don’t take a break to smell the roses, have fun, go to the ball game, and do something that they’ve never done before. To me, those are the kind of things that broaden your horizon, and
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Commerce Bancorp, Inc.
that’s why, I did anything that anybody asked me to do, even in a social sort of environment. I had a boss that collected Chinese porcelain. I knew nothing about it, but when he would go to antique stores, I would go with him. He would take me to the opera, and the ballet. I had never gone before but I went. I still go to the ballet today, not a lot, because I’m really more of a sports person, but you balance out all of those different experiences.
Have you ever been mentored or mentored others?
The answer is yes and yes. I think it’s very cool that companies understand the concept of mentoring and have mentoring programs, we have them and we assign mentors. Even though I have mentored people formally, and I’ve been mentored formally, I think I’ve learned more when I’ve been mentored informally and that means a colleague who has the managerial courage to do some peer coaching. In my case, quite frankly, it was other guys looking out for me, because there weren’t a lot of women floating around that were going to give me advice and counsel. Now when I mentor or give advice to other women, the value that I bring is that I think somewhat androgynously about that. I think its fun also to mentor cross-culturally because our world is such a diverse fabric these days, its fun to seek out people who are different, to learn what makes them tick and to me that’s a form of mentoring. So yes, I’ve been mentored formally, yes I’ve mentored people formally, but I really think it is the informal mentoring that is more effective, because it’s more natural.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry in the absence of a formal program?
I would suggest that they find someone whose work they admire, or whose skill set they admire, and ask them. I don’t think that they even need to use the word “mentor,” but I think they could say things like, “I really admire how you handled yourself.” It’s being in charge of your own destiny.
So to a large extent, being proactive.
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Absolutely. You’re in charge of your life and you’re in charge of your career. Your mentor is there only to give you advice and counsel. It’s absolutely OK to ask, but I would also suggest that if someone turns you down because they don’t have time, don’t take it personally. It took me 15 years to learn this lesson, it is all about the business, and nothing is personal.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on this career?
I thought about teaching and retailing, because I was in retail. I was in manufacturing for a very brief period of time, as an HR/chief operating officer of a small company. But in my day and age, women chose more traditional careers. So when I say I took advantage of opportunities, it was because, quite frankly, I didn’t know what my opportunities were. I think now young people have opportunities, and so my advice would be, it’s got to feel right. If your mother and father want you to be a doctor, or an engineer, or an actress, if it doesn’t feel right, you’ll never be happy at it, which most likely is going to translate into: you’re not going to be good at it. So kids out of college should take a job, and if it’s not right, they’re going to know. Sometimes they’re going to luck out in the most unlikely places. I don’t think that your first job out of college is life-threatening, particularly in this day and age. I mean, I don’t think the rules of engagement about, “I’ve had x amount of jobs in so many years,” are quite as tight as they were perhaps when I was starting out.
If you were not in this field, what would your dream career be now?
Actually, as I come closer to the end of my career, or start at least to have it somewhere in the horizon, I think I would always be in some form of a service business. But the things I toy around with are doing some form of community service or working for a nonprofit, because I think those kinds of folks can’t afford people like me, but probably need my talents.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Commerce Bancorp, Inc.
I also think about how much fun it would to go work for an airline and try to revolutionize their whole concept of service because airline services, for all intents and purposes, are terrible. I think one of the things I would like to do is go see if I can run an airline from a service perspective and turn it around. I think that would be great fun. Sometimes I toy around with the concept of teaching, but teaching at a higher level, on a college level.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
I think this next year is going to be an incredibly trying year. But I would say for somebody who’s got some real chutzpah, it would be a great year to come in and learn. Between the yield curve and what went on in the mortgage industry, between the economics in general, between things going global, I think it’s going to be a very, very tough year in the next year for financial services. At the same time, sometimes it’s in the tough years that you learn the most, so I would encourage people to try it, not shy away from it.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Commerce Bancorp, Inc.
“People talk a lot about thinking outside the box … but I think for women in particular, there is no box.”
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— Linda Verba, EVP, Chief Retail Officer, Commerce Bancorp, Inc.
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Convergent Wealth Advisors, LLC
John T. Scully—Director
Director J.T. Scully consults with and advises clients on the full range of Convergent Wealth Advisor’s services, including portfolio analysis, investment policy statements, asset allocation, portfolio construction and implementation, and performance evaluation. He maintains relationships with an array of accounting, tax and estate planning professionals to afford clients appropriate counsel on their customized wealth plans. Mr. Scully’s career spans 25 years in a variety of investment positions: financial advisor with Bernstein Global Wealth in Washington, D.C.; regional director with Mitchell Hutchins Asset Management, the investment management arm of Paine Webber (now UBS); and president of Spectrum Capital Group and Carey Financial, Inc., both affiliates of the New York real estate investment banking firm W. P. Carey & Co. Mr. Scully holds the Investment Management Consultants Association’s Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) designation, as well as IMCA’s Wealth Management Certificate and NASD Series 3, 7, 22, 24, 31, 63 and 65 licenses. He is a member of the Greater Washington Society of CPAs and the Greater Washington Board of Trade. Mr. Scully received his BS in business administration from the University of Delaware and an MBA in real estate finance from Temple University.
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Q&A with John Scully
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I’ve been with the firm for six years. Prior to that, I was at Sanford Bernstein for three-and-a-half years. Prior to that, I was at what is now UBS and used to be Paine Webber where my role was regional director in the product area, helping distribute mutual funds and separate accounts through the Paine Webber brokerage system so I didn’t work with clients directly, I worked with them indirectly through the brokers in offices around the country. I started working directly with clients when I started with Sanford Bernstein in 1997.
What are some things that you think you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
That the job becomes much less about investment and much more about psychology, and understanding what makes clients tick, knowing what their hopes and fears and needs and dreams and aspirations are. Client-specific information can’t really be taught. You just have to live through it with clients in good and bad markets, and good and challenging life situations, and help guide them through it.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Convergent Wealth Advisors, LLC
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
When a client tells you that they feel much more comfortable with their financial situation and that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve made a lot of money, it’s that they understand where they are and what they’re trying to accomplish, and they feel comfortable that they’re on the right path.
What would you most like to change?
I would eliminate CNBC and MSNBC, and half a dozen newspapers. I think clients are bombarded with information. The best description I’ve heard of the market is it’s like watching a guy walk up a hill with a yo-yo. If you stand back far enough, you realize, long-run, he’s going uphill. But most of the media focuses on watching the yo-yo going up and down, which for most people is counterproductive.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
Being patient and empathetic, and being a very good listener. Really trying to understand what the client is saying and trying not to filter through your own personal experience or biases, but absorbing what makes the client react the way they do.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
It has generally had a very positive impact. Fortunately, it’s a career where you can do well financially and where I have a fair amount of flexibility in my scheduling. I have two daughters, and my office is pretty close to my home, so it’s not difficult if I want to leave at 4 o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon and go watch a softball game, and come back to the office. Also, I can manage my travel to be pretty much when I want it to be, rather than having somebody dictate to me when I need to be somewhere.
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Do you have any special techniques and methods or philosophies that help you maintain the good work/life balance that you have?
I’m pretty good at compartmentalizing things, so I generally don’t bring work home. When I’m at home, I try to be devoted to my family and when I’m at work, I’m devoted to my work. Until I joined this firm I never had a BlackBerry and I avoided it because I thought it would be a real infringement on my personal freedom. But I have to say that having one is an enormous help, because every time you have a little bit of spare time, you can catch up on e-mails and projects. I find it invaluable.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
How many misconceptions that clients have, and how much misinformation they have, and how naïve they are about various investments. We deal with fairly wealthy people—our average client is probably about $40 million—and they’ve been very successful in their business, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into a high level of understanding about investments. I spend an enormous amount of time just educating clients about what investments they have, what investments they should have, how the investments they have work, what the pros and cons are, how they generate returns, what the risks involved are. I’m always surprised that I frequently have to be on guard against assuming people know what I think they know, and really try to explain to them in fairly simple terms how things work.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
Find a great mentor, serve as an intern under them, and work for them or follow them around and learn the business.
Have you ever been mentored or have you mentored others?
Both. I had several excellent mentors both at UBS and at Bernstein, and I try to be a good mentor for the people we have here at our firm.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Convergent Wealth Advisors, LLC
How would someone find a mentor at their company/industry in the absence of a formal program?
There are very few firms that really have a great formal program. It’s almost always informal, because part of it is just personality and chemistry—it’s hard to say you go mentor with Mr. Smith. I mean, Mr. Smith may be a great mentor for me and a terrible mentor for you. You have to, to some degree of comfort; talk to a lot of people and figure out how various people conduct their practice and what would be the most complementary chemistry or relationship that would fit your personality.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on finance?
Looking back, it seems like my career has been a random series of events. After college, I worked for a couple of years for a trucking company, and realized that wasn’t my life’s calling. I went back to graduate school and got an MBA in finance, and started my postgraduate school career in real estate with Prudential Insurance. Then I was buying, selling and developing buildings—and in the course of developing buildings, I thought I’d make my fortune as a real estate developer, and I moved to New Orleans and developed an office park down there. It was initially successfully and then, when the local economy cratered, not so successful. Then I started syndicating real estate for a couple of firms in San Diego and New York and for the one in New York we were raising most of our money through Paine Webber, so I got to know those people and when the real estate market became somewhat soft in the early 1990s, I transitioned from a pure real estate investment banking career into a broader investment management and consulting career at Paine Webber. I was then dealing directly with the brokers, and I was traveling virtually every week, and as my daughters got older, I decided I didn’t want to be away from home that much and I decided to build a practice directly with private clients in Washington. Initially I did that with Bernstein, and six years ago moved over to this firm. So there were several forks in the road that I can look back on and say, from a purely financial perspective, that I could have probably made more money if I had continued on the real estate path. But I’m very happy with where I am now—we’ve got a great firm, and we’ve had a lot of success in the six years I’ve been here, and I think we’re poised to have as much or more success in the next 10 or 12 [years].
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If you were not in this field, what would your dream career be now?
If I won the lottery, I’d probably move to Sun Valley and become a ski instructor or a teacher. I’ve always been involved in coaching sports, so if money were no object, I’d probably do something that had to do with sports and teaching, or coaching.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
It will continue to become more and more complex. When I started in this business, it was stocks, bonds, mutual funds, savings accounts and CDs, and now we have literally thousands of versions of derivatives and all sorts of structured products and Wall Street has been very adept at creating an enormous number of very complex financial instruments. Some serve a good purpose, some I think don’t serve much of a purpose other than to generate revenue for the manufacturer of the product. But either way, I don’t think that trend is going to slow down. I think there will continue to be many more products and investment vehicles out there. I think what we now call alternative investments, private equities and hedge funds, in several years, won’t be considered alternatives. They’re already mainstreamed among institutional investors and most sophisticated high-worth investors.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Convergent Wealth Advisors, LLC
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“It’s always surprising that I frequently have to be on guard against assuming [that] people know what I think they know, and really trying to explain to them in fairly simple terms how things work.”
— John Scully, Director, Convergent Wealth Advisors, LLC
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Credit Suisse Group
Edward M. Yorke—Vice Chairman, Investment Banking & Head of the North American Financial Sponsor Group
Vice Chairman Edward M. Yorke serves in the investment banking division of Credit Suisse. He is also Head of the North American Financial Sponsor Group. Mr. Yorke joined Credit Suisse in November 2000 when the Bank merged with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where he was co-head of the financial sponsors group. Mr. Yorke has worked with numerous private equity sponsors on many of their most important transactions. He has been involved on the buy-and-sell side of numerous leveraged buyouts as well as exits through sales, initial public offerings and recaps. Recent notable buyouts include companies such as Neiman Marcus, Transdigm, MGM, Univison, Targa Resources, Warner Chilcott, Education Management and Nortek, as well as numerous middlemarket companies. Mr. Yorke serves on the board of trustees of Youth, I.N.C., Greenwich Academy and The Matthew Forbes Romer Foundation. He is also on board of advisors for The Hospital for Special Surgery. Mr. Yorke received his BS in economics summa cum laude, beta gamma sigma from The Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania and a JD from New York University Law School.
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Q&A with Edward Yorke
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
The most rewarding aspect is when you can be creative, and can provide something that is differentiated from the rest of the competition. Completing a transaction that others doubted is always rewarding.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
After two decades, the one thing that surprised me the most is the resiliency of the business. There were certainly time periods in the 1980s, 1990s, and even in the early 2000 that were difficult to see whether there was going to ultimately be a light at the end of the tunnel and whether we were going to have functioning markets again. What I’ve been able to gain through that experience is that the markets do come back so I’m much more optimistic now than I would have been at a similar time in the market 10 to 20 years ago.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
One thing that you really understand is that personal relationships with your colleagues and with your clients are extremely important, and it’s really hard to appreciate that when you’re sitting in a classroom, learning about the fine points of accounting or finance.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Credit Suisse Group
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
I’ve certainly been mentored throughout my career by senior bankers, clients, attorneys, friends and family. I’ve had official and unofficial mentors, and the most important thing is that on every transaction you work on, in every meeting you attend, while someone may not be your “mentor,” if you listen closely, you can make every experience a learning experience. I still feel that I learn things on a frequent basis.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
Make sure you are willing to work hard, understand that there are ups and downs in the business and make sure you go to work with people that you enjoy being with. Ultimately, that’s the most important part of your career decision, making sure you are working with people you are comfortable with. You can have great offices, you can have prestigious titles, you can have great views but the most important thing is to be working with people you enjoy being with.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
There are obviously many, including hardworking, respect for others, pleasant demeanor, desire to win and many others. One that often gets overlooked is listening. I’m often shocked at meetings with colleagues or competitors where you’re sitting across the table from people and it’s so apparent that the people are not listening and not reacting to what clients or colleagues or senior bankers are really looking for. So, listening is a really important skill. I think one other important thing to have is a very strong sense of responsibility. Do not count on others to do the right thing. You need to have the mind-set that it is up to you to make sure projects are completed on time and properly. Having said that, make sure you treat both your senior and junior colleagues with respect.
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What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
It’s definitely important to have a work/life balance. You need to have perspective on life. I think you need to have this view when you’re doing deals, when you’re negotiating transactions; you need to have perspective on what’s important and what’s not. You need to be able to see the forest through the trees, and I think in order to be able to have all that, you really need to have a balance between work and your life outside of work. It doesn’t mean there aren’t time periods where you’re working around the clock through the weekends. I think that’s appropriate at many times, particularly in the financial world. But during down periods, don’t worry about face time, make sure you’re enjoying your family and friends or catching up on the things you need to take care of away from work.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance? If you were not in the field, what would be your dream career be now?
Well I actually started off as an attorney for two years after graduating from law school. I decided that was not the right career for me. I’m not sure I considered many other professions, but I think that if at the end of the day I decided to get completely out of the finance world, I’d probably like to be a teacher and a coach.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
It’s a cyclical industry. For the past two or three years, we have been in a cyclical upturn. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that we were going to hit a bump along the road where we were going to have some issues in the markets. We certainly hit that in the summer of 2007. But as with most cyclical industries, I expect that we are going to rebound from this and that sometime in late 2008 or early 2009, we will begin to see a rebound and a return to normalcy.
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Crowe Chizek and Company, LLP
Charles M. Allen—Chief Executive Officer
CEO Charles “Chuck” Allen has more than 30 years of assurance, acquisition, divestiture, corporate finance and strategic business consulting experience leading the engagement teams for a number of financial, strategic, and venture investors. He currently also serves as a member of the executive committee for Crowe Group LLP, the parent company of Crowe Chizek and Company, LLP. Mr. Allen most recently served as the managing executive of Crowe Chizek’s commercial services group. He is known for providing strategic assistance to private investors in acquiring and financing targeted companies. These services include: managing the due diligence effort, assisting in the senior and mezzanine financing arrangements, structuring of debt and capital investments, and development of incentives for and structuring of participation by management. His experience also includes advising companies as they enter public markets. Mr. Allen currently chairs Crowe Chizek’s management committee and serves as a governing board member for the Center for Audit Quality. Additionally, he is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and represents Crowe Chizek as a member of the AICPA’s major firms group. He is a member of the Illinois CPA Society, sits on the board of Junior Achievement of Chicago, is a member of Horwath International’s board of directors and is licensed to practice in various states across the Crowe practice geography. Mr. Allen received his BS in accounting from Ball State University.
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Q&A with Charles Allen
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I started with Crowe just out of college and I didn’t know at the time but the reason I came to Crowe was because of what we now call our values. I had a small-town upbringing and I think that the values of that small-town environment positioned me well to run Crowe. Also, along the way I had a number of good mentors. One specifically was a client of mine who I helped when I was a fairly young CPA, and he asked me to continue to represent him. It was a private equity firm and I began working with him and his investors and he encouraged me to take risk, he encouraged me to relocate to Chicago to support his investors and he really taught me how to be a businessman.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
I have learned how to evaluate risks and to make decisions that involve risks. If you remove risk from business, you also remove the opportunity for great success. Learning which risks to take and when to take them comes with experience, including both success and failure. The universities cannot teach this.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Crowe Chizek and Company, LLP
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
When I started with Crowe it was a small firm in a small town. I joined the firm with 18 other college recruits to increase Crowe to a firm of 80 people and three offices at that time. Today, the most rewarding thing to me has been to help build and to be part of this firm that now has nearly 2,500 people and 23 offices. Watching these people develop and Crowe grow from a small-town Midwestern firm to what is now one of the top firms in the country is my greatest reward.
What would you most like to change?
I would have to say nothing. I had numerous opportunities coming out of school but I joined Crowe because it was a small firm in a small town and with limited traveling. I had offers from all the Big Eight at that time, but I joined Crowe because of those dynamics. Over the course of my career, I have also had a number of opportunities, a number of forks in the road, but each time I came to a decision point, I chose public accounting and I chose Crowe. If I had to make the same decisions all over, I would make the same ones. It’s been a wonderful experience for me and a great opportunity.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
Well I think with each decision and every decision process you go through, finding a balance is important. The way we manage at Crowe is to try to make sure that we balance things and we evaluate all three stakeholders: our clients, our people and the firm. I use this model daily as I make decisions. The model we have developed has definitely served me well. I believe if you become too focused on any one of those stakeholders, you let the other two down.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
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I relocated three times to support my career, and I have a very strong sense of family. I believe there is no success in business that will make up for a failure at home and that we need to invest first in the family. I have worked long hours, continue to have long hours, have traveled much, but there are some things that I have done personally from a family perspective to keep the balance. We take long family vacations; I still do this even today with my kids who are in their 20s. My wife, Cathy, and I have been married for 32 years and we insist that the children make time for all of us to be together periodically. I try to get home on Friday nights and have dinner with Cathy. We have what we call date night. Every Friday night we try to be together and since I’ve traveled throughout my career, I always try to connect at home each night. I used to do it by telephone but now I find myself doing it by e-mail because of the connectivity. But we try to connect every day, no matter where I am.
What has surprised you the most about working in the accounting industry?
What surprised me most about taking over as the CEO of this public accounting firm was the need for skills to better communicate with all the stakeholders I mentioned earlier. Each step along the way it has been required of me to be a better communicator. We come out of school as technicians and we understand our trade, but, in many cases, we’re not trained well to communicate. It’s always been a surprise to me how much I need to communicate to be successful.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in public accounting?
There’s enormous opportunity today for young people in this industry. The paths are many, there are also many different avenues you can take and each of them can lead to a fulfilling career and success.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Crowe Chizek and Company, LLP
As I look back, I didn’t know why Crowe was the right firm for me but I now know that the values matched up with the values I have, and that’s why it felt right to me.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
Both. I’ve had numerous mentors through my career, both inside Crowe (senior partners) and outside of Crowe, mostly one client who I was very close to and who helped me develop. At Crowe, we have a talent development process that assists people in the firm find and work with a coach and develop their careers. Today I coach and mentor a number of people. I have three especially, the chief operating officer, the chief risk officer of the firm and the chief people officer. I spend quite a bit of time with our chief people officer in assisting her in our Women into Leadership initiative while also helping her better position herself in her leadership role in the firm.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
I think most firms of any size or substance have a process of identifying and helping people in their career find mentors and coaches. It’s part of the way business is done today and to the extent that it’s not available, certainly network within the organization, to find someone with whom you have a comfort level. Someone you feel comfortable with, someone you respect and someone who will challenge you as you move through different levels in your career. That may be a boss and, in fact, your boss being your coach is important, but also finding someone outside of that role who you trust, have respect for, who will challenge you as you are moving through your career is also important.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in public accounting?
I chose public accounting when I was a junior in high school. I have had many opportunities along the road to leave the profession and join private industry, but each time I looked at it, there were none that offered the challenge and opportunity that I saw in public accounting and at Crowe. I’ve been dedicated to this profession a really long time.
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If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
Not that I’m qualified to do it, but it would probably have to be some type of an outdoor athlete, maybe tennis or golf.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
I believe public accounting is strong, vibrant and very committed to quality. I think the public and private company financial markets and investors need a sustainable profession to serve their needs and there are many needs that we can serve the market in the way of audit, tax, risk consulting and performance services. I believe the industry will continue to be vibrant and it will continue to offer numerous opportunities for talented young people. I think it’s a great career choice for young people coming out of the scholastic environment.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Crowe Chizek and Company, LLP
“We come out of school as technicians and we understand our trade, what we’re not trained well to do in many cases is to communicate, a very basic skill needed to be successful.”
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— Charles Allen, CEO, Crowe Chizek and Company LLP, subsidiary of Crowe Group LLP
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Duff & Phelps Corporation
Daniel Peters—Managing Director
Managing Director Dan Peters serves in the Morristown office of Duff & Phelps, LLC and is the financial advisory segment leader. Dan has responsibility for a business with over 800 professionals in 22 offices. Dan originally developed and led the transfer pricing practice and specialty tax business unit of Duff & Phelps. Mr. Peters has been the primary transfer pricing advisor for a number of leading multinational firms in diverse industries. He has helped clients implement a broad range of international and state transfer pricing initiatives. Dan’s primary focus areas include transfer pricing planning in the areas of valuation of intangible assets, supply chain planning, treatment of services and stewardship, transfer pricing audit support and development of effective global documentation. Mr. Peters previously served as the managing partner of KPMG’s Global Transfer Pricing services and its U.S. transfer pricing and valuation services business, with management responsibility for over 600 professionals in 35 countries. Mr. Peters has spoken and published on a wide variety of transfer pricing matters, including effective transfer pricing and supply chain planning, intellectual property management, global transfer pricing compliance strategies, and the managerial and operational implications of transfer pricing. He also developed and taught a full-day course called “Valuation Principles in Transfer Pricing for the Center of Advanced Valuation Studies of the American Society of Appraisers.” He has been consistently named as a “Leading Transfer Pricing advisor,” “Highly Recommended— New York,” and a “Best of the Best” advisor in numerous client surveys of the International Tax Review over the past six years. Mr. Peters is a member of the National Association of Business Economists. He is also the president and board director for the Corporate Transfer Pricing Association. Mr. Peters received his BS in metallurgical engineering, cum laude and an MBA in finance, magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh.
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Q&A with Dan Peters
What are some steps that you took to get to the position you are in now?
I was always interested in the management of the business. Generally, in a professional services firm all of the partners provide services to clients and most of them are not particularly interested in the actual management of the firm. I, on the other hand, have always sought to be involved in both parts of the business. The biggest step that I’ve taken was just being interested in the management of a consulting business and seeking these sorts of roles.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Duff & Phelps Corporation
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
Being successful in this career has a lot to do with your interpersonal skills and your relationships with other people, and how you manage conflicts, and issues and problems on a day-to-day basis. That is something that you don’t learn much about in the classroom and only develop with work experience.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
The most rewarding aspects for me have been the opportunity to see the world and to understand how business operates. The nature of what I do—I consult for many different companies—has allowed me to see inside different industries and I’ve been in every major city in the world, and that’s something that as a kid I never dreamed I would have a chance to do.
If you had a choice, what would you most like to change?
I think the thing I would most like to change is to somehow be able to better manage the time commitment associated with this type of job. It’s a very consuming role, it is 60 to 65 hours a week, and it’s very hard to put it down.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
It’s been both good and bad. The bad, of course, is the amount of time that I spend traveling and the time I spend away from home. But I tend to look on the positive side, as it’s been very rewarding for us. We’ve had an opportunity to live abroad and we’ve been able to do a lot of things that we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to do.
Do you have any special techniques, methods, or philosophies that help you maintain the balance?
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I have three sons, and my sons are all very active in sports, so I’m involved in coaching them. My sons and I fly-fish and ski together. Those things aren’t really techniques, but in my choice of outside-office pursuits, our time together is the driving force, rather than my own personal interests.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good executive?
Over time, I hope that I’ve become better at what I do. I don’t react emotionally as much as I used to. I think that to be calm and levelheaded are the personality traits that are really important in this business because typically you’re managing interpersonal issues, and you can’t do that well if your emotions get in the way. When I was younger, I often did let my emotions get the better of me, but now I’ve become more detached and factual on managing these issues.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
I provide clients advice regarding transfer pricing. I never knew that there was even a transfer pricing industry. When I started, back in 1992, there might have been 25 people in the world who could have legitimately said that they were a transfer-pricing advisor. Today, that number is 5,000 professionals and it’s nearly an $800 million global industry. When I was a younger person, I thought of finance as investment banking and CFO-type roles. I never realized that there were so many diverse job opportunities and little niches that are finance-oriented, and that are quite robust and exciting and can mean rewarding careers for people.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
I’m surprised how many young people go into finance and don’t really love business, they don’t read The Wall Street Journal and they don’t understand what’s going on in the world around them as it relates to finance. I think if you’re going to be in finance, you need to have that same kind of love for it that successful people in any profession have for what they do.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Duff & Phelps Corporation
You really have to embrace it and live it. You can’t be a numbers guy, and then turn it off at 6 o’clock at night.
Have you ever been mentored or mentored others?
I’ve had mentors and been mentored. The best mentor for me was Dick Boykin. The main reason that made Dick such a good mentor to me was that he was willing to share his time with me. I was also sort of intellectually curious and I knew I was going to have his job eventually. I really wanted to understand the world from his perspective, and how he addressed problems. The intelligence and process of how Dick approached managing the business was incredible to me. Our discussions were very informal, but because I was curious, he eventually started confiding in me and sometimes even asking me for my opinions, and our relationship slowly became a two-way street. I’ve never seen it work when you go to somebody and say, “I want you to be my mentor.” My view is that you develop a personal relationship and you nourish it, and it just all naturally evolves.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry in the absence of a formal program that some companies have?
I have found that, like myself, people like to talk about themselves, and I think the way to find a mentor is to ask people to relay their experiences and see how they might be applicable to you. If you do that, you’ll find people are more than willing to share and help, and most people are happy to help younger people. You really just have to ask “did you ever face this?” and you’ll find that people will open up to you and share their experiences, and those can be tremendously valuable.
What other careers and life choice did you consider before deciding on a career in finance?
I grew up in a western Pennsylvania mill town, and in my hometown, the only thing better than being a doctor or a lawyer, was to be an engineer. So I went to engineering school and became an engineer, and worked in the metals industry. I later went back to school and got my MBA in finance.
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If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
If I can’t play shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, which I don’t think at this age I could do, I’d probably go back to being an engineer. When I was growing up in the 1970s in western Pennsylvania, it was a very difficult, depressing time and factories were closing. So when I was young, my view was that “I’d really like to help these people; I’d like to run one of these big factories, run a big steel mill.” That was my dream and if I wasn’t in finance, I probably would go back to my original career.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
I think some of the hoopla that is going on today with private equity and hedge funds is going to sort itself out. But I think the industry itself and people who are in the finance industry add a tremendous amount of value to our economy. Actually, I believe that the finance acumen of the people in this country, the creativity and the things that they bring to our economy is what differentiates us and provides us comparative advantage.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Duff & Phelps Corporation
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“I’m surprised how many young people go into finance and don’t really love business, they don’t read The Wall Street Journal and they don’t understand what’s going on in the world around them as it relates to finance.”
— Daniel Peters, Segment Leader, Financial Advisory Services Business, Duff & Phelps Corporation
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Eide Bailly LLP
David L. Stende—Chief Operating Officer
Chief Operating Officer Dave Stende is responsible for the daily operations of Eide Bailly and assists in attaining established operational and financial goals. Mr. Stende provides leadership to ensure the accountability of the regional directors and the partners in charge of the operating offices. He also provides guidance to firm-wide department heads in the areas of business development, communications, finance, human resources, technology, and training and development. He also collaborates with the Managing Partner/CEO in the overall administration of the Firm. Mr. Stende joined Eide Bailly in 1981 and was promoted to partner in 1992. He served as Partner in charge of the firm’s Fargo, ND office from 2005-2006. In May of 2006, he was appointed by the board of directors upon recommendation of the managing partner to serve as chief operating officer of the firm. Mr. Stende has more than 25 years experience in public accounting, providing client services in the area of auditing and consulting for a variety of industries. Mr. Stende received his BS in business administration and accounting from the University of North Dakota and is a native of Mayville, N.D. He currently lives in Fargo, N.D., with his wife, Tonya, who is a certified Dale Carnegie Instructor and president of Eide Bailly Training. Mr. Stende has two children, twins Thomas and Hannah.
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Q&A with David Stende
What are some steps you took to get in the position you are in now?
There’s nothing better than a positive attitude and being a self-starter. Those two things combined can elevate you to a natural leader.
What are some things you learned on the job and not necessarily in the classroom?
How to interact with people. Simple tools like Meyers Briggs, predictive index or any of those tools you can learn yourself, but learning how to interact with other people is something not taught in the classroom.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
Being part of a growing organization and specifically being able to develop other people, see them grow in their jobs and being a part of other people’s success.
What personality traits or attributes make for a good, effective executive?
In addition to that positive attitude, I think integrity is obviously first and foremost. But I think being a good leader is the aspect of putting others before you and giving others credit instead of taking credit, and being humble.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Eide Bailly LLP
What has surprised you most about working in the accounting industry?
I’d say it would be the human interaction. Most people become accountants or number crunchers so they don’t have to deal with people and that’s all this business is, it is dealing with people and having to sell your ideas. It’s the human aspect, which is the most surprising.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
Work/life balance is really a very personal matter as far as how you define it. I have colleagues that work 70 hours a week and they swear they have the ultimate perfect work/life balance, and it’s getting that understanding with your spouse and your family, and trying to identify and communicate with them.
Do you have any special techniques or methods that you use to maintain this balance?
Just good old-fashioned open communication.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in accounting?
Accounting deals with human interaction. Again, doing things like taking Dale Carnegie courses or joining toastmasters and trying to hone their own personal development skills because technical skills you’ll learn along the way, but if you can get a leg up on those personal skills, you’ll accelerate your career.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
As far as being mentored, my mentors changed throughout my career. In the first few years, there was a certain individual because those were the skill sets I needed at the time, but as you evolve in your career, you’re going to change your mentors a few times and you should, so that you can progress along the way. The thing I would do differently is I never had a direct conversation with them as mentors, saying, “You know, I’d like you to help me along the way.” Because I know, I’ve had a few people who looked to me as their mentor, and I wasn’t aware that I was supposed to be mentoring them. I would have been a lot more helpful to them had they explained that to me.
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How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
If you’re a good self-starter you will naturally find a mentor, and that should be part of being a self-starter. But again, I think it’s just being up front and finding the person you want to emulate at that point in your career, and having that direct conversation with them and making sure they know that, “Hey I’d like you to mentor me along the way.”
If you were not in this field, what would your dream career be now?
You know, as crazy as it sounds, I like what I do. I like getting up every day and coming to work. I love the career I’m in. I think accounting is actually a very exciting career.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
I think the demands are only going to increase rather than decrease as government regulation and oversight increases. Also, the baby boomers are retiring, which will cause consolidation in the industry, but at the same time, it creates a whole host of opportunities for people in the field right now.
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Ernst & Young Global Limited
Steve Campo—Partner in Financial Services Risk Management
Partner Steve Campo joined Ernst & Young in 1999 and is part of a team of people serving clients in the financial services market, focused on solutions in response to the current credit crisis. He brings over 25 years of experience as an accountant, issuer, financial guarantor and advisor in the securitization industry. During that time, he has been involved in many product sectors. Mr. Campo has considerable experience in the residential mortgage industry, having focused on the product and operational facets of the industry, including State and Federal housing programs, prime lending programs and the home equity, nonprime, HLTV and subprime sectors of the industry. He is also the lead partner on the Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA) account. Mr. Campo recently served as practice leader for the structured finance advisory services practice at Ernst & Young and previously as senior managing director and head of the structured finance group at MBIA Insurance Corporation, where he was responsible for oversight of the financial guarantee business in the mortgage-backed and asset-backed areas. He also served as an issuer of public housing program MBS. Mr. Campo is a certified public accountant and is a member of the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and currently serves as a member of the ASF Board-Level Subprime Mortgage Finance Task Force.
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Q&A with Steve Campo
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I have been through a number of career changes during my years, in the professional services industry. I spent the early years of my career in audit at another Big Four accounting firm and I left to work for a client that happened to be an issuer of mortgage backed securities. I moved from the controllership of that firm to the finance side and became involved in the issuance of securities. I found the Wall Street side of the equation to be a lot of fun and eventually found myself in New York working at what was then Municipal Bond Investors Assurance Corp., the predecessor of MBIA. After more than 14 years with MBIA, I came to Ernst & Young. While I’ve had a number of career changes along the way, many people have found it interesting that I’ve gone full circle from starting at an “accounting” firm to coming back to an “accounting” firm. But, the accounting industry has changed and it’s a misnomer to classify Ernst & Young as just an accounting firm. We are far more than that—we focus not only on the accounting and tax side of the equation, but we can serve our clients with very deep advisory services. That’s what made this so interesting, because that’s really what I wanted to do.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career? What would you most like to change?
Each of the steps of my career has been incredibly enjoyable. I would not trade my experience in the public accounting arena in the early days for anything in the world. It was a phenomenal education. That said I also enjoy working with people—being challenged
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Ernst & Young Global Limited
to solve difficult problems. I’m pretty good at building businesses. I’m good at fixing problems and because of that it has made each chapter along the way very interesting. For instance, I came here to Ernst & Young exactly eight years ago to become the managing partner of what was then being started as the structured finance advisory service practice. I inherited a very small team of people and built it to a team of almost 200 people before we realigned the practices last year. Now I’m over on the advisory side where I’m currently part of the global financial services risk management team. What I’ve truly enjoyed is the challenge of solving problems. Helping clients build their businesses, helping Ernst & Young build its practice, working with people and finding ways to make things work within has been extremely rewarding and very enjoyable. I also find the recruiting side interesting because it is an opportunity to find great young people to join Ernst & Young. We have very diverse, dedicated teams who are not only interested in meeting students, but in helping faculty and universities achieve their goals. Working with the junior folks keeps your thinking young. They keep challenging you and they find new and better ways to do things. It makes me look forward to coming to the office every day.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
One of the things that I struggled with in school was cost accounting. But after I was in the business for a couple of years, I had this sort of epiphany. I was working with a client on auditing cost accounting measures when suddenly, this lightbulb went off and I said, “Wow, that’s what that cost accounting course was all about.” But I’m sure everyone has those little chapters in their lives that they can relate to. Perhaps one of the biggest things I’ve learned on the job is the importance of building relationships and being a consummate team player. At school a lot of the focus is on learning the technical aspects of a discipline. When you are serving clients, you need to master the technical aspects but you also need to work with people who have different styles and skill-sets and different priorities. It was very exciting to develop these other skills that end up being equally important.
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What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
Two things, one is that the accounting and finance industry today is so different from the one I entered over 30 years ago. There are different considerations, different drivers, and it is certainly a different environment in terms of being a regulated versus a self-regulated industry. But the pleasant surprise is the wealth of knowledge and experience that is housed within Ernst & Young. I find it amazing that no matter what client I am working with, or what problem I encounter, somewhere in the firm I can find someone who can help solve the problem. I find this incredibly amazing and very gratifying.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
Well, patience—a lot of it. We are challenged everyday to manage very challenging situations. You’ve got to be a good listener, you have to be very patient, you have to be even-keeled, you’ve got to be able to maintain balance. And, you’ve got to know you’re setting an example for everyone; because whether you know it or not, people are measuring your every move, whether it’s the most junior staff person, your assistant or your superiors. Everything you do has an impact on someone and it’s important that you understand that, and that you value the significance of the impact you might be having.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special methods, techniques or philosophies that help you maintain a balance and be a successful professional?
Honestly I can say I feel very gifted and blessed to have a family who understands that I have worked very hard to maintain the balance between my professional and personal life. It’s important to me beyond belief that my kids have verbalized that they know I’ve done everything I can to be at their important events and to know that I’ve made it home for those school night functions. And that has a sacrifice to it.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Ernst & Young Global Limited
At Ernst & Young, we emphasize flexibility and we encourage people to make sure that they keep their work and life in balance. It’s perfectly okay with me if I made it home for dinner that night and somebody needs to call me at 9 o’ clock because we have an issue that needs to be resolved. That’s just fine with me. Certainly there are things in everyone’s career that you can’t control and I’ve been blessed to have a family that understands that. But I’ve also tried very hard, and been successful, at keeping a good balance.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
Well, these are truly unique times, in that we’ve gone from the absolute hottest period in history to a period now where the market has cooled off for a little bit. It’s finding a new level of operation, whether it’s in the accounting side or the finance side. You can’t ignore the current credit crisis, and it certainly has an impact. But we have found, and I strongly believe, that there are lots of great students that are coming out into the marketplace that have either an accounting degree or a finance degree or in some cases both. They are phenomenally talented young people, and they’re well positioned to take on lots of different tasks out here and you have got to explore them. For anyone starting a career, be it finance, accounting or another field, having a great attitude, being intellectually curious and making everyone on your team shine will help position you for great success. Be passionate about what you do and focus on always being the best at your current job.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
A mentor is a very personal thing, and yes, I have been mentored. I always have been fortunate enough to have someone that I had a great relationship with, that one person who would always look over my shoulder or who was the voice that could talk to me and help keep things in perspective. Along the way, I was also lucky enough to have been given a couple of breaks. But a mentor is someone that can’t be assigned. It’s someone that you have to find, someone you’re willing to trust. I can say that over my career I’ve had three or four people that I’d be willing to put my career in their hands and know that they’ll handle it just as well, if not better, than I would.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
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When I came out of school, accounting just seemed like a good place to be. I grew up in a very blue collar family; there were very few people in the family who even went to college. Accounting seemed like a good honest living and I took a liking to it. I enjoyed it and it provided me a rewarding career path. Finance just became a natural transition, because I found that the accounting path led me to an interesting area in finance. It capitalized on what I’d already learned, but I certainly needed to learn some new things through on-thejob training. The truth is I don’t know that I’d want any other position and industry. I truly love what I’m doing. In my youth, I was a pretty good musician. At one point, I had to choose which of those paths I would take and I have no regrets about the one I chose.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Ernst & Young Global Limited
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“Everything you do has an impact on someone and it’s important to understand that, and to value the significance of the impact you might be having.”
— Steve Campo, Partner, Ernst & Young Global Limited
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First Horizon National Corporation
Sarah L. Meyerrose—President of Emerging Businesses
President of Emerging Businesses Sarah L. Meyerrose is responsible for commercial and consumer insurance, new growth platforms including the convergence of health care and banking, and digital/internet banking for First Horizon National Corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tenn. Ms. Meyerrose began her career holding various positions with Commerce Union Bank in Nashville, Tenn. She joined First Horizon, then First Tennessee National Corporation, in 1982 and has held the positions of investor relations coordinator, corporate treasurer and senior financial officer. In 1993, she moved to Johnson City, Tenn., to serve as transitional coordinator for the merger of Home Federal Savings and Loan with the bank and, in 1995, was promoted to president of the bank’s Kingsport/Bristol operation. She returned to Memphis in June 1998 to accept the responsibility for corporatewide employee services. Prior to her current duties, she was responsible for enterprise-wide shared services, including technology, operations and corporate real estate, as well as employee services. Ms. Meyerrose served on First Horizon’s original task force to introduce family-friendly principles into the company and has been an outspoken advocate regarding the strategic imperative of the company’s cultural evolution. Ms. Meyerrose received her BA in business administration from Vanderbilt University and an executive MBA from Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Management. She has been married to her husband, Mike, for 29 years and they have an 18-year-old daughter, Anna.
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Q&A with Sarah Meyerrose
What are some steps that you took to the position that you are in now?
I’ve had a lot of different jobs within the financial services industry, but most of them with one company. So I think it’s very important when you have the opportunity to do something different, even if you think it might not be exactly what your strength is, to take a chance yourself and to try out new things. I’d say it’s that along with constantly reading and learning and talking to people. I think just being very curious about different aspects of whatever industry you’re in, in this case, financial services.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
First of all, find a place that really fits your personality, or you fit the culture. Because it’s very important that you feel comfortable working with the people that you’re with. That gives you the opportunity to grow, to be curious, to be able to ask questions and get good answers for them and once you’re in the right company, then do the very best you can. Don’t be looking for the next job until you really know that you’ve conquered the one that you’re doing. And as you do that, prepare yourself for other things that might come along by reading, by volunteering for committees or assignments that might be outside your related work, whatever your particular job is at the time. The biggest thing I like to tell people is be willing to take a chance on yourself.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals First Horizon National Corporation
What are some things you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
Oh, gosh, just about everything. Although, school is very important, it teaches you how to think critically. But when you get into financial services, you really have to think about how it works, does it make practical sense, what is the ultimate goal, and how does what you’re doing lead to whatever the ultimate goal might be with a real focus on customers and how to get things done. So I would say, school prepares you for the technical aspects of your job, but the job teaches you the practical application of it, of how things work and particularly of how you really collaborate with people. While learning to collaborate in school can be helpful, it’s when you’re on the job striving for a similar goal, that you really learn how to operate within a team.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of your career? What would you most like to change?
I would say the most rewarding aspect is that I have had the opportunity to do a lot of different things in different roles, particularly in the last few years. I’ve been in sort of a fix-it role, and the most important thing that I learned from that and really the most gratifying, is finding the right people to get things done, putting the right people in the right seats and helping them develop so they could become more than they were before. That is absolutely the most gratifying. In terms of change, things I would change? I don’t know that there’s a whole lot that comes to mind other than the moments when you look back and say, I wish I’d taken that opportunity. But I don’t think there were too many opportunities that I didn’t take.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
I think the thing that surprised me in the first few years was the perception about financial services. A lot of people think it’s really boring. I had a professor many years ago who said if you talk to a banker, you have to talk very slowly, which is what people think about it. But the interesting part is how highly regulated we are as an industry. We have regulators for everything, and what I found surprising and interesting is that while the regulations can be somewhat of a burden, it actually makes the puzzle a little bit more interesting. Because you have to figure out how to do what’s right for your customers and your employees and your shareholders, while at the same time making sure that you’re following all the regulations. So it just makes it a little bit more complex to come to the right answer.
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What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
I think you have to really appreciate the talent that everybody brings to the table, whatever that is. You have to be able to work with the individuals to identify what their talents and passions are, so they are motivated when they come to work and then take those various talents and put them to work in the right way. So you have a team that is balanced, you have a team that can accomplish things. You have people on the team who are good at strategy, people who are good at details, people who are good at process. Matching the talents and capabilities and strengths of the individuals to the tasks and the goals is the most important thing that a leader needs to be able to do.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored? How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
Well, our mentoring tends to be more informal. We don’t have specific programs, and so usually when asked that question I like to say that you can learn from everybody. You can learn from every situation. And so you will naturally end up with someone that you can see and use as a mentor. But I think it’s important in every situation to say, why did that go so well, and what can I learn from it, and what did that person do so well that I can learn from and vice versa, what have I just learned not to do because of what happened in that particular situation. The bottom line in all this is, don’t tie everything to an individual. Take responsibility for yourself, and learn from whomever you can and whatever situation you can.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals First Horizon National Corporation
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
Yes. I spent about nine years heading up the human resources department for this company and one of the terms that I grew to dislike greatly was “work/life balance.” The reason is I feel the word “balance” implies that you have to give up something that’s very important to you to be able to conduct your life. And so I feel at various stages of your life you have to step back and ask yourself what is really important to you, professionally, personally, spiritually, physically. There are certain things that just aren’t that important and so you can take the burden off yourself and say, then, I don’t have to do this. As a personal example, I have a daughter who is now about to graduate from high school. If, while she was growing up, I had felt that it was important for me to be at school as a room mother for her, I would have been frustrated and I wouldn’t have been able to have the career I have. Well, that wasn’t important to me and it wasn’t important to her. So I didn’t have to worry about it. It was one of those things where I could say, that’s not important, I’m going to interact with my daughter a different way. I think it’s all about knowing yourself and being honest with what’s really important. Then you can manage your time, career and your personal life in a way that brings you satisfaction.
That’s a unique philosophy.
Well, nobody can really do everything. That supermom thing is a myth.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
Honestly, I have been in financial services ever since I graduated from college. I ended up in the business because I took a finance course when I was in college and absolutely loved it, ended up in the banking industry and have stayed ever since. But what I really love is the people aspect, and that’s something I’ve kind of grown into, feeling good about my ability to mentor people, to help people develop themselves and be good contributors.
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I’ve been very lucky about embracing what’s important to me. I’ve got a very stable family and a very stable marriage and that for me has been very good and very important.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
It’ll change and I don’t mean that to sound trite, by any means. But any industry, and particularly financial services, goes through sea changes periodically, and we’re going through a sea change right now. We’re seeing the effect of the globalization of the financial markets. Part of the reason we have seen an inverted yield for such a long period of time is that there are a lot of international dollars that flow into the United States that might not have several years ago. We’re seeing the effect of the euphoria of the housing market that is in major correction right now. I believe what will end up happening is that the retail/commercial banking sector, at the end of the day, will see very large universal banks, the Citicorps of the world, the large foreign banks, the Bank of Americas, and we’ll see very small, community banks and in the middle will be specialty organizations that have a very special niche on a go-forward basis. What the timing would be is questionable, but I think that’s where we’ll go.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals First Horizon National Corporation
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“I feel the word ‘balance’ implies that you have to give up something that’s very important to you to be able to conduct your life ... step back and ask yourself what is really important to you professionally, personally, spiritually and physically. There are certain things that just aren’t that important, so take the burden off yourself and say, I don’t have to do this.”
— Sarah Meyerrose, President of Emerging Businesses, First Horizon National Corporation
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Houlihan Lokey
Jeffrey I. Werbalowsky—Co-Chief Executive Officer
Co-CEO Jeffrey I. Werbalowsky also serves as a senior managing director with Houlihan Lokey. He is a member of the board of directors and vice-chairman of the board of directors for Fram, Inc. Mr. Werbalowsky has led many of the firm’s largest restructuring engagements in his position as co-founder and global co-director of the financial restructuring group since 1988. Before joining the firm, Mr. Werbalowsky was CEO of Cheviot Capital Corporation, an investment firm engaged in transactions involving bankruptcy and distressed situations. Prior to that, he was a member of Levene and Eisenberg after serving as an associate with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he practiced law and specialized in cases involving bankruptcy, corporate reorganization and insolvency. Mr. Werbalowsky has written a number of articles including; “Reforming Chapter 11: Building an International Restructuring Model,” “Allocating Value In Canadian and American Restructuring Transactions,” “Advising the Distressed Company,” “Evaluating Distressed Securities,” “Buying and Selling the Distressed Company” and “Deleveraging the Troubled Company,” and has testified as an expert witness on a variety of restructuring and distressed security issues. Mr. Werbalowsky earned his BA in economics, magna cum laude, from the University of Virginia and a JD from Columbia University, where he was a Stone Scholar for three years and an editor of the Columbia Law Review.
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Q&A with Jeffrey Werbalowsky
What are some steps that you took to get to the position you are in now?
I had a career in law. I was at the right place at the right time. I was interested in finance and I changed to investment banking restructuring and joined Houlihan Lokey at a time when our firm was very small. Our restructuring group was very successful and I was the head of it, so it buoyed my career from the get go. Then it got to the point in our firm where we were under-managed on the corporate level, and we were well situated with a cadre of good leaders in our restructuring group. So I transitioned with Scott [Beiser], my Co-CEO who was in our FAS group, from a purely operational roll to a dual role in restructuring and corporate where I am today.
What are some things you have learned on the job and not in the classroom?
One of the biggest lessons is that you need a huge amount of focus and energy to bring into the “field” of the deal. You have to figure out what the facts are on the ground at the company yourself—in school a lot of times you’re given these complicated problems, but the facts are all there! Developing the facts accurately is the first step in creating a good plan and that’s not easy. It’s very easy for people to come in and look at the facts in the way they feel most comfortable and say, “Oh well, based upon my perspective of this issue …,” it’s the whole key issue and they got it wrong! If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you really don’t focus on the facts, you’ll probably smash the deal.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Houlihan Lokey
It’s hard to focus on the facts; it’s hard to determine them, because normally you need to do that with senior, intermediate and junior people in a team all contributing. That means people have to be coordinated, you have to have great team work and people need to be energized. That means that the junior people have to understand the whole view at least conceptually. So figuring out what the facts are is kind of a critical predicate for applying all the things we love to do, all our great analytical abilities and creativity. You can apply them, and a great many people do, to a wrong set of facts that come up to the absolute wrong answer and people in school sometimes don’t realize that figuring out the facts is just as important as applying the creativity and the analysis.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
Well, a lot of times in complicated deals you find that people, very fallible people, are making decisions based upon incorrect information and incorrect analysis. From afar it looks like geniuses are at work doing brilliant projects. From close by what surprises you is that they’re just people making decisions, some good and some bad, and you’d be surprised how many bad decisions people high up in the world make on a continual basis. Even though that is initially a little scary, you just say, “That’s life, that’s the world.” In some ways, if everybody always got the right answer then we all wouldn’t have jobs—I certainly wouldn’t.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
The most rewarding element of my career is having our firm go from being a nobody in the investment banking world—“Houlihan Who?”—to having a very successful firm recognized for our excellence in restructuring, corporate finance and valuation opinions. I am very proud and take daily joy in having lots and lots of people in our firm be very financially and professionally successful, and happy that they are a part of something that I helped build. If I recruited someone and they say to me, “I’m so happy I came here” or “It’s so good to be here” or ”I’ve had so much fun and it’s all because of Houlihan Lokey,” I get a big a kick out of that.
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What would you most like to change?
I hate dealing with problems. No problems. I hate problems. Some of the best CEOs relish dealing with problems. I don’t like problems, I just like dealing with good things. Maybe not a good trait for a CEO so it’s a good thing I have a co-CEO who loves problems.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good effective executive?
For a CEO, I think the two most important attributes, at least for me, are the ability to inspire and the ability to responsibly delegate. That means you need to let people do the fun jobs and some of the not-fun jobs, and make sure you follow up with them, make sure you supervise them and give them enough input to do a good job. All those things are really important because CEOs who try to do it all themselves will find that they ultimately don’t do a good job. So people sometimes get to be CEOs by doing a great job and a lot of times they do a lot of it by themselves, but when you get to be a CEO that stops being an effective strategy. For me, I never did it all myself, so it wasn’t that hard a transition. I always was a believer in allocating and delegating responsibilities. Some may call it lazy, not to my face so much anymore, but I call it responsible delegation. Employing the proper terminology is always important. In terms of being a good executive, important dual qualities are being able to listen and communicate. You’ve got to be able to listen to people all around you, figure out what they know and make decisions based on that input, and then communicate those decisions and the reasoning behind them in a credible manner.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Houlihan Lokey
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods or philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
Ultimately to be a good CEO and a good member of a firm you have to take your responsibilities seriously and put a huge priority on your responsibilities to the firm. But on the other hand, the most important issues in life revolve around your family. So, notwithstanding the criticality of what you need to do for your work, you need to put your family first. At the same time, putting your family first doesn’t mean you drop everything about work—you need to continually prioritize. You need to plan ahead. There have been years when we were building our restructuring group, when I neglected my family, and spent way too much time working on the thought that I was investing my time then and the benefits would ultimately inure to me and my family in a way that made it all worthwhile. My thought was that I was working hard to create financial security in the long term for my family. I am not sure that all those trade-offs were wise looking back, but you do the best job you can with that balancing at the time. So it’s important in your career to have a real, sit down discussion with your spouse early on as to what your collective goals are and what trade-offs you are collectively willing to make and that often does not happen. Today, I’m a massive believer in technology; I have a BlackBerry everywhere I go. I know some people think it’s intrusive but I believe it frees me up to spend more time with my family. Because I don’t have to keep checking in, I don’t need to keep feeling like there’s an emergency waiting for me. I can track all the fires and know when I need to jump in and can just relax and it makes me feel calmer to have a BlackBerry on vacation with my family. I think it’s a great invention for people who want to balance life and family.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
I think finance is a great area, from an effort-to-benefit ratio there’s a potentially great professional satisfaction and monetary payoff. But on the other hand, you have to do what you love. You have to figure out earlier rather than later whether you love finance, because it’s hard to escape once you start down the road. So figure out early whether you really love it and if you do, go for it. Be passionate about it. If you don’t love it, go do something else because money by itself does not buy happiness, it really can’t. It helps!
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But the best of all worlds is when you’re doing something that you love and if that something is good for you and your family monetarily, that’s a great correlation. But it’s not always possible to get there. The worst thing to do is be done with your career, made a lot of money, and realized you really didn’t enjoy what you’re doing, and that it’s too late to go back.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others? How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
I really haven’t been mentored much in my career to my detriment. It’s one of those things you don’t realize you’re missing until you look back and see you kind of missed it. There were two people in my career who could’ve been in a position to mentor me and they both did some positive things and were well meaning but they were both dealing with their own serious issues. Both very smart, capable people, but they never really got around to mentoring me in a way that I look back on and say—“Wow that was critical.” It makes me all the more sensitive to making sure that we have good mentors at our firm. I have tried to mentor other people in our firm and I certainly got a lot out of it and I sure hope they did. I had close relationships and still do with people I mentored and who are now senior officers. We have a formal mentor program now throughout our firm. Everyone in our firm all the way up to the vice president level has assigned mentors.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
I was a lawyer initially and I thought about doing other things in business. My real dream career would be a rock star. I was talking to my son the other day about how walking out with a guitar around your neck to 100,000 people screaming your name would be worth more than making a lot of dollars a year. Also, after I’m done with this career, I have a big interest in writing. I’ve got some books in my head that I’m going to write.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Houlihan Lokey
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
Things will go up, things will go down. People will make fortunes, people will be wiped out. A big restructuring wave is now lapping at our shores. There will be a lot of failure and a lot of opportunity in the near future.
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Invesco Ltd.
Andrew Schlossberg—Chief Marketing Officer, U.S. Retail & Head of North American Retail Strategy
Chief Marketing Officer Andrew Schlossberg joined Invesco Ltd. in 2002. Mr. Schlossberg most recently served as head of global strategic planning and corporate development for Invesco, where he focused on business strategy and mergers and acquisitions. He has served in multiple roles within Invesco’s businesses including head of business strategy for the North American Institutional division from 2003 to 2005 and manager of product development for the company’s Retirement division from 2002 to 2003. Mr. Schlossberg served at Citigroup Asset Management and its predecessors from 1996 to 2000 as an equity research analyst on the U.S. large-cap value equity team, prior to joining Invesco. Mr. Schlossberg received his BS in finance and international business from the University of Delaware and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School.
Q&A with Andrew Schlossberg
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What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
For me, it was having a broad spectrum of experiences. For a job like mine, that’s both global and spans across a variety of different disciplines, it is actually having had experience on the investment side and the product side of our business and having had the benefit of doing that in multiple places.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not necessarily in the classroom?
Being a good listener is probably the most important thing that they don’t teach you in school, but you definitely have to pick up, especially in the financial services industry where there are a lot of smart people with a lot of good ideas, and talking less sometimes is better.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
Surrounding yourself with good people. In a people business like asset management, finding the right people and keeping them challenged and motivated is the most important thing.
What do you think is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
That the work I do is relevant to so many different people. Most of our time is spent trying to figure out how to help people live better in retirement with their investments. It’s a topic I can talk about with anybody and they can relate to it.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Invesco Ltd.
If you had a choice, what would you most like to change?
Probably making sure that I maintain a balanced life while making sure I take advantage of opportunities that have to do with things outside of my normal workday.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
I’ve had an opportunity to live in a number of different places, and that’s been eye-opening and very rewarding. I think it’s been a challenge, but I believe it’s been positive. When you work at a global company you continue to have those kinds of opportunities.
Do you have any special techniques and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance?
No—that is something I need to improve. Interestingly, sharing things about work with your family is actually a good thing, not to let it totally absorb you, but so they understand and appreciate what you’re going through is helpful.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
How challenging it is, because it’s always changing and that means there is always something new all the time. You always have to be constantly learning and improving.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
If you’re still in school, make sure you actually study some things other than finance. As meaningful as all the academics and technical skills, accounting, financial analysis, etc., it’s the softer skills that will be more relevant as you advance in your career. Whether its understanding how marketing works, or understanding organizational behavior or business strategy, make sure you branch out and expand your learning opportunities. At first it won’t feel like you are learning the right information to really understand, but over time you’ll tend to use it more than you think.
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Have you ever been mentored or mentored others?
Yes. I’m not a big believer in formal mentoring. I think informal mentoring is better. So find somebody at your job or in school, and pick their brain and have lunch with them routinely, or come to them with a complicated question and use that to develop a relationship, rather than something that’s forced. Even if your company has a formal process, try to develop personal relationships, because they’re much stronger than arranged business relationships. In terms of mentoring others, don’t always try to have somebody replicate who you are, because that’s actually not helpful for the other person. Rather try to help share your experiences with them so that they can learn from them while using them to tailor how they want to be as a professional.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
There are a number of ways to do that. Find somebody at your company who went to the same school that you went to, or is into the same sports team that you’re into, anything to forge a relationship. Find opportunities to demonstrate that you actually are a high achiever, even if you don’t get the opportunity to work with them day to day.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on finance?
I’ve always wanted to do something in financial services. Truthfully, I didn’t know it was called financial services, but I always liked understanding how it all worked and how money moved around, and those sorts of things, so it just became more natural for me.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Invesco Ltd.
What would your dream career be?
Psychologist. I just always thought that’d be a fascinating career. I actually think that it’d just be interesting to listen to people’s problems and try to solve them.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
Things are becoming more and more global every day, so don’t focus exclusively on your home country, wherever that is, because it’s increasingly going to be just part of a whole.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Invesco Ltd.
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“Whether its understanding how marketing works or organizational behavior or business strategy, make sure you branch out in school. At first it won’t feel like the right information to really understand, but over time you’ll tend to use it more than you think.”
— Andrew Schlossberg, Chief Marketing Officer, U.S. Retail & Head of North American Retail Strategy, Invesco Ltd.
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KPMG LLP
Manny Fernandez—National Managing Partner, University Relations and Recruiting
National Managing Partner Manny Fernandez is responsible for KPMG’s recruiting strategy and execution, including faculty relations. He is a member of the firm’s Operations Committee and the co-chair of the firm’s national Hispanic/Latino Network. He previously served as partner in charge of KPMG’s Audit & Risk Advisory practice for Colorado. Mr. Fernandez has extensive experience with large national and international companies. He is also a member of the Chairman’s 25 leadership program. He currently serves as the trustee of the KPMG Foundation, and the PhD Project, is a member of the Colorado Society of CPAs, AICPA, and is a member of the Mile High United Way Alexis de Tocqueville Society. Mr. Fernandez received his BS in accounting from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Q&A with Manny Fernandez
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
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As you progress through your career it’s important to build good networks, have mentors and take advantage of opportunities as they come along. I did a three-year international assignment in Mexico City around the ninth year of my career, which was a tremendous catalyst for the subsequent 15 years. Building good mentors, good networks both with peers and with the people you report to and then taking advantage of good opportunities as they come along helps to enhance and build your career.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others? How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
Over my career I’ve had informal mentors and formal mentors, depending on the corporate culture and programs in place where I’ve been. Today at KPMG, we have formal mentoring programs available to all our employees. In fact, there are more than 9,500 mentoring relationships involving more than 15,000 people participating through internet-based tools where you can sync up with your mentors based on particular needs and preferences. We’ve found that mentoring is highly sought by our people and is really a key to successful career development. When I speak with individuals outside KPMG, I strongly encourage that mentoring relationships be pursued— whether through formal processes or informal relationships.
What are some things you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
I view the classroom as the place to build your technical knowledge in finance or accounting. Working outside the classroom is where you find skill sets such as working in teams, client conflict resolution and other types of interpersonal development skills, which primarily come from experience. That’s really the major difference between real live action versus just reading the playbook, both of which are critical.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals KPMG LLP
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
I had an internship with KPMG. We’ve been offering internships for more than 30 years. So one piece of advice I would give a young college student is to make sure you explore various companies and firms, and take advantage of internships during your college career as possible. I would also look at the different opportunities within finance and accounting. One way to get an idea of what a career at a Big Four firm is like, is to log on to KPMG’s career architecture web site (www.kpmgcareers.com/eca/index.asp). We’ve recently opened the site to the public to provide students and others considering a career in finance with a realistic view of potential career paths—along with the necessary skills, compensation and responsibilities expected at each stage of an individual’s development. Whether it’s in audit, tax or advisory, today there are more options than ever to find a rewarding career.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career? What would you most like to change?
I think the most rewarding part of my career is having the opportunity to experience a variety of areas within public accounting. I’ve worked in four different offices and had eight different roles within KPMG over my career. I’ve really enjoyed the people interaction. At KPMG, 75 to 85 percent of our professional employees are under the age of 30. So it’s a very fast moving, very vibrant, exciting place to work with great opportunities to work globally and with a variety of clients and industries.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
I think the biggest surprise to me is how the industry has evolved, especially in public accounting, which five to 10 years ago wasn’t the first choice of finance or business school majors. In recent years the importance of public accounting and finance to the capital markets has come to the forefront, which is great to see.
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What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
I think it’s being able to have a very broad understanding of business and the environment you’re working in whether it’s specific to a company or an industry. Also, good communication skills are crucial, whether articulating issues succinctly or being a good listener and understanding the positions of others, so you can formulate your position based on sound knowledge and information. I think communication and interpersonal skills with a broad industry understanding are key components of successful executives.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods or philosophies that help you maintain a worklife balance and be a successful professional?
In order to be successful in any career I think you have to make certain commitments and sacrifices, but at the same time, be effective in managing your personal life. I’ve been married for almost 15 years and I’ve got two children, so I have been doing it for a fair amount of time. It’s a matter of blocking your calendar for those specific personal times versus work commitment. Planning ahead is a critical success factor for me, because I’ll put my calendar out a month or two or even six months but I’ll know when the kids’ games are. I’ll know when I have personal commitments with my family.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in accounting? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
Starting pitcher for the Mets or the Rockies would be a good choice!
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals KPMG LLP
I considered other career tracks, such as architecture and engineering. I loved history when I was in high school, but my choice was between finance and accounting. My dad was actually an accountant as well, so I kind of fell into it a little bit in the preliminary classes I had in high school. Choosing accounting as a major after my first year of college was a natural fit and very attractive to me.
You were actually born in Cuba, correct?
Yes, I was born in Cuba and lived there until I was eight-and-a-half years old, so I spoke Spanish before I ever spoke English.
It seems like you’re very involved in giving back to your community. How are you involved in your Latino network group?
I’m on KPMG’s National Diversity Advisory Board and I co-chair, as part of that, the Hispanic-Latino network with another partner out of San Francisco. We’re very much engaged as a firm in making KPMG a more inclusive and diverse place, and our goals are to attract, retain, develop and promote more Hispanic and Latino professionals. It’s really working to increase the pool of talent coming into KPMG, and then finding ways to develop and mentor them so they stay longer and hopefully develop skills that will improve their careers.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
There are so many examples of CFOs and CEOs across corporate America who started their careers in accounting. The profession is an ideal place to launch a career and lends itself very well to other career tracks in finance. At KPMG, you learn not only about the technical side of accounting, but also an understanding of business as a whole. You learn about strategy, goals of organizations and how to be an effective leader. Now and in the future, it will be very important for accountants to develop strong communication skills, because the profession now dictates that people often work in large teams and you have to be able to communicate with your clients.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals KPMG LLP
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“There are so many examples of CFOs and CEOs across corporate America who started their careers in accounting. The profession is an ideal place to launch a career and lends itself very well to other career tracks in finance.”
— Manny Fernandez, KPMG LLP’s National Managing Partner, University Relations and Recruiting
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LarsonAllen LLP
Gordy A. Viere—Chief Executive Officer
CEO Gordy A. Viere has served in his current capacity with LarsonAllen LLP since 1989. Mr. Viere has full responsibility for leadership and management of the firm, including the development of its strategic direction. Mr. Viere is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and currently serves as chair of the strategic planning committee, as well as having served on both its board of directors and council in prior years. He is a board member of Accountants’ Liability Assurance Company, Ltd. (ALAC) incorporated in Bermuda to offer professional liability insurance to its members and is a member of the World Presidents’ Organization (WPO) and currently serves as a board member and education chair of its Twin Cities chapter. Mr. Viere also serves on the board of directors of Junior Achievement of the Upper Midwest, as an advisory board member for various companies, and has served on many nonprofit and university boards and committees. Mr. Viere considers his most satisfying experiences to be those connected with helping children of troubled families. He and his wife, Diane, have had over 20 foster children live with them over the years, and have been involved with organizations committed to matching adoptive parents with children in situations where parental rights have been terminated.
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Q&A with Gordy Viere
What are some steps you took to get in the position that you are in now?
When I started with LarsonAllen, right out of school, I didn’t have a goal to become CEO of the firm. I just did what I was taught from very early on, which was do the very best I could in everything I did, and most importantly treat clients and coworkers well. It’s like we are taught in kindergarten: treat people the way you’d want to be treated. So when the opportunity arose and the firm was looking for someone to take the position, that helped them to look in my direction.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
The most significant thing I learned on the job is leadership and doing what is right for those around you even though it might be difficult for you to do so at times. I also learned that people really want to be part of something special; almost all people want to do a good job. If they don’t, sometimes it’s fear, or lack of confidence, so they need encouragement, and I think one of the things we as a society forget is that we all need accountability. Someone to come up and say “how are you doing?” and “why do you seem to be struggling in this area?” People want to be part of something special and will do a phenomenal job if you are willing to encourage them, empower them to use their own leadership skills and then hold them accountable to do what they said they would do.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals LarsonAllen LLP
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
No question the most rewarding aspect is watching young people develop into mature professionals. Watching people get an opportunity, take advantage of the opportunity, and the joy that they receive in getting that opportunity gives me the most satisfaction because I’m part of an organization that has provided that path.
What has surprised you the most about working in the accounting industry?
It’s the stereotype that accounting professionals are these backroom types of people. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Most people in the accounting profession are very outgoing, caring people, who are very concerned and capable in working with their client base.
What personality attributes or traits do you think make for a good, effective executive?
I think good executives need to be able to make decisions. In other words, take the information from every aspect, look for input from anyone and everyone who’s willing to give it and be willing to make a decision and act upon it. Another attribute is that to advance your personal agenda, put the people around you and the organization ahead of your own agenda. And remember that the employees of your organization are people like you and me.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any techniques or philosophies that help you maintain the work/life balance?
I think my career has had a positive influence on my family. We work very hard as a family so that no single element of our life (like work) becomes more important than our family life. I’ve always recognized that when things are going well with my family, things go a whole lot better at the workplace. We make it a high priority to make sure that we spend the appropriate amount of time together. If I feel that I’m under more stress than normal or I feel overwhelmed, I know that if I am disciplined enough to take some time off and spend it with my family, I’ll come back a day or two or a week later, a whole lot better prepared to deal with those stressful issues.
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What advice would you give a young person considering a career in accounting?
If you’re going to go in any sort of business career, accounting is one of the best places to start in terms of giving you a breadth of experience you really can’t get anywhere else. You get the opportunity to work with multiple businesses and all types of management teams, including CEOs, CFOs and HR and marketing professionals. It allows you to see the many different ways that businesses are successful or are not successful. The accounting experience can only be an asset. So when people talk to me and say, “I want to go into a business career, where should I start?” I encourage people to start out in accounting because you have so many opportunities to move to when you start there.
Have you ever been mentored or mentored others?
Yes, I’ve been fortunate to have a number of very good mentors over the years although they have not been through a formal program The most effective mentors I’ve had have been where I’ve looked at different people and saw how successful they were (and when I say successful, not only in what they’ve accomplished in their business career, but their attitude about it, their personality, their sense of fun, their sense of enjoyment, their sense of satisfaction) those are the people I would seek out and ask how they were able to accomplish so much and yet have such a great attitude about it. I’m not a big fan of programmed mentorships where the company has a mentorship program and says “here’s your mentor” or “here are three people you can pick from.” I am very much for an organization having a real open-door policy. When you look around and you see someone that you think would be great for you, you ought to seek it out.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals LarsonAllen LLP
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
Seek out people with similar careers to yours, preferably a person in your own organization. If you don’t find that inside your organization look outside of it. In our business we get to see so many other businesses in our day-to-day work so that there are often people you can seek outside your firm or even your industry for mentorship.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in accounting?
I really didn’t entertain any other choices once I became an accounting major, but I was convinced that I would only be in there two or three years and that I would use that experience to go get a “real job,” an exciting job. After being in accounting for two or three years, I realized it was actually really fun and exciting. A large part of this was because of the culture in our firm where we allow people to change careers and take a different approach to their career or take a different direction. I’ve always found that when I was ready to move or take on something more interesting or challenging or different, the firm was always willing to let me do it. So I never seriously considered a career outside the accounting industry.
What would your dream career be?
A high school teacher.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
The accounting industry today has more opportunities for people than I’ve seen in the 30 years I’ve been in this business. There is much more change and complexity than ever before and when there is a lot of complexity and change, those that look for it have more opportunity than they ever had. So when I look at the accounting industry today and look at the next 10 to 20 years, I think there’s more opportunity both from a job satisfaction and a financial standpoint than there’s ever been. I’m very upbeat about our industry.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals LarsonAllen LLP
“To advance your personal agenda put the people around you and the organization ahead of your own agenda.”
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— Gordy Viere, CEO, LarsonAllen LLP
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Legg Mason, Inc.
Harry O’Mealia—President & Chief Executive Officer, Legg Mason Investment Counsel
President & CEO Harry O’Mealia joined Legg Mason Investment Counsel in 2005. Previously, he was managing director of Tiedemann Trust Company, specializing in client acquisition and relationship management. Prior to joining Tiedemann, Mr. O’Mealia served as president and CEO of U.S. Trust Company of New Jersey. At U.S. Trust, he has oversight responsibility for approximately $3 billion of private client and institutional firm assets and all aspects of U.S. Trust’s operations in New Jersey, including investments, trusts and estates, tax, compliance and private banking. Mr. O’Mealia spent 11 years in JPMorgan Company’s Private Client Group, culminating as regional head of the private bank’s New Jersey group. He has also served as president of O’Mealia Outdoor Advertising, a family business; president of Black River Media Publishing Company and as an associate in the corporate department of the law firm of Lowenstein, Sandler in Roseland, N.J. Mr. O’Mealia currently serves on the Independent College Fund of Maryland, Baltimore Urban Debate League and the Maryland Academy of Sciences boards and is a member of the New Jersey Advisory Council for The Trust for Public Land. Mr. O’Mealia received his BA in English and history from the University of Pennsylvania, a JD from Boston College Law School and an MBA in finance from Columbia University.
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Q&A with Harry O’Mealia
What are some steps you took to get in the position are you are in now?
I grew up in a family business environment. My father ran a small business as had both of my grandfathers So I come from an entrepreneurial and business-oriented family background. Over the course of growing up, working was always expected of us. So I had a job from a young age in a variety of fields. From mucking out stalls at a horse farm, to caddying, to construction to doing a stint in my father’s business one summer and bartending, I always had a job of some sort. Those jobs were where I first learned about hard work and how to deal with people. I was always interested in what made business tick, whether it was at the stable or the construction job or whatever. I always asked my bosses lots of questions about why we did this or that. Most bosses liked my curiosity and were willing to give me their thoughts. If I asked the questions in the right way, I got thoughtful answers but in the end what really mattered was that I had to work hard and do my job right for them to respect me enough to pay attention to me. The fact that I was a hard worker gave me the ability to ask questions and get interesting answers. Early on in high school I wasn’t a great student. When I began to look at colleges, I realized that I really had to apply myself more, because the world wasn’t going to recognize my brilliance. The schools I wanted to apply to had tough standards that I needed to meet. It was the first time I was faced with not being able to talk my way through a problem. I either had the credentials to get in or I didn’t. Basically it was a maturing exercise at the end of my teen years. I began to take my school work more seriously. I got focused on a goal.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Legg Mason, Inc.
When I went to college, I continued to work hard. I took a lot of different courses. I took most of my courses in the liberal arts program and in the end was an English and history major. I also took business courses in the business school and a few in the sciences. Each of them was important in its own way. I am happy that I took so many courses in so many disciplines at that point. I think they have helped me understand issues from a lot of different perspectives in a way that I would not have had I focused on any one discipline. I went to law school and business school after college where I learned more specific skills so I am lucky that I got a broad education first and then specialized later on.
What are some things you feel you have learned on the job and not in the classroom?
It’s about understanding people, understanding what motivates them, what their perspective is, what they’re trying to accomplish and how you work with them. I counsel younger people to expose themselves to a lot of other things, a lot of other people. At the end of the day if you see yourself in a leadership position, a lot of what you have to do is motivate people or work with other people. That’s where the liberal arts are very helpful. Whether you’re taking art, psychology, English, history or literature, what you learn in those fields are going to be very helpful to you later on, because you’ve done some things vicariously, seeing things from other perspectives. Science and math help you analyze problems and see processes better. Foreign languages and music expose you to other cultures. I could go on and on. Understanding the ability to work with imperfect information is one thing I have learned on the job. Having to work within a world of increasing complexity and accelerating speed of change has been a great challenge. It is very different from an academic setting where you have a teacher, a curriculum, you have your course load, and you do your reading and show what you learned at the end of the term. There are few set time frames and no set syllabus. In the business world I don’t think people are as impressed with how smart you are and what you’ve learned as they are with what you can do and how you do it. Results matter.
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What sort of personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good effective executive?
The most important thing is to understand who you are. Have certain principles and stand by them. Make it clear to those you work with how you will deal with issues. People respect clarity. That being said, you need to always be willing to accept the fact that you may need to take a fresh look. Circumstances change. You have to understand what your particularly strong traits or best attributes are. If I tried to be Jack Welch, for example, it wouldn’t work. I manage differently. I’m a different person. But I respect him as an executive, try to learn from him and then apply it to my own style of managing. I could say the same thing about the chairman of my company, Chip Mason. He is a great manager and leader. He has more experience than I do. I watch him, learn from him and then try to apply what I’ve learned in my own way. It’s really important to understand what motivates you, what your style is and then put yourself in the right spot for your particular style. I wouldn’t be good in some things, but I’m very good at others. With my background, I’m more of an integrative person, I like consensus. Then I make a decision at the end of the day, but I try to do it in the context of a lot of inputs. As opposed to a person who drives decisions primarily from his or her own worldview, I tend to be more collegial. There are people who don’t want to have to deal with the sort of complexities of running a group. They’re very good at getting things done in their specific disciplines and that’s a critical part of business. Sometimes they are more valuable than the executive or boss. However, to be the boss you have to understand your business well, you have to understand the critical elements for success, and you have to understand how each of the specific elements should work together. That’s what I call managing “the seams between disciplines.” It’s really the arts as opposed to the science of managing. To be an effective executive you have to have a general and realistic plan as to how you’re going to get where you want to get. You have to have goals in mind; you have to have a plan of how you’re going to get there. You also have to be able to maintain a certain amount of flexibility.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Legg Mason, Inc.
Finally, you need to have a certain amount of humility. The world is too complex—so many inputs, so many seemingly contradictory elements for any one person to have all of the answers. Most progress is made through groups of people, teams of people, working together, bringing their unique contributions, their unique perspectives, bringing those to the leader who is someone who can integrate those things well and get the pieces to work well together. An effective executive is more like an orchestra conductor than somebody who’s showing up with the Ten Commandments.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
The most rewarding has been the successes I’ve achieved as a team and the fact that we’ve been able to work with wonderful people. That’s one of the things I’d recommend for anybody—work with good people. The quality of people that I’ve spent time with, whether they’re clients or co-workers, and being able to achieve success with them has been exceptionally rewarding. Of course there are measures of financial success, but real success is being able to develop a team of people that is high quality intellect, energy, integrity and a group that really executes our mission exceptionally well. Financial success seems to follow that kind of success.
If you had a choice, what would you most like to change?
I would expand time horizons a little bit. Our world is overcome with short term-ism. Whether it is early career success or short term financial results; I think that everybody is trying to compress things too much. I think public companies are under quarterly earnings pressure and analysts are saying, “we’ve had three bad quarters, when are you going to dump that business.” People as they build careers tend to be very impatient. They’re looking to get out of school and go run the business. A career is a marathon not a sprint and so is building a business. If you are looking to build something that’s sustainable long term, you have to go about it thoughtfully and realize that it is not always a straight line to the top. You have to understand there are going to be set backs, there are going to be periods when you wonder whether you are on the right track. You will probably fail in some way at some point or points along the way. But you have to take those opportunities to go back, refamiliarize yourself with who you are and what you have set out to accomplish, figure out what went wrong and build on those weaknesses. The biggest concern I have in the world today, what I would most like to change, is the race to short-termism, be successful quickly, get rich quickly, manage per quarter. Those all lead to short cuts.
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What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
Its multidimensionality. When you think of finance, you think of it as a quantitative field, and there’s no doubt that the base of it is quantitative but the fact of the matter is that while the basics are critical, once you understand the basics, you’re working with people from other disciplines and suddenly those numbers almost start speaking to you, telling a story, as opposed to just being facts.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
One is to have as broad a perspective as you can. The other is to gain specific technical knowledge. The world is opening up. We’re much more global, things are moving much more quickly, there’s a proliferation of products and of complexity in the market. But we still need common sense. So, read broadly, understand the world, force yourself to meet lots of people, expose yourself to smart people, good people, people who think differently than you do or who have had different experiences than you have had. You will come to understand that all things have an impact on finance. Also, you have to have a strong grounding in the fundamentals. You cannot fake it in this business and for my love of literature, there is math involved. You have to be able to block and tackle, you have to understand basic accounting, basic finance, basic economics, they’re all important. So at some point during your career whether you do it through formal education or on the job with a great mentor, you have to work from the bottom up. You may understand people better from reading Tolstoy, or complex adaptive systems through studying biology, but you absolutely need to know how the numbers work. Don’t believe it when someone tells you that the numbers don’t lie. I’m telling you that they can be made to squeal by whomever put them together.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Legg Mason, Inc.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
I’ve had lots of role models and a lot of people whom I have taken advice from, people who I’ve sought out in my career. I constantly seek out folks who I think are successful or people who I admire but I haven’t had a formal mentor beyond my parents. I see me mentoring others in the same way. People talk to me and take away what they think I’m good at. I’m sure I also give them plenty to leave behind.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
I think people are very flattered to be asked so don’t be shy is my first word of advice. Most executives recognize that they haven’t gotten to where they have gotten alone, and they’re very willing to sit back and talk to someone who’s interesting in learning from them. The second is to have an idea of what you want to ask. Be thoughtful about it, be respectful of the mentor’s time, chances are they will give you more time and thought than they say they will. Finally—and this is important—be sure to thank people for their time. A thoughtful letter will go a long way. You never know who’s going to be the one who’s going to help you. Sometimes it’s very random. You talk to a number of different people and somebody says something and all of a sudden a light bulb goes on in your head or hers and it’s a matter of perfect timing. When I was thinking of moving over to the business side, I met with a guy in New York who thought highly of my parents. I just went in to talk generally about what I might want to do, my frustrations about not finding the right job, looking for any advice he might want to share. (These are called informal interviews—i.e. you ask the person to just talk to you about careers in the industry. This takes the edge off, it is not a formal interview and neither side has anything to really lose). He was in investment banking and he was the person who turned me directionally toward what I would be good at. He encouraged me to go to business school. He felt that I didn’t have strong enough basic skills in finance and business to excel in the particular area of Wall Street that I wanted to pursue. He said that I’d get a job, but would not reach the goals I was setting for myself. I first ignored him for a couple of months, not having liked what I was told, and kept searching around on Wall Street. I talked to a lot of different people and after not really finding anything that was right for me, keeping his advice in mind, I decided at the end of two months that I should really go back to business school. I did and that turned out to be the critical turning point for me.
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What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
I’ve been lucky in terms of my career; it’s provided a good financial basis for my family. I’m married, have four kids and I think that whether it’s your family or your other interests, it’s important that you have outlets. By that I mean things that broaden you, force you to think of somebody else other than yourself, something other than your business; sometimes it gives a mental break. I’ve met folks who proudly say that they haven’t taken a vacation in 20 years and I don’t think that’s healthy. I work very hard in challenging environments, which forces me to be disciplined about time. It isn’t always easy. You tend to get wrapped up in your job if you enjoy it, so I have had to force myself to carve out time for other things that are important. My wife is extremely organized and disciplined so she tends to keep things in line. I travel with my wife and my kids a little bit. I spend time with each of them individually. We have a shore house where I spend decent chunks of time during the year and I have tried to keep weekends as sacrosanct as I could over the course of the last 35 years or so to be with my family. My job has certainly had an impact on my family. There have been times when I couldn’t make it to events or I have been away from home a lot, but my kids and my wife appreciate the fact that I really do try. I consider them more important than my job but they recognize that my job is important too. It’s important that they see me doing everything I can to balance things and that if push came to shove they would come first.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Legg Mason, Inc.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
I considered teaching when I was in school. I was in a relatively rigorous academic program in college, I was a dual major. I did well in each one and I liked each one. I was asked whether I wanted to go into postgraduate studies in each and I thought about it, but life took care of that for me. My dad got very ill so I had to stop and go home and get into the family business. In terms of a dream career, I’d like to play centerfield for the Yankees or defense in the NHL but I don’t have the skills and am now too old, so those are out! Golf on the PGA tour would be nice. I love to play golf and I love to travel. They go to nice places and make a good living out there. Being Tiger Woods’ best friend would cover a lot of bases.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
It’s going to continue to be more global than it’s been. The United States will be the most important market for some time longer, but on a relative basis we are growing less important. Our industry will be more diverse than it’s ever been as the talent pool for employees expands. There will be a continuing proliferation of products and more complexity but at the end of the day, even though there’s more noise, there’s more data, there are more products and there’s more of everything, it really comes down to the fact that we are solely in need of people with good skills, common sense and judgment to execute. There continues to be a need for smart, thoughtful, well-balanced people with creative minds. Our industry is limited by the fact that we continue to attract bright people who are more focused on the business of finance than the profession. We need to attract folks who want to make this a professional career, are looking at it long term and are looking at building our industry by creating more value for our clients than we extract for ourselves.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Legg Mason, Inc.
Customized for: fugui Family (ffugui@gmail.com) University of California, Irvine Online Career Library
“Our world is overcome with short termism, whether it is early career success, instant gratification or shortterm financial results; I think that everybody is trying to compress things too much.”
— Harry O’Mealia, President & CEO of Legg Mason Investment Counsel, Legg Mason, Inc.
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81
Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP
Scott O’Sullivan—Tax Partner
Tax Partner Scott O’Sullivan has over 15 years of experience. At Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP, Mr. O’Sullivan serves in the real estate practice group, where he is heavily involved in tax planning and deal structuring, including 1031 exchanges, cost segregation studies, and other transactions on behalf of prominent real estate developers and investors, property managers, nursing homeowners and operators, and other diverse businesses. Mr. O’Sullivan joined the firm in 1996 as a senior accountant initially serving in the firm’s audit department and subsequently the tax department. In 2005, his achievements were recognized by Long Island Business News which identified him as one of the “Top Five to Watch in Commercial Real Estate”. He was also named one of Real Estate Weekly’s “Rising Stars.” Mr. O’Sullivan is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Long Island Real Estate Group. Mr. O’Sullivan received his BS in accountancy from Villanova University and an MS in taxation from Hofstra University. Additionally, he has successfully completed various real estate finance and investment courses at New York University’s School of Continuing & Professional Studies’ Real Estate Institute.
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Q&A with Scott O’Sullivan
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I worked hard, continued to learn through education and reading, paid attention to detail but tried not to get stuck in the small stuff. Also, I constantly applied analytical skills and maintained a healthy work/life balance.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
On the job, I learned real life tax issues and problems and how to deal with them. It is a lot different getting a wrong answer on an exam than giving a wrong answer to a client.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career? What would you most like to change?
The most rewarding aspect of my career is that the tax law and its application are challenging and each day is different from the last. You never know what to expect when you sit at your desk each day.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
I believe you have to treat each and every employee with respect and to lead by example.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
In an age of instant communication, it is a challenge to maintain a healthy work/life balance. I have three young sons and I keep hearing from others that I must enjoy the moment as the toddler years go by quickly. I don’t ever want to regret not spending more time with my wife and kids. If I need to leave work early for any reason, I have the ability to remotely access my computer from home to catch up. However, it is easier said than done at times.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
In public accounting, you have many clients with different personalities, needs and issues. Each day brings its own challenges and stresses but it is rewarding.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
I would definitely recommend a career in public accounting as a tax accountant. It is exciting and ever evolving as the tax law changes both at a federal and state level. I have never felt bored or unchallenged in my profession.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others? How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
Mentoring is very important. I have been blessed with formal as well as informal mentors that have taken an interest in my career. They have given me great advice and have also focused on areas that needed change, etc. At our firm, we have a mentoring program whereby employees can review several biographies and can speak to potential mentors before a mentor is chosen.
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What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
My father is a CPA specializing in taxes and I pretty much knew at an early age that I wanted to do the same thing. However, my dream job would be the general manager of the Boston Red Sox.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
The industry is going through an interesting time. The demand for quality accountants is increasing but the supply is decreasing. Long Island is experiencing an exodus of younger professionals to different areas (i.e., North Carolina) due to the high costs of living on Long Island. It has been very difficult to find and retain quality candidates.
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McGladrey & Pullen, LLP
David R. Scudder—Managing Partner
Managing Partner David Scudder has served with McGladrey & Pullen, LLP, a partner-owned CPA firm, since 1986. McGladrey & Pullen, an audit firm, operates in an alternative practice structure with RSM McGladrey, a leading professional services firm providing audit, tax and business consulting services to mid-sized businesses. Though separate and independent legal entities, McGladrey & Pullen and RSM McGladrey work together to serve clients’ business needs. Mr. Scudder started in an audit position in the firm’s Schaumburg, Ill., office and has served clients in a variety of industries, with concentrations in the manufacturing, distribution and service industries. Currently serving as a managing partner, Mr. Scudder previously served in an assurance leader role, having been appointed audit and assurance services practice leader of McGladrey & Pullen’s Great Lakes practice in 1998. As managing partner, Mr. Scudder is responsible for directing the management and strategy of the assurance practice and overseeing the partnership entity, comprised of roughly 700 partners. In 2005, Mr. Scudder was elected to the McGladrey & Pullen board of directors. Mr. Scudder is a certified public accountant and holds a public accounting license in Illinois. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Illinois CPA Society. Mr. Scudder received his BS in business from Illinois’ Monmouth College and an MBA in finance from DePaul University.
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Q&A with David Scudder
What are some steps that you took to get to the position you are in now?
I had many steps along the way. I started out as an audit staff member and moved up through traditional ranks to manager and then partner with client responsibilities. Then I advanced into leadership roles at the local office and in geographic regions, finally taking a board of director role and ultimately the managing partner position. As far as the traditional hierarchy goes, I have reached the top, but my progress continues in terms of administrative responsibilities.
What are some things that you feel you have learned on the job and not necessarily in the classroom?
In the accounting and financial area, much of what you learn in the classroom is a foundation and it isn’t—as much as I hate to say this— used on a day-to-day basis. Much of what you do on a day-to-day basis is interaction with people, and reviewing multiple systems and other people’s accounting. So the basis that you had in college is focused on building that foundation that you take forward. The nuances of different companies, people interaction, analysis and analytical skills are built on the job and not so much in the classroom.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
From my standpoint, it’s working with professionals. It’s a big benefit to work with people who are motivated and career-focused exclusively.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals McGladrey & Pullen, LLP
If you had a choice, what would you most like to change?
We’re a highly regulated business, and generally not very well understood. I think the auditing profession specifically is not understood by a vast amount of the business community, and there’s always a lack of understanding of what we do.
What has most surprised you about working in the accounting industry?
The biggest surprise is that it’s traditionally viewed as an independent and internally-focused job. Many folks go into accounting because they’re not very comfortable in what they perceive to be more of a sales or an externally-focused environment—and that’s not the case. You learn very quickly that those same kinds of skills that you need in the rest of the business world are just as important in the finance area. You need to be able to communicate with people, lead large or multiple groups of people, and you have to be out there and know the sales side of the business just as well.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
If you’re going to lead a big organization, you’re going to have to have the skills to lead a diverse group of people who have different motivations, priorities and skills. You’ve got to be able to get the most out of people who have different priorities than you do.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
It’s always a balance. I think I’ve been pretty lucky along the way, from the standpoint that it hasn’t been a conflict. I have a very supportive family and that’s been very helpful. But there’s a give and take that you have to have and priorities are different at certain points in time. So you need a long-term view and you have to be highly interactive and have a lot of communication. Otherwise things can get in the way. It’s a difficult balance. As long as you’re not exclusively focused too much on one or the other, you’re going to be able to succeed.
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Do you have any special techniques, methods or a philosophy that helps you maintain this balance and be a successful professional?
From a philosophy standpoint, what you really have to do is give your full attention to whatever it is you’re working on at the time. If you’re at work and distracted by things related to your personal life, that’s not going to be beneficial. And vice versa—when you are away from work you need to concentrate and give your full attention to those parts of your life.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in public accounting?
What you have to learn very quickly is that interactive and communication skills—both verbal and written—are absolutely key. I think it’s perceived that when you think finance and accounting, you think of communicating in numbers. There’s a lot more to it than that. If you’re going to get ahead, you absolutely have to have good communication skills.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
Absolutely. I’ve had many mentors along the way, and the way I personally do it is just observe different people and try and see what makes them successful and then try and replicate those skills. It’s difficult to find one mentor for every aspect of your career. Personally, I’ve tried to observe and interact with as many people as possible and gather what I can from their successes. Some people have one mentor and have a great, ongoing relationship. It’s difficult to find that person as you move through your career. You might run into limitations. I found that when you’re not a burden on people, they will happily mentor you and happily share insight. But it’s hard to find that person who’s willing to take responsibility for all aspects of your career. Some folks are out there, but they’re hard to locate.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals McGladrey & Pullen, LLP
How can someone find a mentor in their company/industry?
You don’t necessarily need to force it. Don’t be so selective that you don’t learn from others. You’re going to find people that are very successful in certain aspects and have traits that would help you in certain situations. But maybe a significant portion of what they do is not applicable, or they have some characteristics or traits that you don’t want to emulate. So don’t think that you can’t learn from that person and don’t think that you can’t be mentored by that person just because they’re not all things. Let that mentoring process happen piece by piece.
What other career and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in public accounting?
I didn’t actively seek many other career choices, and a lot of that was based on internal assessments of my skills when I was making those choices through school. What I really think I did was keep my eyes open as I went through school, even though many of the perceptions I had at the beginning about accounting and finance—and what skills were necessary—ended up being wrong or incomplete. I always felt like I could still conquer the new things that were thrown my way. I really didn’t consider a lot of other choices. To me, finance is a component of business, and business is a very broad career choice and can take many directions. I never felt limited.
If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
A leadership role, like running a business where I can apply all the skills I have learned.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
There are a lot of concerns. Depending on the growth and where information technology advances take us—and depending on where government regulation moves us and what skills are needed—there’s lots of concern that ultimately information technology and systems will make the accounting and the auditing side of things go away. Certainly, information technology has a big impact on the way we work. What you get with that is more transparency. If systems and data can be manipulated and accumulated so that you don’t potentially need the auditor to come in and verify or analyze, that could have an impact on us. But I still feel that technology may just lessen the need to find data. There’s always going to be a need to interpret data. I just don’t think that is going to change significantly. The biggest change I think that we will see in the short-term is a global economy and global markets and internationalization. We still have a lot of disparity between the way things are done and the amount of transparency that exists internationally.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals McGladrey & Pullen, LLP
“We’re a highly regulated business, and generally not very well understood.”
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— David Scudder, Managing Partner, McGladrey & Pullen, LLP
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Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
Erick Bronner—Managing Director
Managing Director Erick Bronner serves in Merrill Lynch’s private equity fund group within the firm’s investment banking division. Prior to joining this group in 2000, Erick was an associate in Merrill Lynch’s global communications group. Mr. Bronner joined Merrill Lynch from Citicorp Securities’ global communications group. Prior to his investment banking career, he worked at Arthur Andersen & Co. in their enterprise group where he was a certified public accountant. Mr. Bronner received his BS in business from Lehigh University, an MBA from Emory University and a JD and MST from American University.
Q&A with Erick Bronner
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What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
It began with a personal inventory; figuring out what I was good at. It turned out that I was pretty good at accounting, strategy and at working with people. I also had a pretty good work ethic. The next step was matching my skills and interests with the appropriate job. I think secondly it’s the academic preparation. So it’s getting the proper education, in my case it was an MBA and a law degree.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
The first thing I learned is that business isn’t as linear as what you learn in class. A lot of unexplained variables are what you have to deal with on the job. When you’re dealing with human beings, you sometimes deal with people making irrational decisions, or that the problem you have to analyze is not as straight forward as you learned in class. So that’s where judgment and ability to assess the situation comes in. So for me it was appreciating what I learned in the classroom and adjusting it to the facts on the ground.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
For me it is a couple of things. First it’s working with very accomplished people both as colleagues and clients. In my job as an investment banker raising private equity funds, I raise capital for extremely accomplished people, which requires performing at a high level with folks who are very stern graders on a daily basis. That makes this job very exciting to me. Second, it’s the camaraderie of working in a group environment with colleagues who you like and respect, on challenging and difficult projects.
What would you most like to change?
Our business in banking is very dynamic. It’s a market environment so there are market highs and lows. In a perfect world, I would change the lows. It’s never a dull moment here, but you never know from day to day what’s going to happen in a market environment. So for me, as much as I enjoy the dynamic nature of it, obviously I would prefer that it always be up instead of down.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
I think the first trait is hard work. You really can’t replace hard work with anything else. You’ve got to be someone who’s willing to come in and work harder than others to succeed. Second is honesty, in two ways, first of all, in terms of your assessment of yourself, what are you doing well, where do you need to improve, how are other people’s assessments of you matching your own personal perspective. Also, honesty with your colleagues and clients; you have to be someone who people view as being credible and honest when they ask for feedback or when they give suggestions or when you’re presenting work product to them. Third, confidence, you have to be confident in this business. Finally, passion. If you’re in a business like this long term, you really have to enjoy what you’re doing. This business involves a lot of pressure, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of challenges, extremely long hours, but if you are passionate about what you’re doing, you succeed in the end because passion enables you to get over a lot of hurdles.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
The work/life-family balance is very challenging. The way I break it up, I say you have your work life, your family life and your nonwork, non-family life, which is your recreation, your religion and volunteer work. I try to create zones for each. So when I am in the office, I try to focus very specifically on my job. When I am at home, I try my best to focus on my family. Then I try to carve time out for the other sort of non-work, non-family life. My job, which involves a lot of travel and long hours, creates a lot of pressure to make the time I am at home as effective as possible and so for me what generally gets squeezed out is my non-work, non-family life. It is tough to make it all work in a 24-hour day. Though I must say, as you get more senior it gets a great deal better.
Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
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If you find a job that you enjoy, that you are good at and you’re working with people you like and respect, you can go a long way down the road to having a successful career and getting over the bumps that are inevitable. In a business like this you are going to make mistakes. The challenge is to make as few as possible, not to make the same mistake twice and to make sure your successes outdo your failures and it’s a lot easier to do that when you put yourself in an environment to be successful.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
It’s a never a dull moment. The market is very dynamic and people tend to over-invest in things. When I came to this business, I assumed that there were certain principles that would enable you to predict certain outcomes with some level of certainty and that is definitely not the case. There are so many variables of life that impact our business that you could never predict day to day what’s going to happen. So I find myself always trying to react to the events around me more so than I would have expected to coming into this business.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
The most important advice I would give them is figure out what your strengths are, what it is you want to do and how much of your time you’re willing to devote to this before you pick the career. Often times I find a lot of folks thinking of careers, they look for what they feel is the hottest area to go into and they pick the area before they figure out what their strengths are, what time and emotional commitments they are willing to give it, and what they actually enjoy doing. I would figure all that out first and then find a job that fits into those criteria. The good news about the finance industry is that there’s a wide swath of jobs. Everything from the most qualitative to the most quantitative are in finance, whether you are doing retail or institutional sales or some kind of complicated arbitrage or a sophisticated structuring job, there’s a lot of different jobs a person can do. The key in this business is to be very good at the job you select and the
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
chances of you being good at it are a lot higher if it’s something that you enjoy, something that your skill set is suited for, and something where the hours and other demands they are requiring fit what you want to give it.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
I would say I have had lots of help in my career along the way. Most of it has been informal but all of it effective, in the sense that people along the way have taken the time to help me either proactively with suggestions, or reactively to my questions. I find for my career, that the informal mentoring has been more helpful than the structured program that from time to time I’ve been a part of because it enabled me to identify the person most specifically positioned to help me answer the questions I needed answered or provide the kind of advice I needed. I’m sure for other people, structured programs may have been more helpful, but for me I’ve had a lot of folks who’ve been helpful on an informal basis. So as a professional, I’ve tried to do the same for other junior professionals on an informal basis. I’ve tried to provide guidance and thoughts as well as help them avoid some of the pitfalls I fell into.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
There are several ways. The way of least resistance is always looking for a formal process. I find most corporate organizations today have formal processes to provide mentorship. I would say, ask the human resources department. The second way is to look to the senior people on the project that you’re working on. Those are the people who are best positioned to assess your skill set and how you’re doing and those are the people who, in theory, you are trying to emulate. Third I would find colleagues who share something in common with you: for instance, an alumnus of your university or people in organizations you belong to who can provide guidance outside of the business.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance?
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In a perfect world, I would be a retired NBA point-guard. But that not being an option, I was a public accountant for a couple of years and then went to law school before I entered the investment banking world.
Any regrets?
I find investment banking to be for me the closest thing to a quasi-professional career in sports in the sense that it’s a highly competitive business, with extremely accomplished people and there’s never a dull moment, and you’re in a position where you are always proving your value on a daily basis. So for me, I couldn’t have found a better job category for what I like to do.
If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
I struggle with that. I’m not sure what else I am qualified to do. I enjoy this job. I think if I wasn’t doing this, I would probably work as either a professor or running somebody’s political campaign or something that’s very different from what I am doing now, something very unstructured but yet active and dynamic.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
The only thing I can tell you is that any predictions that I give you are probably going to be wrong. What I can say is that in a world that is getting flatter, it is clear that globalization is making finance that much more important. Such that, when I started in this business, I probably cared about what was going on in the U.S.; now I care about what’s going on all over the world. Hence, I think the field of finance is growing as the world is becoming flatter and as the need for financial intermediation becomes a global imperative. Everywhere you go, people are going to need financial solutions, whether building new businesses or creating new infrastructure, such as buildings and facilities, with public markets springing up all over the world. I’m an optimist that this business will flourish over the coming decades.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
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“You have to be confident in this business. And passionate. This business involves a lot of pressure, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of challenges, extremely long hours, but if you are passionate about what you’re doing, you succeed in the end because passion enables you to get over a lot of hurdles.”
— Erick Bronner, Managing Director, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
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CAREER LIBRARY
91
Moss Adams LLP
Christopher G. Schmidt—President & Chief Operating Officer
President and Chief Operating Officer Christopher Schmidt joined Moss Adams LLP in 1986. He is committed to the accounting industry and a number of charitable organizations. He is an At Large member of the AICPA Council. He has served on the firm's business assurance committee, personnel task force, and is currently on the board of the Moss Adams Foundation. He is a past board member of the Surf Industry Manufacturing Association (SIMA), which provides support for environmental causes and is involved with Sisters of the Holy Faith, an order of aging and elderly Catholic nuns. Mr. Schmidt received his BA from California State University Fullerton. Five years after joining Moss Adams, he was admitted to the partnership in 1991 and in 1997 became the managing partner of the Orange County practice office. In 2004, he moved to the firm’s administrative offices in Seattle, Wash. and assumed the role of president and chief operations officer. Mr. Schmidt has three teenage boys and enjoys snowboarding, mountain biking and many other outdoor sports.
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Q&A with Christopher Schmidt
What are some steps you took to get into the position you are in now?
I think the biggest step that I took to get to the position I’m in now was clearly choosing the accounting profession. Very early on in my career I realized that if you took really good care of people that work with you and around you and worked as a team, you could do well in this industry. The second step was acknowledging and identifying how important people were in this business.
What are some things you feel you have learned on the job and not in the classroom?
The importance of written and verbal communication. People have to understand clearly what you want them to do and in what direction you want to take them on. People who communicate clearly and in a simple way tend to be more effective than others. You learn technical skill-building in the classroom but you truly realize what a people business this is only when you get out into the business world. The perception from the outside is you’re sitting at a desk and you’re crunching numbers, when really you’re interacting with the client, with vendors, with attorneys, with bankers. It’s such a dynamic business. Then your interpersonal skills are so important to how you move up inside the organization.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
I think the most rewarding aspect of my career is watching the people around me that I’ve worked with in all my years at the firm grow and develop and become successful. I take a lot of satisfaction out of that. I don’t particularly like being in the spotlight. I prefer the team and my people that are working with me to get the glory.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Moss Adams LLP
What would you most like to change about your career?
I’ve been blessed with a very dynamic, challenging and rewarding career and it’s been in a constant state of change. My job has been changing from the day I first stepped foot in this firm and that has made it interesting and always very challenging. The clients and the business that I started with 22 years ago at the firm have changed. So I don’t have to worry about me changing things. It consistently and continuously changes each day, which makes it rewarding.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
I think if you’re going to be an effective executive you have to have a high energy level and it doesn’t have to be an extroverted energy, but you have to be able to sustain effort. You have to be patient as an executive because it takes time for the entire organization to wrap their minds and operations around the strategic direction you’re going. So patience is very important, communications skills are key, learning how to talk differently to different groups of people, and communicating with clarity that you want the organization to communicate is very important.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
I have been actively mentored throughout my career. I’ve been very fortunate to have been mentored by some very outstanding people throughout my public accounting career. And yes, I have many mentoring relationships with the people around me. A part of it has to do with my taking an interest in watching someone develop. I will go out of my way to impart anything I possibly can from a personal or professional point of view. It’s not just business, it’s all the aspects of that person and how they’re developing.
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How can someone find a mentor in their company/industry?
I believe like-minded people tend to gravitate to each other. I’m not a strong fan of formal mentoring programs where you have to be mentored by an individual. I don’t think it’s natural, you have to step out and look for someone who you think may be a good mentor for you and you as the mentee have to make an assessment. The mentor has to be able to adapt their style to the individuals they feel need it. It’s a two-way street. If you have some talented people in your organization, but they may not be extroverted people that would aggressively pursue a mentoring relationship, you have to, as a mentor, keep your eye out for them and look for that touch point where you’re able to help them develop.
What has surprised you the most about working in the accounting industry?
The importance that interpersonal people skills have in all that we do, whether it’s dealing with the tax client or an assurance or consultancy project or in a partner meeting or a staff meeting with your peers.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in accounting?
When you look at all the different choices you have as a young student, you want to make sure that what you choose, you’re passionate about. Part of choosing a career in public accounting would be to try to get a look inside an accounting firm. Network with your friends and students and classmates; get involved in some of the campus clubs so you can see what it’s really like inside a firm. Sometimes perception and reality are two different things. It’s much more dynamic working in a public accounting firm than what the classroom or even the public would think. When people think about CPAs they think about tax returns, personal tax returns and when
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Moss Adams LLP
someone in the profession thinks about the business, you think about information technology consulting, organizational development consulting, auditing and tax projects for very complex clients. Once you’re inside you realize how many different avenues you have to have a successful career in this business, and that’s something that’s very important. You need to figure out ways and network as much as you can to see what it’s like inside a firm and make sure it’s something you truly are passionate about.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
When you like what you do, it drips down into your personal life in a positive way. My family knows that I’ve always liked my career, I’ve always enjoyed what I do, and I’ve always worked very hard to maintain a balance between my family and the things that I like to do personally and work. I’ve always focused on that, long before “work/life balance” became a buzzword in the business.
Do you have any special techniques or philosophies that help you maintain the work/life balance and be a successful professional?
I think time management is an overused buzzword. However, it is something I think that’s very effective. When I come into the office, or I go out to an office and I’m with partners and staff, I make sure that my time is effective, efficient time. You can let the day manage you or you can manage the day and that doesn’t mean that I’m a linear person and I have to check the box, because sometimes, as an executive in a large firm, things happen that you can’t schedule for. There are important things that happen in the firm and then there are things that happen around you and I call that “noise.” If you can move yourself away from the noise and into the important things, you manage your schedule a lot better and when you manage your schedule a lot better, you’re able to strive towards that balanced life that everybody talks about so much and that’s really what I try to do. Also, I’m a strong believer in delegating down to your team and surrounding yourself with really good people who are very capable of doing stretch assignments, which allows them to grow as leaders. Rely on that team, and give that team the opportunity to perform and give them reinforcements when they have small failures because that truly is a learning process.
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And allow them to not bother your BlackBerry sometimes?
I don’t have a problem with BlackBerries. I think when you move into a position where you have a lot of responsibility; you have a fiduciary responsibility to your firm. It’s the place. Those are great tools for the wireless world we live and I believe that those really help you attain a work/life balance when used properly. We’ve come a long way; it used to be call into the office and get voicemail or it used to be paper messages and then voicemails that you would always clear.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before decided on accounting?
I always wanted to be a business major. I contemplated selling, marketing and sales because I was naturally good at that. I chose public accounting because, without knowing how far or where my career would go, I thought it would be a great transferable skill. I could stay and go into public accounting; I could go into private industry or government.
What would be your dream career now?
I would teach high school biology and coach a high school varsity football team.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
The future of the industry is going to constant change. It’s changed from the day that I started back in the summer of 1981. You learn to adapt to regulatory change and market change and a mix of people. I think one significant change that’s going to take place, is taking
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Moss Adams LLP
place and it continues to take place is the number of women and minorities that are entering the business world and our profession. At Moss Adams, approximately 20 percent of our partners are women and I believe these numbers are just going to continue to increase. I think more women business owners are just going to start dominating the market over the next 10 to 20. Also, the other significant thing that we will face is the continued globalization of our business and dealing with Pacific Rim companies, Asia.
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CAREER LIBRARY
95
Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.
Thomas F. Houle, CLU, ChFC—Vice President, Exclusive Agency, Nationwide Financial Network
Vice President Thomas Houle began his career with Nationwide in 1980 as a commercial underwriter. He subsequently held positions of increasing responsibility in human resources, customer services, marketing and agency development. He transitioned from the Property Casualty Companies to Nationwide Financial in 1997. Mr. Houle was the vice president, national sales manager for Nationwide Retirement Solutions, the leader in 457 deferred compensation plans for public employees. In that role, he oversaw a sales team of over 400 licensed sales representatives and qualified for the Nationwide Financial Sales Conference three consecutive years. In March 2006, he was asked to rebuild and lead Nationwide Financial Network’s Exclusive Agency Distribution Channel. He and his two Regional Vice Presidents lead a national team of territory sales directors, life sales specialists, and financial sales supervisory consultants to work with over 3800 exclusive agents and registered representatives to market financial service products. He subsequently earned the Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) and Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designations from the American College. He also holds the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation and as well as the 6, 7, 24, 26 and 66 FINRA registrations.
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Mr. Houle received his bachelor’s of business administration from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Q&A with Thomas Houle
What are some steps you took to get in the position you are in now?
I’ve progressed in the financial services field now for 28 years and one position led to another. My career path has been pretty traditional by industry standards.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
Most of everything. How to effectively motivate and inspire people, leadership skills were learned more on the job than in the classroom.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
I really like seeing our organization grow. I enjoy seeing other people succeed and this comes from helping our customers achieve their financial planning dreams.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.
If you had a choice, what would you most like to change?
I don’t think anything. I really do appreciate what I’m doing. I wake up each day excited about new opportunities.
What personality traits or attributes make for a good, effective executive?
I think you have to have honesty, integrity, most importantly. If you don’t have that, people aren’t going to work with you very long much less with full commitment.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
Professional success has allowed me to grow personally. This includes travel to 49 states, which has been a great experience.
Do you have any special philosophies or techniques that help you maintain your work/life balance and be a successful professional?
It’s always a challenge. I think just trying hard to separate yourself personally and professionally and carve out quality time, all help achieve this. I stay in physical shape, which provides more energy and keeps me focused. That’s really important for me.
What has surprised you most about working in the finance industry?
The greater need that people have for retirement planning, which products that our customers continue to need advice on and services continues to surprise me. We are in a noble profession in that regard.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
I love the quote “when you’re green you’re growing. When you’re ripe you’re ready to rot.” Definitely get a strong base of knowledge, including product knowledge. I’m a big believer in continuing education, so whether it’s a designation or an MBA, just continue to stretch yourself.
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Have you ever been mentored or mentored others?
Very much so. I have had several mentors and I mentor others all the time and if they would like the help, I think the best advice would be to just ask. It’s a rare situation where people won’t take the time to help somebody else out. Professionals enjoy passing on what they have learned over the years.
What other career and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance?
I just kind of evolved into it. I was in the property and casualty insurance and moved over to financial services within Nationwide. So it became a natural move and a smooth transition.
If you were not in this field, what would your dream career be now?
Probably a park ranger! I love the outdoors and that would be the real office.
Any prediction about the future of the industry?
It’s very optimistic; we are looking at strong growth. The demographics are in our favor, people know they need to take on more responsibility. So nothing but upside potential.
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CAREER LIBRARY
97
Parente Randolph, LLC
Jeffrey L. Ferro—Chief Operating Officer
Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey L. Ferro also serves as the principal in charge of the Philadelphia Region with Parente Randolph, LLC. He has over 20 years experience in public accounting and has concentrated his efforts in senior living services. He also serves on the firm's executive committee. As chief operating officer, Mr. Ferro overseas Parente Randolph’s accounting, auditing and tax practices. His responsibilities include staffing and scheduling delivery of client services, billing and collections, client acceptance and retention, compensation, business plans and budgeting, cross selling and performance and appraisal systems. Mr. Ferro’s responsibilities have included audits of health care clients, skilled nursing facilities, personal care facilities, continuing care retirement communities and home health/hospice agencies. Mr. Ferro has spoken before many professional and educational groups on the subjects of accounting, auditing and various issues related to the senior living services industry. Mr. Ferro is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, Pennsylvania Association of Non-Profit Homes for the Aging and New Jersey Association of Non-Profit Homes for the Aging. He is a certified public accountant in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. Mr. Ferro received his BS in accounting from Pennsylvania State University and has supplemented his education with a variety of continuing education courses.
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Q&A with Jeffrey Ferro
What are some steps that you took to get to the position you are in now?
Well, work ethic. I think hard work is a key factor. I believe it’s something you need to do. In addition, being a team player and being dedicated goes a long way. You also need to strive towards possessing and gaining leadership skills and demonstrating leadership attributes. One of the biggest attributes of getting to the position I am in now is I really enjoy what I do. T hings that might not come naturally to some come easier to me because I really enjoy what I’m doing. I also think that my background and who I have associated myself with has gone a long way to help me in my career. I would start with my parents and upbringing. Who you end up with as parents is a luck of the draw kind of thing and this is a category where I would consider myself pretty lucky. When I did have a choice I think I did pretty well in that department. My wife has been unbelievably supportive and has been a key factor in my career and success. I also have been able to generate friendships with outstanding individuals who helped me along the way. I would like to think I did it on my own but that would be extremely far from the truth. People help people and I have been on the receiving side of that equation big time.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Parente Randolph, LLC
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
You need to be a good listener. You need to be fair and people have to look at you as if they can trust you and know that you’ll do the right thing. They may not always agree with what you’re doing and they may not always like what you’re doing, but the bottom line is they always need to believe what you’re doing is fair and that you’re not playing favorites and that you’re treating everybody the same. A certain amount of empathy is also necessary. You need to be able to put yourself in their shoes and although you may not make the same decisions that they would you need to at least understand where they’re coming from and their point of view. I think some of this comes naturally and some you can learn. I believe these types of leadership skills are important. You also need to be able to walk the talk. You can’t dictate and preach one set of ideals and one set of rules and then have a different set for yourself.
What are some things that you’ve learned on the job and not in the classroom?
I’d say that in order to do my job, most of what I’ve learned was on the job. Now that doesn’t mean that the classroom is not important. It’s the foundation. It would be difficult for me to say that there’s a direct correlation of things that I learned in a college classroom setting that I apply to my job today. I would actually say I learned more in college outside the classroom. For example, the things outside of the classroom that helped most were, growing up, coming into early adulthood, being able to deal with people on your own and being away from a home or family environment. I believe that the college experience is much more than just the classroom. I’m not trying to discount that the classroom is not important. You need to do it and you need to do well in it, but it’s really just a foundation for what’s about to come.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
There is no substitute for hard work. Most people don’t just step into this and it’s not luck or being lucky. I define luck as being prepared at the opportune time. Hard work is part of being prepared. I think you also need to be a team player and you need to be open to other people’s suggestions. I think some of the best advice that I received as a young professional was, “you may be correct, and the way you do things may be accurate and they may be right but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the way other people do things are wrong”. So you need to be open to suggestions, try not to be rigid, and try to be a team player. Try to move the entire group ahead, and don’t think of yourself, because if the group moves ahead, and you’re part of the group, you’ll move ahead as well. Also, you need to be dedicated. I think dedication is an attribute that all successful people have. I also have to go back to: you need to enjoy what you do. That would be some of the strongest advice I’d give. If you’re pursuing a career or you have a degree in something that you really don’t like or you are really struggling to stay with, you’re just compounding things by going into it as a profession. You really need to find something that you like, something you enjoy and that doesn’t necessarily mean being easy. It may take hard work, but at the end of the day, you have to feel some self-achievement, you have to be rewarded internally to be able to do a good job. It’s just too hard the next morning to get up and go do something you don’t like.
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What is the most rewarding aspect of your career? What would you most like to change?
Probably the most rewarding aspect of my career has been the ability for me to move up from position to position, in what I would define as relatively short periods of time. I’ve always been considered a young, aggressive professional who’s going to achieve a lot in his career, and the most rewarding aspects for me, were working hard and having other people take notice and being rewarded for it and getting that pat on the back. It’s not always just a promotion, and it’s not always salary increases. It’s a pat on the back, its people recognizing that you’re doing a good job and people actually willing to follow your lead and recognizing that you do have leadership attributes and you do have leadership qualities. They’re willing to trust what you’re doing and put their career in your hands as well. What would I like to change, is the 24/7 work week perception. I think that a lot of people believe if you’re going to be extremely successful you need to work or be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I think that BlackBerries, PDAs, voicemail and laptops
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Parente Randolph, LLC
have all probably added to that perception. If I could change one thing, it would be the 24/7 work week perception and its importance as it relates to success. Individuals can be successful without being tied to their BlackBerry or being tied to their PDA.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a good work/life balance and be a successful professional?
I think you need to prioritize to maintain a work/life balance. It’s not a one or the other situation as well as one cannot dominate the other. You need to really determine what your priorities are and you need to maintain the ability to do certain things that keep those priorities balanced and in check. Sometimes you will need to make difficult choices but in the long run those choices need to match up with the priorities that you have. Having a successful career includes being able to balance your priorities. I have witnessed too many people who have put 100 percent of their efforts on the work component and have ended up with a disaster on the personal side. It is also all about the quality of time and not the quantity of time you spend on the personal side of the equation. I realize that my career will not allow me to attend every one of my children’s events but I most definitely plan on attending the ones that count or mean the most to my family. I often remind the people that work with me that we are accountants and most likely no one is going to live or die if we do or don’t get that last spreadsheet or tax return out today. That also does not mean that we can abandon our sense of urgency or ignore deadlines. We must continue to know what is important to us and make a continuous effort to balance our work/life priorities.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
I think the pace of change has really surprised me the most. Change is something that you need to embrace, and you need to deal with. You don’t necessarily have to like it, but you have to go through your career recognizing that change provides opportunity. Your ability to react to change and successfully deal with change is going to give you an advantage. The second thing that’s surprised me the most is just how competitive it’s become. It has become brutally competitive and there is no end in sight. I believe it’s going to get even more competitive than it is today as our economic model become more global.
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Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others? How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
I have been mentored and I still am being mentored. I also mentor others and am considered a counselor to several people who report to me. I think there are two pieces to that. First, a good organization is going to have a formal mentoring program and if you’re a young professional seeking employment you want to make sure that the organization that you’re working for has some type of formal communication program where you have an opportunity to get feedback upward and downward, and receive and give feedback regarding your career. Second, you need to also find people that you respect and trust. Basically people that you like. You can see what they’ve done with their careers and you can picture yourself being like them or having similar characteristics to them. I think you need to go towards those individuals and try to create a relationship. In my career I’ve picked successful people who happened to be my bosses and I would consider them to be my more important mentors.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in accounting? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
There really were no serious contenders to accounting. The real turning point was my first accounting class in freshman year at Penn State. In the first 10 minutes, I liked the professor, and I really connected. There’s been no looking back. If I had to stop being an accountant and I had a good enough story to tell, I wouldn’t mind being a public speaker.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Parente Randolph, LLC
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
I think change is going to continue to happen and it’s going to happen at a faster pace. That is really not new news and I certainly am not the first to point it out. I also think that the competition is going to continue to get better and competition in general is going to become more severe than it is now. We are all going to have to be on our A game all of the time. I think that the days of having a loyal customer or client forever are over and that you are going to need to prove your worth or value proposition on a daily basis. I think that the household name corporations in the country have experienced this firsthand and it is not going to stop with them. Eventually everyone is going to feel the competition because people are going to demand and expect more from us. The more successful will rise to the occasion and others will not.
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Perella Weinberg Partners LP
Peter Weinberg—Founding Partner
Partner Peter Weinberg co-founded Perella Weinberg Partners, a private financial services firm, in June 2006 to provide M&A advisory and alternative asset management services. The firm has offices in New York and London and serves companies, families and institutions around the world. Mr. Weinberg has been in the investment banking industry for over 25 years. Prior to co-founding Perella Weinberg Partners, he served as chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs International, based in London. He was elected partner of the firm in 1992, co-headed the global investment banking division, and served on the management committee for six years. He also co-headed the partnership committee. Mr. Weinberg is on the board of BAE Systems PLC and GLG Partners, both are based in London. He has been committed to many educational institutions and currently serves on the boards of Deerfield Academy, Brunswick School, The Kravis Leadership Institute and the Kings Academy in Jordan. Mr. Weinberg graduated from Claremont McKenna College in 1979 and Harvard Business School in 1983. He currently lives outside of New York with his wife, Debby, and three children: Sidney, Charles and Henry.
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Q&A with Peter Weinberg
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I spent almost 20 years at Goldman Sachs, which formed the bulk of my career. I left after having served as chief executive of Goldman Sachs International for seven years and came back to the United States. I lived in London while I served in that capacity and returned to the United States in 2005, when I decided that I wanted to start a new company. Then I met Joe Perella and Terry Meguid, and we all decided that we would move forward to start a company together and Perella Weinberg Partners was formed. As far as personal success goes, I entered Wall Street in 1979 as an analyst at Morgan Stanley and if there was one thing that I did between then and now consistently, it was working hard and never forgetting the importance of trust and integrity. I think those are the two things that are the most important as one continues in their career.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
One of the most important things that I learned on the job was being able to deal with difficult people. There are a lot of smart, capable people in our industry but there are also a number of people who are not easy to deal with. I really learned a lot about how to engage with such people and it’s been something I’ve enjoyed and found to be a real challenge.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
Firstly, working with young, smart, capable people. There’s nothing more fun or stimulating than that. Secondly, adding value to important people and important clients.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Perella Weinberg Partners LP
What would you most like to change?
I don’t think there’s anything I’d like to change. I worked in a very large organization for most of my career. Now working at a startup is a lot of fun and it’s a great way to craft a new business that reflects your own values, which you can share with the partners and all the associates.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
I think transparency and honesty is very important, people need to be able to trust their leaders. For that to happen you need to be open and straightforward with people, even if it means delivering a tough message. That’s very important. I also think that a good executive must be able to have the ability to delegate effectively. Picking the right people and delegating is very important because if you don’t, your people won’t develop and you will be less effective.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
I feel it’s enhanced my personal and family life. I’ve always been very focused on putting my family first, which is a very essential thing for me, because in the end your family is all you have and it’s been very important to me to keep that “front and center.”
Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
I get in very early in the morning, around 5:30 to 6:00 a.m. in the morning so I don’t get to see my family then but I do that in order to get home in the evening. As a younger person in the business, you need to show flexibility in your commitment to work but at the same time, I think there’s always a way to step out and be with your friends and your family. It’s very healthy to have other interests and it helps you perform better at work.
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What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
The growth of the industry has been the most surprising by far. When I joined Wall Street in 1979, the value of the Wall Street firms was probably 1/100th of what it is today. The growth of this industry has been absolutely extraordinary and it’s been exciting to be part of that growth, both at Morgan Stanley early in my career and then Goldman Sachs later; and now in our new firm.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
It’s all about the people you work with and you have to make sure most importantly, that those people share your values, that you respect them as professionals and individuals, and that it’s a comfortable and appealing working environment. Those are the three factors that transcend the kind of industry you select and are by far the most important issues to me.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
I have been very lucky to have had wonderful mentors—but it’s been hit or miss. I’ve tried certain mentors that haven’t worked, I’ve tried others and they have worked wonderfully. But the ability and desire to seek advice and the ability to take it is a very important feature of a successful executive, and I have learned a lot from very sophisticated people who I’ve called my mentors.
Would that be formal and informal mentoring?
I find that informal mentoring is the best and it really depends on what issues you are seeking mentoring on. But people love to give advice and I’ve been a prolific user of advice from people who are more experienced than I.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Perella Weinberg Partners LP
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
A mentor-mentee relationship is a very personal one on both sides. So what I’ve always done is tried to find someone who had an interest in mentoring me and someone who I got along with and then we would work together on various projects and it was all very effective. But I think there’s certain chemistry involved and I like to go seek out my own mentors.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
When I got out of Harvard Business School in 1983, I was considering working for a medical products startup company in Baltimore and I was very excited about the idea of being an entrepreneur. I remembered that thought, but I started working at Morgan Stanley and then went on to Goldman Sachs, both very large companies, and it wasn’t till 2006 when I really become an entrepreneur at our new firm. In “my next career,” I may try to get involved in some project in the Middle East that has to do with bringing the Palestinians and Israelis together. I am a founding trustee of King’s Academy in Jordan. I’ve also been involved in a number of projects in Israel and am very committed to and interested in that area.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
The industry right now is in a state of contraction, but I have no doubt that in the future, it will grow again. The pendulum swings back and forth in the financial services industry and now it is swinging a bit toward the negative but it’s a very exciting industry and there is enormous potential, it’ll be very fast changing over the years ahead and I think that provides for a fantastic career opportunity. It’s a place for smart, creative people, unencumbered by conventional thinking.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Perella Weinberg Partners LP
Customized for: fugui Family (ffugui@gmail.com) University of California, Irvine Online Career Library
“The pendulum swings back and forth in the financial services industry and now it is swinging a bit toward the negative but it’s a very exciting industry and there is enormous potential, it’ll be very fast changing over the years ahead and I think that provides for a fantastic career opportunity. It’s a place for smart, creative people, unencumbered by conventional thinking.”
— Peter A. Weinberg, Founding Partner, Perella Weinberg Partners LP
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Peter J. Solomon Company
Andrew L. Quigley—Managing Director
Managing Director Andrew L. Quigley serves in the mergers and acquisitions Group with Peter J. Solomon Co. He joined the firm in 2002 and has over 12 years experience representing clients on a variety of assignments including buy-side, sell-side, divestiture and merger transactions in both the public and private domain as well as debt financing and restructuring assignments. Mr. Quigley has executed a number of transactions in a variety of industries, including the healthcare, consumer products, retail and distribution, and general industrial sectors. Mr. Quigley’s clients have included Cardinal Health, Inc.; Del Laboratories, Inc.; Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc.; DIMON Inc.; Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc.; McKesson Corp.; Niagara Corp.; Office Depot, Inc.; Priority Healthcare Corp.; Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Walgreen Co. Prior to joining PJSC, Mr. Quigley was a vice president at J.P. Morgan Securities in the mergers and acquisitions group. He has also worked in various positions in Chemical Bank’s private banking group. Mr. Quigley received his BA in economics from the Trinity School of Arts and Sciences at Duke University, and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.
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Q&A with Andrew Quigley
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I started my career in private banking years ago and was a relationship officer for high net-worth individuals. I enjoyed that for a few years after college. The people were great, both clients and co-workers, but as I became more exposed to the job and to the financial world in New York, it became apparent that the career path in private banking centered on managing bank employees and it didn’t really challenge me in the way I wanted to be challenged. So I applied for and accepted a position in NYU’s executive MBA program while I was working in private banking. It soon became clear to me that I wanted to do investment banking. I applied for an associate position in my firm and made the jump from private banking to investment banking. So, largely speaking, that’s how I got into investment banking. Once an investment banking associate, I tried to build a toolkit of skills that I thought it would take to be a successful managing director. Initially it was learning valuation skills and as I became more experienced, it was learning M&A contracts, public company M&A, how to negotiate; to put ideas in front of clients, and to deal with CEOs etc.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
I had a great experience in the classroom at NYU’s executive program. The valuation, corporate finance and M&A classes were invaluable, but at the end of the day, those are really building blocks and the real world puts limitations on the theoretical abstracts. For instance, in graduate school they want you to look at valuation based on a company’s financial projections and that’s the purest way to value a business. Well, many times in the real world, you don’t have a good set of financial projections, so you have to use alternative methodologies such as how comparable public companies trade or precedent transactions to figure out what the valuation might be. So, the classroom’s knowledge is limited sometimes by what you can use in practice.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Peter J. Solomon Company
In real life, there’s much more complexity and there’s no way to teach that in a classroom setting. Also, it’s a lot harder to teach someone what happens when a deal doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to; when a company misses its numbers in the middle of a process or the CEO gets fired or one of the buyers of the company that you’re looking to sell backs out.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
Helping clients build their businesses and working with them to determine the right strategy. Many clients are trying to build a bridge between strategy and tactics and want to be in a space but need help getting into it. It becomes your job then to guide them tactically on how to accomplish that. Sometimes that involves you advising them to buy this company at a certain price and sometimes if that price doesn’t work, they shouldn’t buy that company. From a personal standpoint, the work is exciting. It’s challenging because it’s not easy and it is nice to meet new clients, because every client is different and every set of challenges a client presents is different. If you don’t like that part—helping clients—it all gets tiring fairly quickly.
What would you most like to change?
I actually made an interesting change. Five years ago, I came from JPMorgan Chase to Peter J. Solomon Company. I had vowed that I wasn’t going to work for another big firm. Going from a large firm to a small one for me was a lot about changing what was important to me and being at a much more transparent organization, which is why I am here.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
If the ultimate goal is to help your clients achieve their tactical goals, you really have to listen and understand what those objectives are. You have to get a good read on your client (e.g., What are their strengths and weaknesses? What is their relationship with their board of directors?) You have to be a good listener and then you need to be a good communicator because much of dealing effectively at a high level in investment banking is not just understanding complex problems and analysis but being able to convey and synthesize those issues into a series of very clearly understood principles for others. Also, you have to be driven because the work is hard and the time commitments are demanding. You have to have a strong tool kit because there is a confluence of accounting, tax, legal and finance issues. Finally, you have to have good ideas because much of this business involves going in front of clients and showing them acquisition ideas.
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What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
I went into investment banking with a very clear understanding of what it involved and my wife did too, so I think that’s really important because it is a big time commitment and both of us understanding that upfront helped a lot. As you become older and more experienced and if you have children, you really have to work hard to stay involved and relevant to your children both on the weekend and during the week. So if someone’s having a recital at the end of their school year you may think it’s not important but it is. Also, it helps to live close to your workplace early on in your career because when you’re working intense hours, commuting really gets in the way. For junior people, one of the most important things is to stay connected to your friends and retain the ability to be spontaneous. You will have periods in investment banking when you’re really busy and then you’ll have a free weekend or two and if you stay in touch with your friends, and they invite you for a weekend getaway, you should be able to spontaneously say yes. This way you don’t have the tendency to look back 20 years later and say, “I wish I had done that.”
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Peter J. Solomon Company
Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
From the moment I started in investment banking, my wife and I had a policy where we go out every Saturday night. I have two children and she works hard taking care of them all week, so it’s our time to be together alone. Call it date night or whatever, it’s our time. For me, that’s the most important part. I try to get home in time at night to see my kids, and if I can’t, I try to see them in the morning before they go to school.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
I think what surprised me the most is how cyclical the business is and how history repeats itself. In October of 1989, the United Airlines buyout blew up and the rest of the M&A market went into a slump for a couple of years. Later, Long Term Capital Management blew up. Today you have the subprime lending debacle. Over the course of these cycles, people have a tendency to lose sight of absolute values and completely focus on relative values. They base decisions relative to the deal before and lose all sight of the fact that you’re at an all time high. You get to the end of these cycles and then the bubble bursts and everyone gets back to reality and the bubble starts building again.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
Understand what you’re getting into. Understand the job of an investment banking analyst or associate. From a recruiting standpoint, when I go out and talk to analyst and associate candidates, I’m not looking for someone who spent 10 hours on our web site because that’s one-dimensional. I want someone who went through our web site and thought, OK where have all these people gone to college, maybe there’s a connection there or maybe I’m going to talk to people in the class ahead of me or my class who had summer analysts positions. Person to person contact, there are so many nuances about what someone’s experience was like and what firms are like. At the end of the day you need to be sure you want investment banking, because it is a big time commitment. A lot of people do this because they want a career in investment banking, but a lot of people do it because they think it’s the best training they’ll get and then go out and do something else. The important thing is, no matter which is your reason, you ought to come into this thinking and wanting to be a success. You’re not going to have a great experience if you look to cut corners. You should really want to be here and treat every new deal as an opportunity to learn something new, work with a new person or have another person in the firm compliment your work.
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Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
I have, both in formal and informal programs. At larger firms you tend to have more formal programs because the senior people in the firm have much less interaction with the junior people, there are more junior people, and they feel disconnected with what’s going on in the organization. We’re fortunate to have a more flat organizational structure. It’s a double-edged sword for a junior person because you get the exposure to more senior people but at the same time you have to be on your A game because there are fewer people to comment on or proof your work before it gets to a managing director. The nice part here is as a senior person you can take the time with a junior associate who’s doing an analysis for you and discuss with him why you asked him to run these numbers, and whether he/she understands why we’re doing this, and how this is important to the end goal of what we’re trying to do and that if the circumstances had been different, helping him understand how the numbers would have been different and how our conclusion would have been different.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
Most people are flattered to be asked to be a mentor. You can’t be afraid to ask. Secondly, think broadly about who could be a mentor. You can meet people through professional associations, the alumni network, friends of friends, the social circuit in New York and people in your hometown. It’s a subset of networking which is an important skill for young people to develop. You cannot underestimate the importance of having a personal network as you build a career.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Peter J. Solomon Company
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
Several years ago, before I came to PJSC, I took a white sheet of paper approach to my job search and considered what I wanted to do next. I considered investment management and corporate development but came to the conclusion that I really liked investment banking and that this is what I really wanted to do. However, if I am fortunate enough to have a second career after this one, then I’d like to be a history teacher. People have different ways of giving back and that would be my way.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
The cycles will continue to repeat themselves; and that’s why I can’t help but put in a plug here for our firm. Part of the reason people hire experienced investment bankers is because they have been through more than one cycle. Mergers and acquisitions is here to stay as a business. I think there are underlying trends in the economy whether globalization, technological changes, changes in health care or changes in government spending programs that will continue to create opportunities and be disruptive to existing business models. When these elements are present, mergers and acquisitions often happen because companies need to change strategic direction quickly and cannot do so organically. There will always be a need for mergers and acquisitions to solve clients’ business needs.
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PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
Thomas K. Whitford—Chief Administrative Officer
Chief Administrative Officer Thomas Whitford oversees corporate communications, credit policy, human resources and internal audit for The PNC Financial Services Group. His responsibilities also include directing the activities of PNC’s regional presidents and overseeing PNC’s risk management program. Mr. Whitford joined PNC in 1983 and has since held leadership positions in consumer banking, asset management and strategic planning. In 1997, he was named chief executive officer of PNC’s wealth management business. He was named chief risk officer in May 2002 with responsibility for credit policy, market risk management, operational risk, internal audit, risk analytics, enterprise risk management and the insurance group. As the executive in charge of these key areas within PNC, Mr. Whitford helped PNC sharpen its strategic focus and coordinate risk management activities corporatewide. He was named to his current position in May 2007. Mr. Whitford serves on the boards of directors of Pittsburgh’s Dance Alloy Theater and Robert Morris University. Mr. Whitford received his BS in psychology from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA in finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
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Q&A with Thomas Whitford
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I was always willing to take on new assignments. Whenever I was offered the opportunity to move to a different part of the company in a different role, I took that step. Doing so improved my understanding of the company and our business. It also helped me build a network of people, which allowed me to be more effective in subsequent assignments, because I could rely on that network for support. Also, I’ve always concentrated on what was best for the company. I believe my career has benefited from that focus.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
One is that “information is power” and information leads to a more effective organization. Often managers guard information because they believe it makes them more powerful, but it doesn’t make their employees effective. I am a firm believer in sharing information with my subordinates as well as my peers, to increase employees’ effectiveness. This empowers the team and makes the company more successful. The second is the importance of supporting a culture where employees are willing to challenge the status quo, figure out where the current business practices make sense and where they don’t, and, then, raise their hands and challenge what we’re doing today. Too often an employee new to a group walks in and does not ask: “Why are you doing it this way? Or, when they do ask, they accept too quickly: “We have always been doing it this way!” Their insights could be very helpful in enabling us to break out of a pattern that isn’t as effective as it could be.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
The most rewarding aspect of my career is the development of people. I spend a lot of time trying to understand the people who work for me, what their strengths are, what their development needs are, and then finding opportunities to capitalize on their strengths, while ensuring I am creating opportunities to help them develop new skills.
What would you most like to change?
The hardest part of my career is changing positions. When you change assignments, relationships change and that’s always difficult. It’s not that you lose those relationships, but you lose the daily contact.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
There are many, but I always come back to the same three. You need to be a strong strategic thinker: someone who understands market forces, customers’ needs and preferences, and how the company should respond. Second, you need excellent communication skills, and by that I mean talking as well as listening. Third, you have to be decisive and possess a backbone. You must be willing to stand up for what you think is right.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
In one obvious way it’s been rewarding financially. It’s given my wife and me a lot of opportunities to do things that we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. But it has also been time consuming. We have sacrificed time together and some of our flexibility for the financial rewards my career has provided.
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Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
There are two things I do. One, I talk with my wife to make sure we are aligned in terms of expectations. I don’t want there to be any surprises in terms of the time I need to spend at work, because it’s tough enough not being able to get home, but if she’s not aware of that and she’s making plans, that really doesn’t work out well. So we spend lots of time talking. Second, a more tactical thing, I make sure I take every one of my vacation days. I do that for two reasons: one is to help keep me in balance, and two is to serve as a role model for the employees who work for me. If they see me take my vacation, they’ll take their vacation. I think it sends a positive message to them about the importance of a work/life balance.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
The biggest surprise, and disappointment, is the mismatch between the complexity of products and services we have created as an industry and our customers’ understanding of that complexity. Their understanding is so limited, and the industry keeps introducing complicated products for sale to customers. I’m not sure customers understand what they are buying. It is surprising that an industry as sophisticated and regulated as financial services ended up with this large a disconnect. Also, the number of regulatory bodies involved in our industry today surprised me. There is a different regulatory body for each aspect of a financial services company. Just coordinating your activities with all of these different regulatory bodies takes a lot of time and expertise.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
First and foremost, you need to pick a career that you think you’ll enjoy. You should have some fun at work. If you choose financial services, you need to take the time to understand the fundamentals of the financial markets. Financial services careers require technical
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
expertise in diverse areas: capital markets, credit, payment systems, for example. While you do not need to be an expert in everything, you do need a solid foundation concerning the fundamentals. Serving customers successfully requires this understanding.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
Absolutely, I have been mentored and found it very valuable, and I am currently mentoring several people.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
The easiest thing to do is to look at your boss as a potential mentor, but that’s also a little limiting. As you get into different meetings, different settings, look out for a person with whom you get along. Have a discussion and see if something can develop in terms of a mentorship.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance?
I was in health care consulting with one of the big firms before banking. While it was a rewarding career, I really wanted to get into a company where I was involved in the implementation and management of solutions versus the development of recommendations for someone else to implement and manage.
If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
Since we’re talking about dreaming, I’d love to be a professional baseball player. Since I grew up in Los Angeles, if I could be a Dodger that would be great!
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
The one thing that has been very clear in my 24 years at PNC is that the industry is continually changing and that we better be ready for a lot more change. For people who are starting their careers in banking and financial services today, the issues they will be dealing with 10 years from now will be very different.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
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“You need to pick a career that you think you’ll enjoy. You should have some fun at work. If you choose financial services, you need to take the time to understand the fundamentals of the financial markets. Financial services careers require technical expertise in diverse areas: capital markets, credit, payment systems.”
— Tom Whitford, Chief Administrative Officer, PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
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Prudential Financial Company of America
John W. Greene, CLU, ChFC—President, Agency Distribution
President of Agency Distribution John W. Greene serves in Prudential’s domestic Individual Life Insurance Business. Mr. Greene is responsible for the national insurance sales organization, which consists of some 2,500 agents and financial planners, and represents the company’s face-to-face captive distribution system for insurance and investment products. Mr. Greene joined Prudential in 1979 as an agent in Danville, Illinois, qualifying for Million Dollar Round Table during his first full year as a producer. He held various sales positions before being named vice president of regional marketing of the Illinois area in 1988. Mr. Greene continued to lead several assignments and regions before being promoted to the rank of senior vice president, agency distribution in 1998, where he was responsible for the sales activity of ten states throughout the midwest and east coast territories. He was promoted to chief field officer in 2000 and appointed to president of agency distribution in 2002. Mr. Greene holds the chartered life underwriter (CLU) and chartered financial consultant (ChFC) designations. He is chairman of the board of Pruco Securities, LLC, has been a member of The American College Board of Trustees since 2006 and serves on the marketing and certification committees. He was recently named to the executive committee of the board of trustees for the American College. Mr. Greene is also a member of general agents and managers association, and a member of National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. The Prudential Insurance Company of America based in Newark, New Jersey.
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Q&A with John Greene
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I’ve always believed that the challenge in life isn’t getting what you want; it’s deciding what you want. There is great competition in corporate America today. I believe a big differentiator lies in setting goals and defining a career path. That means thinking seriously about what your ideal position looks like, where you want to be in five to 10 years, and what steps you need to take to get there. It’s important to plan your career path, set high goals and memorialize them in writing. It’s also important to create an aggressive self-development plan. For example, when I first established my own career path, I began by doing an inventory of my skills and abilities. I took a candid look at my developmental opportunities—meaning the areas where I thought I needed to improve upon to achieve my career objectives. I also didn’t wait for the company to develop me. Someone once said, the best development is self-development, and living by that motto has served me well over the years. I have been updating my career plan every year and I find it interesting that as my goals changed, my ideal job changed. My strengths and developmental opportunities changed as well, so updating the plan kept me focused. I strongly believe that actively doing this over time was the key to my success.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Prudential Financial Company of America
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
That’s an easy one. I learned about people! I don’t think the classroom can totally prepare you for understanding human behavior. My experience proved that actual work experience was the best way to learn how to effectively lead a team. Early on it’s important to determine whether a leadership role is something you want to pursue, because it’s not for everyone. Some people are better served and find more gratification from being an individual contributor. If you do choose a path of leadership, then I would suggest that it begins with learning about developing people, developing your own leadership qualities and continuing to study human behavior. Good leaders excel in these areas and are critical to the success of corporate America and, I might add, they’re quite rare. Good leaders take people to places they wouldn’t have traveled on their own. They create environments where people want to participate; they want to be part of something big. They’re proud of their results and they work collectively and collaboratively for the good of the team. Good leaders cannot fully educate themselves in a classroom; it is acquired through work experience and maturation.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
Developing people and watching them grow under my leadership is very rewarding. It never grows old even with the passing of time. It’s very rewarding to recruit people, mentor them, promote them and watch them grow from year to year under your leadership. It is an extremely gratifying experience. I also enjoy building high-performance teams. High-performance teams don’t just happen. They are developed. You can’t put a collection of people together in a room and call them a high performing team. You have to develop them, and I enjoy making that happen. An important component of building a strong team is to have ethnic and gender diversity as well as diversity of thought. Common thinking does not create high-performance teams. In fact, it can prevent their formation. Finally, you have to have the patience to appoint the right people, nurture them and create an environment where they enjoy coming to work and are proud of their individual accomplishments and the accomplishments of the organization as a whole.
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What would you most like to change?
The amount of time it takes to change a culture. I would like to see cultural shifts and trends change more rapidly. Unfortunately, it is not realistic. Cultural shifts can take decades to develop. Major change just doesn’t happen overnight. I think the challenge here is that the marketplace demands nimbleness in order to be competitive. The marketplace can be unforgiving. So while I try to remain patient in changing a culture, I have to be “impatiently patient.” This term reminds me to move fast, but also to appreciate the realistic pace of change.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
What come to mind in no particular order are quite a few things. Conceptual thinking–Having the ability to think through decisions about a business with its many moving parts, and to be able to clarify the key issues in complex situations is a critical attribute of good leaders. Ethical Behavior–Effective executives act with integrity and demonstrate a commitment to company values and principles. Through his or her leadership and personal example, they set an exemplary tone at the top. Courage–Effective leaders know when the course of action is right based on business judgment, customer needs, ethics and values. They are willing to take personal and career risks to serve the long-term interests of the company and the constituents they serve, such as customers, shareholders and employees.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Prudential Financial Company of America
Strategic Leadership–This is needed in order to drive a compelling business vision that does not accept the status quo. Drive for Results–Leaders who have a strong drive for results demonstrate an underlying passion for continuous improvement every day. Initiative–It is another important attribute that is required to understand and recognize changes in the marketplace, and to know what customers need and being passionate about filling those needs. Seeking Information–Good executives continually seek out information; stay up to date on trends, opportunities and problems that occur in the workplace. Building Organizational Capabilities–Lastly, effective executives build organizational capabilities. No one can do it alone. Actively engaging and retaining talented people in essential positions and developing a bench of successors for these positions are absolutely critical.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
Many years ago, someone once told me that you can’t have it all. I disagreed then, and I disagree now. I aspire to have it all; and all for me is making time for my family, having time to myself and being a solid contributor in my professional life. I think this requires incredible focus, organization and prioritization. I’ve watched many people who were entirely committed to their profession burn out. I look at a career as a marathon, not a 100-yard dash. I found it’s important to have time blocks—Time blocks for my family, time blocks for my career and time blocks for me. Once you make appointments for those important things in your life, you can’t cancel them. It’s important to remain focused. As an example, I am an avid runner. I run every day, 365 days a year, and sometimes, as absurd as it may sound, I’ll do a six-mile run at 2:30 in the morning so I can reach the airport for a 6 a.m. flight. Someone once told me that if you are too busy to run, you are just simply too busy. For me, it’s important because it’s something I need to do, and ultimately my work benefits from it.
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What has surprised you the most about working in the financial services industry?
What surprised me 29 years ago and continues to surprise me today is that many financial and insurance protection products that are so needed, are not owned by more people. We sell dreams, we sell promises for the future, but these are promises that customers can’t hold or touch or see, and because of that, we compete with consumer dollars that are often allocated to more tangible commodities. We have people in the insurance and financial services industry that come to work every day with a burning, continuous desire to educate and help individuals secure a better financial future. I can’t think of many industries that have done more good for more people for a longer amount of time.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
I would encourage any young person considering a career as a financial services professional to learn as much as they can about the financial services industry. A career as a financial services professional has a compensation structure that allows people to be compensated as much as their talents permit. There’s potential for excellent compensation. It is an incredible career, but it is not for everyone. To be successful in this career, an individual must be self-driven, highly focused and be able to keep pace with changes in the marketplace. In order to understand what that means, I would suggest interviewing men and women who are presently financial services professionals and who have built their own successful practices, and learn as much as you can from them. This is an industry that has done a lot of good for a lot of people and if someone has a desire to make an impact and not just a living, this may be the right career for them. Once an individual determines that this is the right career, then it’s time for due diligence in search
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Prudential Financial Company of America
of the right company. There are lots of companies in this industry so I suggest an interview with several to determine whether or not the company shares their values. Find out if it’s a company that will provide training and expertise in the specific area he/she wants to pursue. I would also encourage examining a company’s value proposition. Basically, it is evaluating a company’s training programs, health and welfare benefits, salary structure, and understanding the advancement opportunities they offer.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
I would suggest that anyone who has accomplished anything has been the benefactor of not one, but several mentors. Mentoring is extremely important to individuals who want to develop themselves, but I also feel that true mentoring is generally misunderstood. A mentor should be someone who has clear strengths in an area you need to develop. Mentoring relationships are not social occasions. People come together and have lunch and enjoy one another’s company and call it a mentoring relationship, but in my view that’s a friend and not necessarily a mentor. A mentor should at times make you feel a little uncomfortable. Good mentors ask tough questions and they challenge you. They talk to you about your growth and development and take you to places that you wouldn’t have gone on your own. I also believe that mentoring is like a relay race. I’ve had several mentors throughout my career. One mentor carried the baton and helped me grow and develop to a point in my career and then handed the baton over to another mentor who helped me reach a higher level of success. I would also suggest that as you develop and are the benefactor of good mentoring, then you have a responsibility to mentor other people. At some point, you have to be able to give back and transition from being the mentee to the mentor. I have found over the past five to seven years I have spent an incredible amount of time mentoring others and I intend to continue to do so.
How can someone find a mentor within his or her company/industry?
First, understand your strengths and developmental areas. Once you have a good handle on what your dreams are and what you need to do to achieve them, seek out people in your company who have the attributes that you want to have or that you need to improve upon. Go to your manager, go to co-workers, look internally in the company, but also look externally. Try to find a match that is very strong in the areas you want to develop. Don’t rely on your boss or your company to develop you. It’s about being pro-active, dreaming, and mobilizing. A lot of people say in corporate America that there is a lot of competition vying for advancement, and I suggest to my mentees that there may be far less competition than they think. If you have a plan, if you develop yourself, if you add value and if you are committed to continuous growth, I don’t think there are as many qualified competitors as you may have think.
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What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance?
I started with Prudential when I was 20 years old, so I didn’t have a long list of things I wanted to do at that point of my life. I was involved in a family business that was going to transfer to me, but it was a transfer I was not looking forward to. I was looking for a different life than my father’s, and so that is how I began. I had a desire to help others and this industry provides that opportunity. I have been fortunate in that I have been with one company for 29 years. I’ve grown, my priorities have changed, and I’ve developed. I’ve had the privilege of taking on new and larger responsibilities, and I’ve worked with a great company that has allowed me to grow and has grown with me.
If you were not in this field, what would your dream career be now?
I started my first management assignment when I was 23 years old, so I’ve spent most of my 29 years managing people. That has allowed me to develop good management and leadership skills. I believe that there will be a point in time when I close this chapter and open a new one. When I do that, I would like to apply what I’ve learned about general management and leadership to the nonprofit world. I believe at some point, I will give back to communities on a full-time basis using the professional skills that I have developed.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Prudential Financial Company of America
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
As far as this company goes, the future is as bright as its incredible past. First of all, there is a changing face of the consumer today. The number of women and people of color that can benefit from the products and services we offer are continually increasing. Our company plans to continue to provide a career path that meets these multicultural and gender opportunities that are developing. For the financial services industry, there is a need for financial services professionals in a market where one generation’s wealth will transfer to another, and where an aging population is nearing retirement and must plan for the distribution of their assets. These groups need to understand the multitude of products, and they need experts who can provide sound advice and guidance at arguably the most important time of their lives. Equally important as we go forward is that consumers and employees are going to be asked to “be their own rock.” They will have portable cash balance savings plans and they’re more likely to have multiple employers. It will be up to them to develop strategies to help grow and protect their wealth. There will be multiple and emerging outlets where they will be able to acquire these products, such as worksite marketing and the Internet, to name a few. Having said that, I continue to believe that most people will seek out a trusted advisor whom they feel comfortable with, to help them navigate through the complexity of the products and services that are available to help secure their financial future. I believe the provider of choice will be the financial services professional. Consumers will likely want to establish an ongoing relationship with a knowledgeable professional they can trust; someone who can make sense out of a mountain of information they need to navigate through, and someone who will help them make some of the most important decisions of their life. I believe qualified financial services professionals are in the best position to help consumers meet their goals and to achieve their hopes and dreams for a financially secure future.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Prudential Insurance Company of America
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“High-performance teams don’t just happen. They are developed. You can’t put a collection of people together in a room and call them a performing team. You have to develop them and common thinking does not create highperformance teams. In fact, it can prevent their formation.”
— John Greene, President of Agency Distribution in Prudential’s Domestic Individual Life Insurance Business, The Prudential Insurance Company of America
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Raymond James Financial, Inc.
Chet Helck—President & Chief Operating Officer
President and Chief Operating Officer Chet Helck works with the CEO and other senior management in formulating and directing strategic initiatives for Raymond James Financial. He oversees its domestic broker/dealer subsidiaries, Raymond James & Associates and Raymond James Financial Services, together with Canadian subsidiary Raymond James Ltd. and Londonbased Raymond James Investment Services. Mr. Helck’s leadership responsibilities further include risk management, legal, wealth management, human resources, marketing and corporate communications, in addition to representing the firm in activities related to public company status such as engaging institutional investors and working with analysts covering Raymond James. Additionally, he serves as a director of Raymond James Financial, as well as of numerous subsidiaries throughout the organization. He is chairman of the Raymond James Technology Advisory Group, which is charged with planning, directing and coordinating the company’s technology efforts. Mr. Helck entered the financial services industry in 1983 as an investment representative for Edward D. Jones & Co. and built a successful retail office. He later became the firm’s regional leader for Georgia, Florida and Alabama. Prior to working in the securities industry, he served for nine years as a product marketing and territory manager for Deere & Co.
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Mr. Helck began his association with Raymond James in 1989 as a vice president of business development for its independent contractor subsidiary. Increasing responsibilities led to his appointment as executive vice president of business development, where he shaped an environment of success that contributed significantly to remarkable growth in the firm’s independent contractor business. He became president and chief operating officer of Raymond James Financial in February of 2002. Mr. Helck serves as a board and executive committee member of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and as chairman of its Private Client Group Steering Committee. Mr. Helck received his BA from the West Virginia University Institute of Technology and is a graduate of the Securities Industry Institute at the Wharton School of Business and of the Harvard Business School Leading Professional Service Firms Program.
Q&A with Chet Helck
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
You have to really know the business you are in. I started out in the financial services industry as a financial advisor—learning about the business by doing the business. Even though I had an eye towards management, I learned our business from the customer level. I sat with retirees, with widows and with young professionals helping them with financial planning, which turned out to be life planning. I have never lost sight of those important lessons learned by doing.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Raymond James Financial, Inc.
Earlier, when I was a senior in college, a professor gave us some very good advice about choosing a career. He said, “Take a notebook with you wherever you go for two weeks. Write down words that reflect the things you enjoy. After two weeks look at those words and write a job description that includes those things and then see what kind of job you should seek based on the things you enjoy.” I wrote down: technical design, industrial management (my degree), travel (I had been on an airplane once), photography (a friend had just bought a camera I thought was cool), music (I was in a band) and public speaking (I felt pretty comfortable in that role). So my ideal job was to “work with technical people in a company, taking new product designs off the drawing board, creating multimedia expressions of the capabilities that had been designed into the products; and to create sales and marketing materials to help sell those products in the marketplace.” Surprisingly, one company had this job—it was the combine-harvester division of John Deere in Moline, Illinois. I wasn’t sure I knew how to properly pronounce combine or Moline, but I interviewed for the job. I didn’t get it; they hired the son of a John Deere dealer who obviously knew a lot more about the product than me. But, in being told no, I attempted to persuade the HR manager that he should call his counterpart in the lawn mower division (because I really knew a lot about lawn mowers having mowed yards since I was a boy) and to get them to hire me in for the same type job in their area. Though it took a while for him to say no again, he did let me down gently. But about an hour later the phone rang. The HR manager was calling back to invite me to become the first “trainee” in a new management development program. I said, “Sign me up.” So, persistence helps. Years later I joined Raymond James, with a subsidiary company based in Atlanta. By then I was able to demonstrate knowledge of the business from experience and an aptitude and a passion for management.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
Make sure you identify what you can be passionate about and transpose those things into a job. If you are passionate about something, you can be good at it. Being good at it is the key to success.
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You have to know something about what you are doing, and to really learn you usually have to start with the basics. You have to get your hands dirty, you have to get it in your blood, and you have to know a business experientially, not just academically. I often tell some of these incredibly bright young people who come through our management training program, who say they want to “play a strategic role with P&L responsibility” that they really don’t know squat about our business and they had better go learn it first.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
Feeling that I can really make things happen has been my biggest reward. To be relevant, to be able to make a contribution and have it mean something, in terms of both developing people and affecting financial results. It’s rewarding to develop people, but it’s also about contributing to the efficacy of how the organization meets its objectives. Management means getting things done through other people, delegating, not doing things yourself. One of the toughest things managers have to learn is letting go and getting others to do something, hopefully even better than you.
What would you most like to change?
I probably would have gotten an MBA , while I did some of the work for an MBA I took the classes too late, after I had been working and successful for a while, and I couldn’t relate well to the academicians who talked down to the students. I would also have learned another language.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Raymond James Financial, Inc.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
Have integrity. Do what you say you are going to do. Tell the truth and the whole truth. Be reliable. No one will lose confidence in someone more quickly than having them not do what they say they are going to do. It’s not just the big things that can ruin you. It’s the little things. “I’ll call you tomorrow”—and you don’t. “I’ll have that report to you on Monday”—and you don’t. “I’ll get you an answer”—and you don’t. It’s those fundamental little things that create the relationship of trust, or lack of it, that will make or break a career. Demonstrate humility. My mother always said, “Remember where you came from.”
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
One’s work life affects everything—and family is the most affected. Traveling is hard on a family and many successful careers involve a fair amount of travel. Having to be away when important things happen is hard. Working long hours, developing relationships with colleagues all make for competition with your family. You must not lose sight of the fact that these conflicts exist, and if your family is supportive and understanding, that’s not a license to take them for granted. I don’t have any particular system but I try to be a part of what’s going on. I did spend time with my son when he was a boy scout and went on field trips and camping weekends, and I knowingly gave up some business to accomplish that, but it was important. Yes, you will have to make sacrifices with both family and work, but if you maintain a healthy family life and a healthy attitude, over time, you will outperform others.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
The perception others have about our industry. There seems to be an assumption that people in the financial services industry can predict the future. You see talking heads on TV, executives quoted in the newspaper all making predictions about what is going to happen. They have about them an air of credibility that they really do know the future. Well, it’s a myth. We cannot see the future. We get surprised along with everyone else, but we have to have a plan in place to deal with a broad range of possible outcomes. So, in financial planning terms, you need to be able to diversify and manage risk and in financial management terms you need to have a solid business plan and a commitment to it, but also have a backup plan.
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What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
Learn from the ground up. I know there are students who can get good grades without really learning anything; they can score well using their intelligence. But I would advise students to really learn. Take the educational process seriously, absorbing the knowledge is important. Study those who are good at what they do. Emulate winners. There’s a practice you’ll often find in business, especially with young people in business, where there are two groups. There’s a small group who outperforms, who know their stuff and who are thinking of the possibilities, and the other bigger group who are the complainers, the negative ones. My advice is to hang out with the positive group. The negative people are rationalizing their own underperformance and blaming someone else. Attitude is the most important factor to success, assuming you have the fundamentals and the basic attributes. Managing your attitude is incredibly important but it is hard—it’s much harder than doing your homework.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others? How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
Yes, I have been mentored, but I will always be able to benefit from more mentoring.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Raymond James Financial, Inc.
I try to mentor the people who demonstrate the most ability to contribute. I look for those who are engaged, have the best attitude, and are willing to commit to you that they are on board helping you achieve your objectives. A lesson to learn is that the young aspiring person must reach out to the mentor. Ask to go to lunch, meet, etc. Take the first step.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
I think seeing my fingerprints all over something that really matters is wonderful. I have my dream job right now. I want to continue in this role so long as I can make a relevant contribution. Maybe years from now I will take my boat to the Bahamas for three months and go diving.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
The financial services industry has a very bright future. The demographics in our country, indeed in the world, would tell you that the demand for our services from the baby boom generation is going to be—in fact, is already—huge. Beyond that, there’s a developing middle class in parts of the globe where there was not one before, and as people in emerging markets become consumers of financial services we will export our business knowledge to those markets. Raymond James plans on being at the forefront of this growth.
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Reznick Group, P.C.
Joyce S. Price, CPA—Audit Principal
Joyce Price is a Principal in Reznick Group’s real estate consulting and audit practice. She has been providing professional services in the commercial real estate, private equity funds, homebuilding and hospitality industries for more than twenty years, and has extensive experience servicing the audit and accounting needs for some of the largest real estate investors nationwide. Over the course of her career, Ms. Price has been involved in over $100 billion in real estate transactions including hotels and resort properties, regional shopping malls, office properties, land developers, homebuilders and large, multifaceted real estate projects. She has overall responsibility for the financial due diligence services for one of the largest consumer and commercial lending companies in the country and is the lead principal for many of Reznick Group’s largest real estate clients. Ms. Price’s professional affiliations include the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Maryland Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Urban Land Institute, the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) and the Pension Real Estate Association (PREA). Ms. Price received her BS in accounting, cum laude from the University of Maryland. She currently divides her time between Bethesda, Baltimore and Los Angeles.
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Q&A with Joyce Price
What are some steps that you took to get in the position you are in now?
I was always determined to do my personal best, whether I was in school or later at work. I always wanted to deliver something that would make me proud and my expectations of myself are pretty high. Relentless preparation, having and reflecting a strong work ethic and recognizing the importance of collaboration have been fundamental to my success. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t been dedicated, focused and prepared and had good people to work with and to work for. Additionally, I learned early to stay very focused on providing great service—to my team and to my clients. I have learned that effective communication with my staff, my partners and my clients is vital.
What are some things you feel you’ve learned on the job and not in the classroom?
I have learned the importance of fostering solid relationships. In my current position, I am responsible for managing a group of professionals who provide audit, consulting and tax services. Developing strong relationships with my team is essential. Understanding, listening and recognizing each person’s goals, strengths and what truly motivates them is an important part of building a successful group. As a result, the whole team is more likely to be successful in achieving both the individual and group goals. Recognizing the value of a team is more vital than any one contributor. A cohesive team will naturally build rewarding relationships with clients. In school you are taught the technical skills that serve as the foundation for your career. Once you’re on the job, you continue to expand your technical knowledge and learn when and how to apply this knowledge. Each business transaction has distinct elements; learning
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Reznick Group, P.C.
to understand the economics of the transaction, the objectives and goals of the transaction and the risks and rewards for each party involved is essential. On-the-job training includes learning what questions to ask, learning how to listen to the answers, understanding the issues involved and the decisions made in structuring a transaction, learning how to creatively resolve issues and learning to think outside of the box. Acquiring, developing and enhancing your business acumen are achieved throughout your career. In addition to learning how to build, foster and sustain relationships, I have also learned to adapt. My “on-the-job” experiences have taught me that to be truly successful—you have to be agile in your thinking and your approach to clients and staff. You have to be capable of making adjustments to every situation you encounter and you absolutely must be able to cope and manage through constant change. To win at this—learning to communicate effectively and consistently has been critical. Most of all—I have learned that integrity is paramount to everything we do. Both staff and clients must have trust in my judgment and know that they can depend on me do to what is “right” and reasonable even if it is not uniquely popular.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
At this point, it is certainly about giving back by mentoring, coaching and developing people. I’ve worked with some individuals for over 10 years. Watching them progress from the day they came through our door with uncertainty and tentativeness to becoming selfsufficient, confident professionals is extremely rewarding. I’ve enjoyed sharing my knowledge and experience to help develop those successful careers and have learned more than a few things from my staff along the way. Knowing you’ve had a positive influence on people both in their personal lives and in their careers is one of the most rewarding aspect of any person’s life, regardless of what field they’re in.
What would you most like to change?
I love my career and public accounting. When you’re in public accounting, you know very early on whether your personality is suited to the field. Public accounting is very fast-paced, dynamic and unpredictable. It is not the type of position where you come to work each morning and know exactly what you’re going to be working on. Each day brings new challenges, new opportunities and new ideas. Public accounting provides opportunities for continually expanding your knowledge and developing management skills. If there were any one thing that I could change—it would be the perception that public accounting is a great place to launch a career but then transition into industry. Public accounting is an amazing arena to grow a career that can move in a multitude of directions— all while remaining in public accounting. Developing exceptional technical skills, mastering the art of consulting, the exceptional leadership opportunities that abound coupled with the ability to provide exceptional client service are not readily found anywhere other then public accounting.
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What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
To be an effective executive, you should be passionate about your work and love what you do. Second, you need to really care for the people with whom you work. Third, you need to be an effective communicator. Fourth, constant preparation and the ability to anticipate issues are essential. You must be proactive versus reactive. Fifth, you have to set goals and objectives. Sixth, develop an entrepreneurial spirit; be optimistic and innovative and establish yourself as a visionary leader. People who are creative and lead the way with bold new ideas and strategies, and have the ability to actually implement them, will always be the most successful executives in any business.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
My generation is among the first for women to enter the workforce in earnest. There haven't been many role models to demonstrate how to juggle all the demands of work and home life, and furthermore, how women could and should interact with one another in their chosen profession. The flexibility I have been afforded at work has been essential in managing my career and raising my children with my husband. Reznick Group accommodates flexible schedules and adopts a results-oriented focus. My son is in his sophomore year at Emory and
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Reznick Group, P.C.
soon will be applying to the business school. My daughter is a senior in high school and will be entering college next year. I have always worked throughout my children’s lives and have dealt through the common work/life balance issues. There have been times where certain family events have been missed and times when certain business events have been missed. But I would hope that in looking at the whole picture, I have demonstrated to my children that you can really have both a career and a happy family so long as the communication is open and compromises can be made.
Do you have any special techniques or philosophies that help you maintain your work balance?
It’s about knowing your priorities, sometimes even on a daily basis. You just need to be flexible, go with the flow, and not expect perfection from yourself all of the time.
What has surprised you most about working in the accounting industry?
The constant change. There have been significant changes to the accounting profession throughout my career. The quantity of accounting rules and financial pronouncements issued has increased tremendously during the past five years. Balancing the pace of change with training and implementation continues to be a challenge. In addition, the need to integrate specialists onto the audit team has increased significantly. Many transactions today are completed entirely using information technology so information technology specialists are added on the audit team to gain an understanding of a client’s electronic data interchange and to test its output. Other examples might include utilizing valuation specialists as well as state, federal and international tax professionals on a particular engagement.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in accounting?
Choose something that you’re passionate about. My father used to say that people like what they are good at and they are good at what they like. This is a challenging and ever changing environment so it is important to have a passion to succeed and a hunger for knowledge.
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Have you ever been mentored or mentored others?
Yes. I’ve been mentored throughout my life. I was mentored as a child by my parents, I was mentored in college by my professors who gave me advice on what field to pursue, and it’s from my professors that I chose public accounting as my career. I’ve also been mentored at work. My partners at Reznick Group have inspired me to advance beyond what I thought was possible. The coaching I received went beyond technical skills; it included life skills that I continue to apply today. I coach our employees on a daily basis as I love to teach. Inspiring others to do their personal best and ensuring that each person sees that they can and do make a difference is important to me.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
I know that some companies adopt formal mentoring programs but in addition, I think it should also be up to the individual to seek out their own mentor. They should observe the successful people within their organization, learn from their decisions, identify their attributes and try to determine what makes them successful. Emulate the positive traits you see in these individuals. An individual should also take the initiative to ask for feedback. Feedback is not always an easy thing to hear, but you can’t improve without it. A good mentor will give you feedback even when you’re doing great. You don’t want to chose a mentor who will only pat you on the back and tell you that you’ve done a good job; in an environment of constant praise you will only stagnate. You want the constructive criticism so that you can continue to improve and develop.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Reznick Group, P.C.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on accounting?
I originally intended to be a stockbroker and chose finance as my major at the University of Maryland. But when I took my first accounting class, I really enjoyed the course work and did well. During the spring semester of my junior year, I interned with a public accounting firm and experienced the energy, the enthusiasm and the intellectual challenges of “tax season.” This experience sealed my decision and I changed my major from finance to accounting.
If you were not in accounting, what would your dream career be now?
I would probably choose something involving the travel industry as I love to travel.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
The industry is going to continue to become more sophisticated, with increasingly more requirements and more oversight. Financial statements have, up to now, been generally reported on a historical cost basis. During recent years, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued several pronouncements which require components of the financial statements to be reported on a fair market value basis. This trend started with just investments but has now reached a significant number of other financial statement components that will touch and affect all aspects of the financial statements. In addition, as the economy has become more global, our financial reporting must keep pace. There is, and will continue to be a focus to align the generally accepted accounting principals that exist for various nations to a set of standards that will be adhered to on an international basis.
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Rothstein Kass
Steven A. Kass—Co-Managing Principal
Co-Managing Principal Steven Kass has served at Rothstein Kass for the past 21 years. He is also a member of the firm’s board of directors he has extensive experience promoting audit, tax and advisory services to a wide range of public and private businesses and their owners, and he frequently lectures before industry groups and professional associations. Mr. Kass began his career with Arthur Young (now Ernst & Young). After three years, he joined Rothstein Kass. Bringing strong skills and a fresh mindset to the firm, Mr. Kass has played an integral role in the firm’s growth and national presence over the last 21 years. Additionally, he has been extensively involved with advising clients within the firm’s financial services group. Mr. Kass serves on the advisory board for the Lubin School of Accounting at Syracuse University and recently completed a two-year term as international chairman of AGN International Ltd., an association of separate and independent accounting and consulting firms in 80 countries. He was honored in January 2004 with a Distinguished Achievement award by the banking and finance unit of B’nai B’rith International. Mr. Kass is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. He is certified to practice in the states of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Florida. Mr. Kass received his BS in accounting from Syracuse University.
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Q&A with Steven Kass
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
The most important step in moving ahead in business or your career is to build a strong foundation and knowledge base. You need to have a broad understanding of your clients’ needs and the services you are providing. Then you need to be observant of other successful people and what makes them tick. You have to learn how to motivate and lead—and that understanding and those skills come, in part, with experience. For me, one of the things that helped me a lot in my success is that I paid attention to other individuals, I saw what they did and what worked for them, and I learned from that process. I would add that, most importantly, to succeed you need to take ownership of your career and not wait for things to be presented to you. Too often people sit back and wait for things to happen, and that’s not the way to succeed. You have to understand what is required in the position to which you aspire, and if you can show that you have the skills and experience to meet the responsibilities of the position— and this includes understanding and skills related to technical, organizational, people and client responsibilities—then you have a much better chance of succeeding.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
You need to have both technical skills and experience, and you need a range of skills and experience that you can develop only in the field. You need to have a keen awareness of circumstances around you—what are the dynamics of the situation, what is influencing the outcome and you need to learn to trust your instincts. You cannot be afraid to make a decision. The classroom does give you a
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Rothstein Kass
foundation, especially a technical foundation, but at the end of the day you need to develop leadership and people skills, and you need to know when to trust your instincts.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
The most important thing for a professional services firm is its human capital. Without having talented and highly motivated people, you cannot really build the strong reputation that you need in order to be successful. And there are mutual benefits when the resources are developed and focused properly; both the individuals and firm succeed. Seeing people achieve and benefit from the growth of our organization is really one of the most satisfying and gratifying aspects of my current position.
What would you most like to change?
I feel pretty blessed with my career so there’s not a lot that I’d like to change. As far as the profession goes, you need to be nimble when you see change around you. Change can be unsettling, and it can also create opportunities. If you think about the accounting industry, in particular, you never could have anticipated the collapse of Arthur Andersen and the subsequent implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. Those events really changed the landscape of the accounting profession, and they created new requirements, new services, new ways we can help our clients. I am not sure I know what I would like to change, but I want to make sure we can adapt quickly to or in advance of any significant changes.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
A good leader needs to have vision. He or she needs to see the big picture and have a good sense of where the firm needs to go. He or she needs to be nimble, flexible, adaptable and observant. A good leader needs to be able to motivate people. And, for that matter, a good leader needs to make sure he or she is surrounded by good people who can become good leaders. Charisma doesn’t hurt either. Being charismatic is good.
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What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
Balancing your career and family life is always a challenge to highly motivated people, the type-A personalities that we are. You need to schedule your family time as if it’s your most important client. That way it stays a priority, and you make sure you do take the time needed to take care of obligations and interests.
Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
I think it’s simply a matter of keeping work/life balance a priority. I literally do schedule my family time, although there are times that I can certainly be better at it. I am far from the best role model, and it is something I do work hard to improve upon. Sometimes you need to have the flexibility to schedule your leave to deal with family-related issues, and my most effective technique is literally to schedule my family time. I put it in my calendar. Actually, it’s a firm philosophy to “disengage” during time off, and we practice this concept at all levels of the firm. We try not to interrupt anyone’s scheduled time off with work issues. Another technique is that I only have one calendar for work and home, because both work and family are important and deserve appropriate attention. The more I combine my databases and have all information in one central place, the easier it is to control my life. I have one email address also. I don’t go for multiple email addresses. I try to simplify my life, not make it any more complicated.
What has surprised you the most about working in the accounting industry?
I’ve always understood accounting to be a dynamic profession. What surprised me the most is the dynamic effect Arthur Andersen imploding and Sarbanes-Oxley being created had on the profession. The profession has gone through tremendous growth have and I always understood and even expected change, but the remarkable evolution in the profession exceeded my expectations.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Rothstein Kass
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in accounting?
Accounting is a great career. I would tell a young person that you need to embrace your career; don’t treat it like a job. Take ownership of it. Don’t wait for things to come to you. You need to aggressively go for it. I would advise a person embarking on a career in accounting to take it seriously, and to put yourself in a position where you’ve earned the position—and shown proven yourself in the position—that you’re looking to achieve the needed expertise or experience for the next position, as opposed to waiting for it to get to you and waiting for someone to acknowledge you. In any career you need a vision of where you want to go and how you will get there. And, while some people will help you along the way, you are responsible for developing and implementing your career plan.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
Yes, both. I have had a number of people who have guided me and offered me advice. My father, who was also an accountant, was a great role model and mentor to me. There were several others. People always need mentor regardless of where they are in their career, because hopefully one never wants to stop learning and developing. I like to think I am helping others as I was helped to develop professionally and personally throughout my career. In my capacity as co-managing principal of Rothstein Kass, I have spent a lot of time mentoring and coaching individuals who are leaders today. And I continue to mentor professionals who hope to be leaders tomorrow in all aspects of the business. I think mentoring is a responsibility, and it’s something that we should do. People who are the recipients of it have a better chance in excelling faster in their career.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
You will probably have several mentors, each providing you with a different perspective and perhaps advising you in a different aspect of career development. One may help with technical skills development; another, with navigating firm culture. Another may advise you on how to approach very specific situations or client issues. You need to be observant of different traits of the individuals and identify those individuals with whom you are most likely to have similar thoughts and approaches. You want to find mentors or coaches with whom you will have a certain comfort level, because you will want to have open conversations and discussions. You want to deal with someone who feels comfortable with you in terms of his or her personality traits as well as their skills sets. If you’re a mentee, you want to seek someone out who can help you provide those intangibles to make you more successful.
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As a mentor, you look for people who you feel demonstrate the attributes of future leader—you have a sense that it’s worth investing in these individuals because the investment will have a significant return—and who you personally want to help through the development process. As a mentor you should identify your future leaders and put each of them into a position to succeed.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in accounting?
I thought about a career in finance. I did consider a Wall Street career. Accounting felt more comfortable to me and, as I reflect on it today, it was the right decision. Accounting has been great.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
It’s going to continue to evolve. There’s always going to be new services and products. There are always going to be new economic cycles. There will probably be continued consolidation of accounting firms, and there’s going to be continued globalization of the profession. The standards on international levels are likely to converge. It’s a career with a great upside.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Rothstein Kass
“Embrace your career; don’t treat it like a job. Take ownership of it. Don’t wait for things to come to you. You need to aggressively go for it.”
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— Steven Kass, Co-Managing Principal, Rothstein Kass
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RSM EquiCo, Inc.
Hector J. Cuellar—President, RSM EquiCo; RSM EquiCo Capital Markets
President Hector J. Cuellar has more than 20 years of experience in corporate and investment banking, including international M&A, corporate finance and capital raising. The firm has added several new practice areas, revamped its business-development strategy, tripled its average deal size, almost doubled its number of cross-border transactions, and generated billions of dollars in liquidity for its clients. Prior to joining RSM EquiCo, Mr. Cuellar served at Banc of America Securities, the full-service investment bank and brokerage subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation, as managing director and manager of the firm's Los Angeles office. In this role, he oversaw the firm's global activities in the aerospace/defense and engineering/construction industries and advised some of the nation’s most prominent companies, including Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, CBI, General Dynamics, Kiewit, Goodrich, Boeing, Bechtel and Fluor. Mr. Cuellar joined Bank of America in 1980 as an international finance officer and associate vice president in the bank's Mexico City office, where he handled corporate and government sector clients. Mr. Cuellar later transferred to the company's Chicago corporate office, where he served general industrial clients and subsequently was promoted to managing director, providing corporate and investment banking services to a variety of multinational corporations. Mr. Cuellar is a director of the Mexican-American Legal and Educational Defense Fund (MALDEF) and previously served as president of the California Pacific Chapter of the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce and member of the U.S. Space Council. In 2004, he was named one of the nation’s 100 Most Influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business Magazine, and in 2007 he was listed as one of the Top 25 Latinos in Finance by Latino Leaders magazine. Mr. Cuellar received his BA in accounting from Loyola University in Chicago and an MBA from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He holds FINRA Series 7, 24 and 63 securities licenses.
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Q&A with Hector Cuellar
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I benefited from having fairly broad exposure within the field of finance, which gave me some valuable perspective, especially compared with people who narrowly specialize. I spent many years working in the global corporate bank for Bank of America and within Banc of America Securities and thus held a variety of positions, both in the United States and abroad. So I gained a fairly international perspective early on, without losing my appreciation for the idiosyncrasies of local, regional and national markets. Experiencing the evolution of Bank of America’s investment banking practice first hand also taught me some valuable lessons. I learned that having expertise in finance and investment banking products are not enough if you want to get to the top of this field; you also need
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals RSM EquiCo, Inc.
to develop an in-depth understanding of relationships as well as of a particular industry. Knowing a lot about aerospace and defense has been hugely beneficial to me. Developing relationships with some of the major industry players has been even more valuable.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
Lessons can be learned in a lot places outside the classroom: at home, in the office, on the street. In this business, an absolutely essential attribute is trust, and there are no shortcuts to gaining it; you must earn it, patiently. That can’t be learned in a class. The art of negotiation, which at its core is what deal-making is, is not a book-learned talent. Client management is another crucial skill that has to be learned on the job. Of course, the need to constantly stay abreast of industry trends requires lifelong learning.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career? What would you most like to change?
I have found this to be an extraordinarily exciting career, one that has helped me grow as a person both on and off the job. Investment banking in particular has given me a very broad perspective, a global point of view, which I think has made me more sensitive to cultural differences. That’s useful in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world. I’ve also had a chance to work with some really bright people, not only colleagues and clients, but other advisors such as lawyers, private equity investors and tax specialists. There is not much I would change. I suppose I might have left Banc of America Securities a little earlier.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
In this business, a strong work ethic is an absolute prerequisite. If you’re not willing to work hard, you’re not likely to succeed. You also should have good analytical and financial modeling skills, as well as a solid grasp of accounting, corporate finance and business valuation. This is a demanding field, and you’re often juggling multiple assignments, so time management skills are essential. If you want to move up the executive ranks, you also must learn to be a decision-maker and an effective manager of people. Leadership requires a well-honed sense of fairness. A leader must be willing to walk the walk and not ask people to do anything he or she is unwilling to do. He or she should serve as an example to others.
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What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
To be candid, my not-inconsiderable ambitions have put pressure on my family and created challenges in my personal life. Investment banking can be lucrative career, but it can also be extremely demanding. There is a lot of travel, a lot of stress. It’s also incredibly stimulating and at times even exhilarating. I’m still learning to manage and improve the balance in my life. One thing that’s definitely helped: bringing my wife with me when I travel abroad. I also strongly urge people to take advantage of their time off. Don’t skip vacations.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
I’m surprised at how much fun this business has turned out to be. I’m also somewhat surprised, and definitely pleased, by how well this field aligns with my personality, interests and passions. There is no boredom in this arena. Deregulation and globalization have helped stimulate rapid evolution, and nowadays banking requires long hours and involves considerable risk. At the same time, the upside potential is better than ever.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals RSM EquiCo, Inc.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
Do your best to determine your desired end game; that is, decide where you want to end up in your career. Then do your homework to assess the skills, experience and attributes you’ll need to get there. Develop the requisite technical abilities, and then steadily add other skills that will help you achieve your long-term goals. Develop and maintain relationships. Don’t compromise your integrity; develop a reputation as a straight shooter with high ethics. Finally, take responsibility for managing your own career. Don’t count on a company or institution to do it for you.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals RSM EquiCo, Inc.
“Take responsibility for managing your own career. Don’t count on a company or institution to do it for you.”
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— Hector J. Cuellar, President, RSM EquiCo, Inc.
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Schneider Downs & Co., Inc.
Gennaro J. DiBello—Shareholder
Shareholder Gennaro J. DiBello joined Schneider Downs in 1987. He currently serves as a tax advisory services shareholder. Mr. DiBello has widespread experience in all areas of tax and business planning associated with closely held companies and delivers services to the firm’s clients on a variety of tax and business planning matters that include the coordination and delivery of tax compliance services to closely held businesses and their owners. He also excels in developing, communicating and implementing tax minimization strategies, managing federal and state tax examinations, and overall entity and individual tax planning. Mr. DiBello also serves clients in construction, real estate, manufacturing, professional services and automobile industries. Mr. DiBello is a member of the American and Pennsylvania Institutes of Certified Public Accountants and the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants. He is also a member of the Young Presidents Organization, Pittsburgh Chapter, the Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania, the Construction Financial Management Association, the Master Builders Association, and the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. Mr. DiBello also is a member of the Board of Trustees with La Roche College, of the Club at Nevillewood Finance Committee, of the Schneider Downs Board of Directors and of the Schneider Downs Engineering, Construction and Real Estate Industry Group. He also coaches youth sports for Our Lady of Grace School and the Scott Township Athletic Association. Mr. DiBello received his BS in business administration from Duquesne University.
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Q&A with Gennaro DiBello
What are some steps that you took to get in the position that you are in now?
I’ve actually been very fortunate to have an opportunity to work my way through Schneider Downs. I just celebrated my 20 anniversary with the firm. I got here as an entry level accountant and I’ve made my way through several levels of management, and became a shareholder in 1998. I am currently a member of our firm’s board of directors. Perseverance has been a key essential ingredient in arriving at this success. th Was Schneider Downs your first job?
No, I was with two smaller firms before I joined Schneider Downs, but I have spent my entire career in public accounting. The handson experience that I received at the two smaller firms was absolutely wonderful. Technology was not as prevalent back then, it was all done manually. I learned a lot in a small environment.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
I attended Duquesne University. The education was great; I learned about the profession and became enthused about public accounting. The education was critical as it was a foundational stepping stone for my career. I’d certainly encourage people to continue to learn, not just in the college classroom, but through practical experience and continuing education. I’ve learned by doing, the classroom is
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Schneider Downs & Co., Inc.
very theoretical, the workplace is very practical. People skills are very, very critical in our business, whether for public accounting or any area of finance. Communication skills are key.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career? What would you most like to change?
There are actually a few. It has been incredibly rewarding here to be part of a management team that has helped our firm reach unprecedented levels of growth. We are recognized as a top 50 accounting firm (No. 44) in the United States, and I’m very proud to be a part of this organization. I’ve grown up with this organization and I’m very proud of the achievements that I’ve been part of through my involvement on the client service side and with our governance helping to lead the firm into the future. I don’t know that I would change much. If there was something in particular, it is the work compression during the January-April time frame, which can cause a lot of stress both on the family and the professional fronts. I enjoy marketing the firm and new business development and, quite honestly, to find time to pursue those interests is challenging during busy season. I wish there was a way we could spread the workload compression.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
I’m blessed with a wife and a family who understand what I do. I’m also blessed that our organization recognizes the importance of work/life balance. Without question, at the end of the day it’s up to me to keep and maintain that balance. It’s never perfect. As I mentioned, we have the work compression in the January to April time frame and that certainly gets to be one sided. Our culture has been wonderful here. I’ve made very close friends here and there’s a tremendous amount of interaction with my co-workers and their families.
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It’s never easy to achieve that balance, but it’s very important in a professional’s life. My support network is tremendous. Part of the work/life balance is being able to achieve and enjoy. Along those lines, I try to find time to enjoy with the family, whether it is a vacation or just time away from the office.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive leader?
I think an effective leader is someone who is absolutely comfortable with taking responsibility and being held accountable. You also need to have excellent interpersonal skills. I’ve got a quote on my desk from Vince Lombardi—“Leaders are not born, they are made through effort and hard work.” I remind myself of that everyday. Along with excellent interpersonal skills you need to be a good communicator. An effective leader also develops the younger talent, empowers them, and then ultimately trusts them. In order to be effective, you need to have the ability to change gears, fast and often. There are no two days alike in a finance professional’s life. Day to day it’s a whole new set of issues. You need to be able to react to the needs of business, not being afraid of change.
What has surprised you the most working in the finance industry?
The biggest surprise is that there’s a misconception that the finance industry is mostly number crunching, a lot of statistics. It is essential that to work in our industry, you must have good critical, written and verbal communication skills. The development of relationships with clients and with the business community is very important. It’s not just about numbers. It’s also cultivating and growing relationships with my colleagues, my clients and the business community. Some of my family members think that I sit all day at an adding machine and that’s certainly not what I do on a day to day basis. It’s about continuous relationship building.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Schneider Downs & Co., Inc.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
Learn through your supervisors, take challenges. It’s a competitive industry. Stand out. Be open-minded, be ambitious and learn from those you work with. Take time each day to think about what you can do to help your organization and its clients. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to have the courage to go out and find the answers on your own. I think a lot of people like to be told what to do and those that stand out are those that take some initiative to try to seek out answers and solutions on their own. To be a problem solver is very critical in our business. You need to be inquisitive and you need to have some ambition to do it.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others? How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
Have I been mentored? Yes. Am I mentoring others? Yes. I owe much of my success to those who took the time to mentor me. Currently I am mentoring young team members and shareholders within our organization. I think in any organization—for any new kids coming out of school—through the interview process, it would be a great question to ask: “Do you have a mentoring program?” We have a mentoring program for our staff. I think young professionals entering the finance industry should find a mentor. Take a look at those you work with. Look to see who you admire and respect, who is holding themselves out as the leader, or has those traits, someone who’s credible, has a lot of energy, and don’t be afraid to emulate them. I think as leaders we’re also finding informal ways to mentor. Whether it’s conversations in a car, or discussions in our lobby or water fountain discussions, we need to take the time to mentor the future leaders of our organization.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in accounting? If you were not in this field, what would your dream career be now?
Interestingly it’s part of the goal set that I had once I entered public accounting. I had set goals for when I wanted to become a shareholder or a partner. To the extent that it didn’t happen, my fall back was going to be running the family business. My father has been self-employed for 45 years, he’s approaching 72 years old, and I think the slow down is starting to happen. Had I not attained my goals, I saw myself running the family business. Coming out of college, and getting into public practice, the typical protocol is that you get three to four years of experience and you end up in industry somewhere. When I was new in the business I always thought at some point in time, I would be the CFO for a publicly traded company. I enjoy the challenges of each day and public accounting has been very professionally rewarding for me. If I had a dream job, I’d love to be playing golf professionally. It’d be an interesting job and an interesting ambition. I have an eightyear-old son, and he said to me a couple of weeks ago, “Dad, when I get older I want a job that’s going to be fun and one that I can make a lot of money” and I said, “Son, I got two words for you: Tiger Woods.”
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Any predictions about the future of the industry?
We operate in a global economy. I think there will always be opportunity for finance professionals to enjoy rewarding careers, whether it is working with small, closely held businesses, to public practice, to working for large, multinational organizations. There are continuously changing rules that allow opportunity. One of the key strengths of every well-run organization is the finance area. Because of the global economy, the dynamics of the world of finance, the opportunity is out there, I think the future of our industry is quite bright.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Schneider Downs & Co., Inc.
“You need to be inquisitive and you need to have some ambition to do it.”
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Scottrade, Inc.
Catherine Maher—Executive Director of Operations
Executive Director Catherine Maher has served with Scottrade, Inc. for the last 12 years and is responsible for managing all back office operations. She is a Certified IRA Services Professional. Ms. Maher maintains a Series 27 registration. Ms. Maher received her BS in business administration from St. Louis University.
Q&A with Catherine Maher
What are some steps you took to get to the position that you are in now?
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I don’t think I consciously took specific steps for this role. I am fortunate enough to work for a firm that firmly believes in promoting from within. I did the jobs I had along the way to the best of my ability. It helps if you love the company you work for and you do truly believe in its mission.
What personality traits and attributes do you think make for a good and effective executive?
Someone who can make a rational decision. You have to balance. You can’t be completely emotional or completely rational. Someone that’s very observant of what goes on, specifically at the ground level. So much happens there and you must pay attention to it.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
The biggest thing is to think of things from all angles. When you have a problem, don’t just think about what you need to do your job correctly or to keep your report in balance. You really need to step back and think about the downstream implications of your work and how the customer could be impacted by that and how other departments could be impacted by that. So don’t just get your report in balance, get to the end of your day and get home. You’ve got to think about first, the customer, what impact this is going to have on the customer, and secondly, on other departments. I don’t think that is touched on in the classroom a whole lot.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career? What would you most like to change?
As far as changing, I am probably the luckiest woman there is. I don’t know that there’s anything I’d like to change about my career. The most rewarding aspect? Again, I am just so lucky to work for a firm that is really committed to its mission. I have our mission statement hanging on the wall in my office. That mission statement talks about our corporate culture, providing our associates with
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Scottrade, Inc.
opportunities, about fostering success, and about providing our customers with the products and services they need. To work for a firm that believes in the same things I do has really been fantastic.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others? How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
I would say, officially, no. But at our firm, we don’t sit in the office with our doors closed all day. We’re approachable. You knock on the door and you ask a question. In finding a mentor, I think you look for someone with sound judgment, who makes good decisions, someone whose behavior is nothing less than ethical, who really has the passion and compassion—the passion for Scottrade and the compassion for customers and for employees.
What has surprised you the most about working in the financial industry?
I started this job two years out of college and one of the things that surprised me was the warmth of the place. It’s really a very warm, family place.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
Read as much as you can about business. Expose yourself to as much as you can. All aspects of business are important: consider marketing, legal, accounting. Find an interesting corporation and read about it, study what worked for them and what did not. Follow the financial markets. Find an internship.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a worklife balance and be a successful professional?
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Some days are better than others. I keep saying how lucky I am, but that’s really true. I am fortunate enough to work for a CEO and company that really preaches, “Your family comes first.” It’s all give and take, too. I work at home in the evenings. But if my son gets sick and I have to go pick him up, they understand that, too. I really think it’s a give and take, and our firm does believe, fortunately, in family. Now don’t get me wrong, there have been some tough days, but that comes with any job. I feel very lucky to have such a healthy balance.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
I graduated with majors in MIS and finance, and when I came out of college I wanted to work in MIS. I knew I did. I actually interviewed while I was still in college with one of our competitors and I thought, “I don’t want to do that.” I look back on that and chuckle at that day. So, probably it would have not been entirely different. I probably would have been in our IT building! It would be the only other career I really considered. What would my dream career be? That’s a tough question, because since I have been here I have never once considered doing anything other than this. I’m fortunate to have landed in a company that believes in the same thing I do. I have not one day considered anything else.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
I think it is going to get more and more automated with technology developments designing the changes in our processes. I think anyone considering a career in finance better also get some education in IT and project management. Finance alone isn’t enough anymore. Make sure you’re at least exposed to the technology side of things. The more well-rounded you are, the more opportunities you can create for yourself.
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SS&G Financial Services, Inc.
Patricia B. Rubin—Director, Assurance Services
Director Patricia Rubin has spent the last 15 years at SS&G Financial Services, Inc. Playing an integral role in one of the fastest growing firms in the country, Ms. Rubin is responsible for all assurance services in its Cleveland office. She is a major contributor to the innovative advancements and industry leadership that have become the trademark for SS&G. Ms. Rubin has spent her professional career working with privately owned businesses, manufacturing and distribution companies, service businesses, technology-based businesses, employee benefit plans, nonprofit organizations, and country clubs. She assists clients with accounting, tax planning and consulting, attestation services, mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, strategic planning, operational and controls review, and management consulting services. Prior to joining SS&G, Ms. Rubin was a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Cleveland, where she spent 11 years. Ms. Rubin is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants. She is a member and immediate past co-chair of the attorneys and accountants division of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland serves as treasurer of the Oakwood Club and is on the board of trustees of the Park Synagogue. Ms. Rubin received her BS in accounting from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
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Q&A with Patricia Rubin
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I started out in public accounting at PricewaterhouseCoopers, a Big Eight firm at the time. I was with PwC for 11 years before I joined SS&G. At PwC, I took a traditional audit partner path, starting as a staff accountant, then a senior accountant, then manager up to senior manager. I then switched from a national firm to a regional firm. I came to SS&G as a manager and was promoted to director (partner) shortly after I joined.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
In college, if you are planning on a career in public accounting or even finance, you take entry-level accounting, intermediate accounting, and probably one tax and two audit classes, so maybe five accounting-related courses. When you come out of school, you’ve had a brush with accounting but, unless you’ve had internships, you are not really taught how to do actual accounting work. You really learn the job on the job. Your accounting classes give you a good overview of the industry and a little about the world you are about to enter, but everything else is on the job. I basically learned everything I know about business hands on: how to be an auditor and how to manage people. Everything I do pretty much everyday I learned on the job.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals SS&G Financial Services, Inc.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
I look at the rewarding aspects of my career in two ways. The first is I really enjoy serving my clients. I like helping their businesses grow and succeed, as well as constantly meeting new people. Second, I enjoy working with our staff, teaching them, and seeing them grow and mature in their careers.
What would you most like to change?
I would probably try and figure out a way to reduce the number of hours during tax season! Aside from that, we now live in a world where everything is instant. It seems like we need to tell the business world that sometimes it’s ok to sleep on something and that you can’t always have an instant answer. People want things faster and faster and it can get very difficult. Sometimes you just need to think about it and process it.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
You need to be flexible, have strong organizational skills, be a good listener, and be knowledgeable about the business you’re in.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
I’ve always worked full time. I have a husband and two children, and they are understanding and very supportive. As a family unit we’re very close, but as individuals we’re very independent due, in part, to my career. There have been times when I might not have been able to do something they wanted me to do and they had to be understanding, but at this point, I have a fairly good work-life balance. I make them a priority and don’t really feel like I am missing out on anything. I think every man and woman wants some sort of work/life balance and a lot of companies preach it, but our company lives it. Everyone has their tricks-of-the-trade. I worked with a partner who always left early on Wednesdays. He’d say, “My wife knows I’m coming home, it’s my family night.” He went home at 4:30 p.m. or 5 p.m. every Wednesday night and it worked for him. I never work late on Friday nights; I never have in my entire career. The good thing about SS&G is that every combination works because it’s a resultoriented place, and you do not have to be sitting at your desk from eight in the morning to eight at night.
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Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
There are a few things I’ve done over the years. First of all, I try to stay on top of what is going on with my family. If there’s something I need to attend or something I want to do, I block the time on my calendar just as I would for a client or a doctor’s appointment. I try to stay on top of my children’s lives by meeting teachers in the beginning of the year, and making sure to be on top of their school calendar. I always look ahead to when vacations are and do not let events and days off sneak up on me. By being organized and always being a step ahead of the curve, I am able to avoid running around in crisis-mode the night before saying, “I have to be at the school and have this huge presentation at the same time tomorrow.”
What has surprised you the most about working in the accounting industry?
It’s constantly changing. The technology advances in the last three or four years have been significant. At SS&G, we catapulted into the paperless world, which was a challenge and a learning process but has made us a more efficient firm.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in accounting?
Public accounting is a great career and a fun industry. It can be very demanding, particularly in the winter, but its rewarding as well. It may sound corny, but you really have to study hard and get good grades in order to get a better job. Once you’re out of school, there are a lot of career paths that you can choose from and your first position will help you along the way.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals SS&G Financial Services, Inc.
I also think that accounting has the misconception of being boring and that you just move numbers around all day. Accounting is really a people business. To really be good at your job as an auditor or tax professional, you have to have strong communication skills. You must have the technical skills but as a student, you should really develop your people skills because those with the strong people skills are the ones who advance the fastest and the furthest.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others? How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
SS&G has a formal mentoring program in which I have been both a mentor and a mentee. An employee looking for a mentor at SS&G just needs to contact HR and make a list of desired mentors, and then they are matched up. When I look back, a lot of my mentors resulted from having a strong working relationship, which turned into a mentor relationship. I’ve had a couple mentors that had a big influence on me. You have to find someone you really feel comfortable with and be able to say, “I’m not really sure I want to do this,” or “I’m struggling with this, I’m not sure what direction I want to take.” You have to like the person and respect them personally and professionally.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in accounting?
When I think back to school, I remember thinking I have to go to college and I’m good with numbers so I think I’m going to become an accountant. It sounds nerdy but I was that person! I liked math. I wanted to go to a four-year college and be something when I finished, so I decided to become an accountant. I didn’t really know what it was although I did have some family members who were accountants. Honestly, moving from a national firm to a regional firm was a real life choice for me. I had a one-year-old child and the job at the national firm required frequent travel and I didn’t have as much control of my schedule. Also I really wanted to be a little closer to home, so I changed jobs in order to accomplish that work/life balance that I just didn’t see happening in the early 1990s at a national CPA firm.
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Any predictions about the future of the industry?
I think as the scrutiny of what we do continues to grow in intensity, we have to be careful to continue to dot our Is and cross our Ts. Independence in a regional firm is always an issue. We are constantly questioning our independence and what the rules allow us to do. The numerous regulatory bodies that govern us make everything even more challenging. All that said, however, it’s still a fabulous career. There are a lot of really good jobs with potential to grow.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals SS&G Financial Services, Inc.
“It may sound corny, but you really have to study hard and get good grades in order to get a better job.”
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— Patricia B. Rubin, CPA, Director, Accounting & Auditing, SS&G Financial Services, Inc.
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TD Securities, Inc.
Brendan J. O’Halloran—Vice Chair and Regional Head USA, TD Securities & Senior Vice President, TD Bank Financial Group
Vice Chair and Regional Head Brendan O’Halloran has responsibility for TD Bank Financial Group’s investment banking, sales and trading, and operational activities in the U.S. Mr. O’Halloran provides strategic guidance to all levels of management of businesses in the U.S. As a member of the TD Securities Management Committee, he plays a key role on the firm’s senior leadership team. Mr. O’Halloran joined the New York corporate finance business at TD in 1989 and has gained extensive origination and market experience during his career. Prior to his current position, he was head of U.S. Debt Capital Markets where he oversaw loan origination, loan sales & trading, high yield origination, and fixed income origination and distribution. He has also served as head of global loan syndications responsible for all syndicated loan underwritings for TD Securities worldwide. Before joining TD Securities, Mr. O’Halloran worked at The First Boston Corporation. Mr. O’Halloran serves on the Canadian Association of New York Advisory Board and the Governing Board of the University College Club of Princeton, and is a Trustee for the Institute of International Bankers. Mr. O’Halloran received his BA from Princeton University and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business.
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Q&A with Brendan O’Halloran
What are some steps you took to get in the position you are in now?
I had a really broad exposure to various businesses here at TD and in my previous job at First Boston where I started out after college. I’ve seen a lot, I’ve done everything from corporate finance to M&A, private placements, loan syndications and now my position is really very much a general management role.
What are some things you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
Things like persistence in winning transactions, getting new business. It’s hard to teach what goes into actually being successful in the banking world. It’s not necessarily about being able to calculate the best weighted average cost of capital in the quickest way. You learn those tools in schools, but what it comes down to is competing against other firms, other bright individuals on Wall Street and coming away with the deal or the transaction or the mandate. Also, on the people side, motivating people is an important part of my job today and that’s also not something you’re necessarily going to learn in the classroom.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals TD Securities Inc.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
It’s a balance of intensity and desire to win new business and generate revenues or execute trades, along with a genuine concern for the people working for you at the firm. I don’t think these two things are necessarily in conflict. I think every firm has a different culture and the culture here is very much one of wanting to see you succeed in a motivated and aggressive manner. But not ever at the expense of the ideals that we have here about what sort of environment we should be creating for people.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
It’s definitely working with people, spending time with people not only on the business issues, helping them get through problems, find solutions, and pitch clients. On a more individual level, spending time with people, talking about their careers, their aspirations, what their issues are at the current position, what they want out of their next position. I probably spend 40 percent of my time doing that and that’s the most rewarding.
If you had a choice what would you most like to change?
However much I’d love to spend more time with the people, focus on all of their needs, I also have a business to run. The pace of the business is very fast and there are some times when I want to have a 15-minute conversation about an issue and I really only have five. So, if I had a choice, I’d slow the pace.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
Our industry lends itself to mentoring although not so much in a formal manner where you meet every Monday at 5 o’clock. But the finance world is a great place to have informal mentoring and it’s just by virtue of the fact that you’re working in deal teams, you’re learning a lot from the people above you. That’s how you learn and develop friendships and collegial relationships with people and then you turn around and you become the associate and you feel it incumbent to pass those lessons on to the analyst on the team. Unless you’re all working intelligently together, your team will suffer. That is the sort of the mentoring that goes on here at TD. It is strong, but it’s more informal in nature.
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How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
I think people gravitate to individuals on their deal teams. It may not click on every deal team; you may work on one deal team where you don’t find that fit. But at any time here at TD, you may be working on three or four different transactions at the same time. So inevitably you will click with one person and may end up working on transactions, more often than not with that person because you make a good team. It’s almost by osmosis that it happens, that you find someone you work well with and they like working with you and they want you on their deal teams and that’s how you find your mentor.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques or philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance?
Finance is a fast-paced career; it’s not a 9-to-5 career, especially in the beginning of your career. You have to put the hours in. I think as you progress through the organization, travel becomes more of an issue than putting books together at midnight. So it is a challenge for your family and you really are on call seven days a week. You may not work every day of the weekend, but I really can’t think of a time where, even on a vacation, I am completely disconnected from work. It’s probably the same throughout the industry. There’s always a BlackBerry email that needs to be responded to, or a conference call. The key in balancing that is finding an organization that understands you work hard and that that’s your personality and you want to succeed. They, in turn, respect the important personal events in your life and allow you to feel that those things can come first when they should come first. It’s a culture, because I’ve worked for other organizations where the guilt factor was huge. People will cancel
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals TD Securities Inc.
their trips to be at their sister’s high school graduation because they’re so deep in the mindset of “I’ve got to be here.” At TD it’s very much a culture of “listen, we understand you give a lot of your life to the firm, you work a lot of hours, so when there are emergencies, when there are issues at home, when there are outside interests you need to attend to, you should feel comfortable doing that.” It comes with the confidence that you work for an organization where you’re allowed to balance your life. When you work for an organization that treats people with respect, then employees give back even more.
What has surprised you most about working in the finance industry?
Being surrounded by really great people with similar motivations who want to work on sophisticated financings and trades, is what has surprised me the most. It does make for a fun way to spend your day. There are a lot of other jobs out there in the world and everybody has their tough days, whether it is in finance or elsewhere. But I think over all, it’s a privilege to be surrounded by people who are so bright and who are really all trying to accomplish the same thing you are.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
Make sure it’s what you want. If it is, you have to be prepared to work hard. It’s a great industry to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Finance really provides open-ended opportunities for those who choose it as a career. The one thing people have to do whether they’re choosing finance as an industry to go into, or whether they’re choosing subsets within finance, you have to spend some time and make sure that it’s not only something you love but something that is going to be growing. You do have to put in a little homework and find out if you want to be in high yield or investment grade or public finance and make sure you’re comfortable with how those subsectors are viewed within the industry.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on finance?
Right out of college I worked for First Boston, and to some extent that was because that’s what everyone else was doing. If you could get a job at a Wall Street firm, you took it. After business school, I considered working in sports marketing for one of the professional sports leagues for whom I had done consulting work or as a manager for a manufacturing plant. But, in retrospect, I’m very happy I chose finance. You could be the best general manager in the world, but if you’re working at a manufacturing plant that makes staples, that may not be the most financially rewarding way to spend your life. I think with finance you’re given a wide perspective on various industries. So in some ways you get to work in a bunch of different industries, because you’re doing financing for them or providing M&A advice, etc. You have the ability to execute a myriad of products, so you’re not stuck on staples. You could be offering your client high yield bonds, leveraged loan financings, swaps and that makes for a career that is different every day.
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What would your dream career be now?
When I finish this, it might be nice to use a more artistic element of my brain and do something a little more creative in nature. But my strengths are my ability to interact with people on the client side and on the employee side. That’s what I enjoy most and I’m not sure I’d find that anywhere else.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
We’ve had a great year here at TD, but it’s been a difficult year for many dealers. But I think the industry understands these cycles. It’s always hard when you’re starting out. You always feel the world is ending when you see the financial results that are coming out now with the big dealers. It seems like “oh gosh, this is really terrible, what have I gotten myself into.” But I think once you’ve been through a few cycles—I’ve been through about three cycles now where things are really bad—you do start to understand that the industry expects those cycles. It doesn’t make them any more enjoyable or any less painful, but I think everybody’s quite optimistic that things will be better a year from now than they are today and they’ll be better two years from now than they are a year from now. It seems to go in three-, four-, five-year cycles. So I’m confident the industry will bounce back.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals TD Securities Inc.
Here at TD we’ve taken a different strategy. We’re very excited about our growth in the U.S. on the retail side, TD Banknorth and we’re in the process of acquiring Commerce Bank. We’ll soon have over 1,000 branches in the United States stretching from Maine to Florida. We also own a significant portion of TD Ameritrade. So we’ve taken a little bit of a different tact with respect to our investment banking and trading activities. It’s been a lower risk strategy, but we think the opportunity for growth, building around TD Banknorth and Commerce and TD Ameritrade are huge. We’re in a unique position right now and very bullish on the future.
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Tofias PC
Michael T. Burns—Shareholder
Shareholder Michael T. Burns, CPA has served with Tofias PC heading up the not-for-profit practice since July 2004. Mr. Burns has more than 20 years of experience serving many prestigious institutions, and has a reputation for quality service in the not-for-profit community. He assists his clients in the areas of financial statements, audits under OMB Circular A-133, internal control reviews and debt offerings, accounting matters and related business concerns. Mr. Burns joined Tofias from Grant Thornton, where he was the audit department head as well as the partner in charge of the not-for-profit practice. He was the lead partner on over a dozen college and university accounts in addition to most of the not-for-profit accounts of the office. Mr. Burns is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants and the Board of Trustees at Mount Ida College. He is also a member of the budget and finance committee at United Way of Massachusetts Bay. Mr. Burns received his BS from Bentley College.
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Q&A with Michael Burns
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
It really comes down to hard work, commitment to results and for me, focusing on a niche. I’m a niche specialist in what I do and increasingly that’s what you need in today’s economy. You need something special, something unique that resonates with you, and sometimes if you’re a generalist, it’s more difficult to find that.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
The biggest thing that I’ve learned is that at the end of the day, the business of professional services is a relationship business and not really a numbers business, even though I am a CPA and that may seem counter-intuitive, but it really is a relationship business. Do people trust me? Can they count on me for the substance and business knowledge that they view as key? These things transcend beyond the accounting and management classes that might have been core to my formal education.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
Positive feedback from a client, successfully developing younger professionals in our firm, and working with new clients. A new client is always exciting and fun, uplifting and gratifying, and a good way to know that you must have done right with existing clients.
What would you most like to change?
I think one of the challenges many of us have in our careers is finding time to operate at a strategic level, not just a tactical level. I try to stay focused on the strategic issues. That’s something that I work on every day.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Tofias PC
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
Passion is key; you have to care about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. I also think you have to have intellectual substance to be an effective executive.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
As with many careers it may take time to figure out the best work/life balance system that is effective for you and/or your family. Many companies are focused on helping employees find this balance, offering flexible/alternative work schedules and other amenities to retain talent, and Tofias is no exception. We are afforded some flexibility and control of our schedule. If I need to go to the doctor today or need to take a day off, I’m in charge of managing my client relationships and making it all work. Some people need more predictability than flexibility and this job offers flexibility more than predictability.
Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
My philosophy is to accept that we are in a client service business. It’s when clients call and surprise you or throw you a curve ball that you realize sometimes the best laid plans have to be re-laid; once you accept that about this business, it makes it easier for you to adjust and thrive.
What has surprised you the most about working in the accounting industry?
For me, it’s the pace of change. Although this is an old line of business, continuous improvement is a must and the pace of change will amaze you. Outsiders view it as a numbers business and although numbers are the basis of decision-making, decision-making in this world of ours today is different. Whether it’s the effect of international competition or other reasons, it’s much more than just cranking numbers. Also, there’s more ambiguity today than there’s ever been. When you think about the crisis we’re going through in the financial services arena and the banks and the elegance of some of the products that financial institutions have created over the last 10 to 20 years, those create challenges for the accounting industry. Did we properly measure, account for and quantify the risks that existed? It’s anything but static and numbers. I only have a very small calculator, which I keep behind me on the desk and every once in a while, I pull it out.
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What advice would you give a young person considering a career in accounting?
Young people are well-served by the skills they can gain with a career in public accounting. It’s a business education and a great place to get on-the-job knowledge of how businesses function and operate. Whether somebody stays in this as their career choice or does this as part of their career, they will gain tremendous value for the rest of their career.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
Of course. Everyone has mentors over their careers and they’re important. When I hear the word mentoring, I feel everybody immediately locks up and thinks of formal relationships, but I think mentors are, by and large, informal. They’re the people you naturally gravitate to, that you look to for counsel and advice. I think back to one of my earliest mentors who really taught me the passion for customer service that is so important in this business and while he might not have been the most approachable guy in the office, I knew he did this well and I really looked to him to teach me how to do this. Those are the things I have to make sure I do as a mentor for others and show them the virtues, benefits and values they can get by being in our business organization.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Tofias PC
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
I think individuals have to be focused on what it is that’s important to them, who they look up to, and who they see extolling the virtues and values they’d like to mirror. Then get in front of those people and make sure they notice you. Those people will give the time back. It requires being proactive on the part of the person looking to be mentored to make sure they’re getting the kind of mentoring they want.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in accounting? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
I thought about owning my own business. But I came into accounting, and I stuck with it. This is what I’ve done from the start and if I wasn’t in this today, I would have to go into sales and marketing because I’m past the point of creating a business for myself. My dream job would be a sales and marketing role. That’s a big part of a CPA Partner’s job, i.e., attracting new business so I’m certainly doing a lot of that now.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
We’re just beginning to settle down post-Sarbanes Oxley. I think the pendulum really swung in a tough and militant direction and I think we’re beginning to get a little bit more mainstream now. Accounting continues to be a great place for growth and opportunity and good pay. For young people, it’s relatively recession-proof and that’s always going to be something to consider. It’s always going to be a solid, safe career. Also, it isn’t necessarily going to get exported like many of our jobs have.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Tofias PC
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“It’s when clients call and surprise you or throw you a curve ball that you realize sometimes the best laid plans have to be re-laid; once you accept that about this business, it makes it easier for you to adjust and thrive.”
— Michael T. Burns, Shareholder, Tofias PC
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Vitale, Caturano & Company, Ltd.
Michael C. Forasté—Shareholder
Vice President Michael C. Forasté serves in Vitale Caturano’s specialized audit practice and brings over 13 years of audit experience to the firm. He is highly accomplished in the areas of financial statement audits, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Mr. Forasté is also a leader in the firm's employee benefit plan group and provides audit and compliance services to a wide range of employee benefit plans. He provides services to clients ranging from closely held owner managed companies to multinational public companies in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, distribution, retail, restaurants and service providers. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Forasté spent nine years in Arthur Andersen's commercial audit division. Mr. Forasté is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants. Mr. Forasté received his BS in accounting from Boston College.
Q&A with Michael Forasté
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What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I started in public accounting directly out of college and worked for Arthur Andersen. Andersen had a fairly structured career path that I followed, starting as a staff person, progressing to senior and then manager. I joined Vitale, Caturano as a manager in 2002. I was promoted to partner last year.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
This is a customer service industry, and client relationships are essential to one’s career path. When you’re in the classroom, you’re looking more at the mechanics of how the accounting works, but when you get into the industry, it’s about developing and maintaining client relationships. In addition, in the classroom, you are trained to work out a problem to the exact dollar, especially in accounting. When you are working on actual client engagements that is rarely the case. Things are not always going to be to the penny—but you learn the concept of materiality—how inexact something can be before it is an issue.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
Public accounting has a constant influx of students coming into the industry straight from college. Having the ability to work with these young and energetic people, who are eager to learn and excel in their careers, continues to be a career highlight for me. Watching them grow as accountants, as well as people, is extremely rewarding and being able to assist them with this journey continues to be the most rewarding part of this job for me.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Vitale, Caturano & Company, Ltd.
What would you most like to change?
Although I am a proponent of technology, I feel as though too many people take advantage of it as a means of communication. Faceto-face meetings and phone calls are much more effective and personal when fostering relationships. Voicemails, e-mails and text messages definitely have their place in effective communication, but I feel these are too heavily relied upon.
Do you use a Blackberry?
Actually I do! It’s a curse and a great tool all at the same time.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
Communication skills are essential. You need to be able to develop relationships with clients and employees with varying personalities and learn how to work with each one of them most effectively. In addition, being able to problem-solve is key. Many times, problems don’t work out exactly. Determining the best way to work through these problems to get to the correct answer is key.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
Work/life balance is a constant battle. Technology makes working anywhere possible—so you need to keep yourself in check. It is important to remember that family always comes first, and major work items follow. It’s a constant juggling situation but you have to make sure the major things are taken care of first—and the rest kind of fits in where it can.
Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
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Work/life balance can be compared to a container (time) that you fill with rocks and pebbles. The rocks signify the major items in your life and those are placed into the container first. Once those are placed, the less important items, or pebbles, find their space. The key is making sure the important items go in first.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
Every day is a different experience. Every engagement, client and employee, brings different personalities, challenges, demands and issues. It is a very dynamic environment. You never know what the next day is going to bring, and I enjoy the unpredictability. You’re never doing the same thing twice. It may have the same underlying mechanics when you get down to it but the fact that every day brings a new challenge makes each day very rewarding.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
It’s a very rewarding, yet demanding career. A successful career in finance is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to think of the long term, work through your career, and avoid having a shortsighted view of things. It’s not a get-rich-quick type of industry. You have to earn your stripes.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
Yes. Mentoring has been a big component of my career. Utilizing the experiences of those who went before you can give you an invaluable perspective and help you better navigate through your career. I continue to lean on my mentors for advice and gain much satisfaction serving as a mentor for my staff.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Vitale, Caturano & Company, Ltd.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
At Vitale, Caturano, we have a very formal mentoring program. I recommend that they ask their HR departments about whether or not there is a formal mentoring program. If there is not a program in place, they need to be proactive to seek out the right person to confide in and learn from. You can develop informal mentoring relationships very easily just by asking questions and being open to discussion.
How can a student or a new employee approach someone to be a mentor in the absence of a formal system in place at a company?
Having open communication. In the public accounting industry, all engagements are set up in teams where you have a partner, a manager, a senior and then sometimes an experienced staff person and a new staff person. The staff people spend a lot of time with seniors especially, and just by talking to them and asking them questions they can develop that relationship. I also recommend that once they get to know some of the managers and partners, they should schedule some time and ask questions—perhaps even ask them to be a mentor.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on public accounting?
As a kid, I thought of becoming a doctor. But I always had an interest in numbers, whether it was science or math. I took some accounting classes in high school and really felt a connection. I focused on accounting in college as my major. Public accounting was a natural succession for me.
If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
A professional golfer! That’s my dream. On a more realistic basis, I think I would like to be a college professor in accounting.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
Accounting is becoming more of a globally-focused industry in response to a global economy. We have U.S. companies investing heavily abroad and foreign companies looking to invest in the U.S. There is a plan in place to bring the international accounting rules and the U.S. accounting rules closer together.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals Vitale, Caturano & Company, Ltd.
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“Work/life balance can be compared to filling a container (time) with rocks and pebbles. The rocks signify the major items in your life and those are placed into the container first. Once those are placed, the less important items, or pebbles, find their space. The key is making sure the important items go in first.”
— Michael Forasté, Shareholder, Vitale, Caturano & Company, Ltd.
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William Blair & Company, LLC
Matthew Gooch—Principal and Co-Head of Special Situation & Restructuring Practice
Principal Matthew Gooch splits his time between William Blair & Company’s Chicago and London offices. In Chicago he serves as co-head of the firm’s special situation and restructuring practice, and in London he focuses on crossborder mergers and acquisitions. Since joining William Blair & Company in 1997, Mr. Gooch has been involved in more than 50 completed mergers, capital raises and restructuring assignments, totaling more than $3 billion. He became one of the youngest banking principals in the history of William Blair & Company at the age of 30. Mr. Gooch is a CFA charter holder and serves on the board of directors at Advanced Biotherapy and Beatya Systems and is an active volunteer through his church. Mr. Gooch received his BA from Emory University and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago.
Q&A with Matthew Gooch
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What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I joined William Blair as an analyst 11 years ago. Things that were most important in my advancement were a real interest and desire to be dealing in what I was doing, a willingness and curiosity to see what else could be done, to go the extra step, and having a positive attitude. There are a lot of smart people who join investment banking analyst programs, but after you’ve been working several days around the clock, the people who can do it with a smile distinguish themselves.
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
During college I interned in the investment banking division of a bulge bracket firm. There, a deal team would be 10 people, and your role was strictly support. One of the main reasons I decided to join William Blair was that our deal teams here are three or four people, and the great thing about that is that you get to have great involvement with your clients and get an understanding of building relationships with them. This is something I never learned in school. Another thing that is crucial in investment banking is understanding that the transaction you’re doing likely is the most important transaction your client is going to do in their entire life and being able to work with them when they’re going through the entire emotional roller coaster of the deal.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career?
I recently completed a deal where we helped a client buy a company with a private equity sponsor three years ago, and today they sold it to a strategic buyer. It was a grand slam transaction. It was just great to help that company through its life cycle, as opposed to just doing one transaction. When you have a relationship with them and continue to have multiple transactions, it’s very rewarding to see how the company matures and how you were a big part of helping them achieve their goals.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals William Blair & Company, LLC
What would you most like to change?
Having a little more principal in the deals that we are doing would be appealing.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
You have to be very rational. You have to be someone who can evaluate a situation and communicate it to a client clearly and not be afraid of giving the hard news to a client. A lot of times, bankers will say “Oh, no problem; we’ll get you out of these things,” or “don’t worry about that; there’s sunshine around the corner.” That’s the easy thing to say. But the hard thing to say is, “This business is not worth all the money you’re losing; you’re going to have to hand the keys back to the bank. Let’s figure out the steps and ways to make this as least painful as possible.” The ability to not shirk away from that kind of responsibility, not take the easy way, is crucial.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life?
I’m engaged to be married.
Congratulations!
Thank you! I started in William Blair’s Chicago office and spent three years here and then spent six years in the London office. When I was in our London office, the guy who ran the office set me up on a blind date seven years ago with my current fiancée. So, I think that William Blair has been rewarding professionally, as well as personally! My fiancé is a consultant with a major strategy consulting firm. She travels a lot, and I travel quite a bit, as well. And I think it makes you realize that you must take advantage of the time you have together. It makes you realize that everything is precious. I think that if I were to work 35 hours a week and not travel, I would be more apt to crash on the couch and watch television. I think that when you’re traveling as much and working as much as I am, I am always thinking about how to get the most out of every hour.
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Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
A work/life balance is part of our culture at William Blair, and I think it’s real important to involve your spouse. My fiancé and I don’t talk about the individual clients or the specific situations that we are working on, but we talk in general about the different issues we’re dealing with, and she gives me thoughts and then I give her thoughts. It makes for a much more interesting conversation than “What did you do at the office today, honey?” Being able to discuss work with my fiancée helps strengthen our relationship. Also, you have to be good at your job. If you don’t generally love it, you’re not going to be good at it. It’s hard for money to motivate someone over a prolonged period of time. So if you love it, you’re doing a good job at it, but you’re also thinking about it outside of work.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
The inefficiency of markets. I got my MBA from the University of Chicago, and they teach you there that markets are efficient. They may be efficient when you’re trying to get a price on General Electric or Microsoft, but in the middle market, especially in the M&A world, it’s not efficient. And that’s been a real surprise for me. You could have someone bidding $200 million and someone bidding $700 million for the same company! Literally, there are such huge differences, and it highlights the importance of having a good banker.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
I encourage them to consider finance. When you look at the core components of the United States right now, finance is one of the strongest parts of our economy. Finance is a very broad field, and you need to figure out what you want to be and what specific area
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals William Blair & Company, LLC
of finance that you want to be in. I also encourage them to realize that if they’re 21 years old and coming out of college, as much as they think they know what they want to do, they probably don’t even know what the real function of what they think they want to do is. So enter the field that gives you as many alternatives as possible. I really like the corporate finance programs, which have limited durations, so you get to see a lot of different aspects and get great training.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others?
I’ve had multiple mentors. My first mentor was someone who was two years older than me out of undergraduate school and—besides the formal training program that everyone goes through—he was my go-to guy for how to actually do the day-to-day functioning at William Blair. It was a perfect relationship. It happened 10 years ago, and we’re actually great friends now; he’s one of my groomsmen. The other mentors I’ve had were various senior people when I was an associate vice president. They were principals in the organization who would give me advice on specific industries, different types of transactions and general guidance on how to make your way and be successful.
How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
At William Blair, we are really good at mentoring. We will find people to mentor, and sometimes that works really well. But often what happens is a natural relationship will form between a junior person and a more senior person who has parallel interests in certain industries or types of transactions.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance?
My dad has a successful small business, and I considered joining that. But it was really between that and finance. As far as life decisions go, I grew up in the New York area. When I interned at the bulge bracket firm, I had worked with William Blair on an equity offering, and I really liked the people I worked with. When William Blair asked me to join them, I always thought that it would be two years in Chicago—I’d never been there before—and I would of course move back to New York. Ten years later, after spending six years in London, I am back in Chicago.
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If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
Formula 1 race car driver, but only if I couldn’t be in finance!
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
Globalization and the corresponding M&A activity it creates are going to continue, and while 2008 is going to be a very tough year for private equity, there will still be a huge amount of interest from strategic buyers who, in general, have very strong balance sheets. U.S. companies buying internationally and international companies buying here are going to create global enterprises, and as a result of that, the finance industry is poised for a healthy long-term future.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals William Blair & Company, LLC
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“If you’re 21 years old and coming out of college, as much as you think you know what you want to do, you probably don’t even know what the real function is of what you think you want to do—get a broad experience before deciding.”
— Matthew Gooch, Principal & Co-head of Special Situations, William Blair & Company, LLC
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WithumSmith+Brown
James C. Bourke—Shareholder & Director of Information Technology
Shareholder and Director of Information Technology James C. Bourke serves in WithumSmith+Brown’s Red Bank, New Jersey office. Mr. Bourke is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New Jersey Society of CPAs. He was one of the first CPAs in the nation to receive the Certified Information Technology Professional designation from the AICPA. He currently serves on the executive committee as immediate past president for the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants and is past-chairman of the NJSCPA Chapter operations committee and past-president of the Monmouth/Ocean Chapter of the NJSCPA. Mr. Bourke also serves on the AICPA’s CITP Credential Committee and the AICPA Top Technology Initiatives Task Force and is a current member of AICPA Council. Mr. Bourke is a frequent speaker at many State CPA Societies, the AICPA, New Jersey Technology Council and NJ Biz Magazine on topics specifically related to technologies employed within a CPA Firm. He has been consulted by numerous CPA Firms throughout the U.S. on appropriateness of technologies being employed within firms. He has has authored many articles dealing with firm technology issues and was featured on the cover of past issues of Accounting Technology Magazine and Practical Accountant Magazine.
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In addition to Mr. Bourke’s vast industry service, he has the responsibility for overseeing all technology issues and operations for the firm’s eleven offices and over 500 employees. Mr. Bourke’s responsibilities consist of network design and implementation, internet connectivity solutions, wireless network configuration, technology strategic planning, as well as overseeing the acquisition, implementation and training of new applications and technologies throughout the firm. In addition, he is also responsible for the annual technology budget. Mr. Bourke received his BS in accounting from Kean University, N.J. He lives in Manasquan, N.J. with his wife and children.
Q&A with James Bourke
What are some steps that you took to get to the position that you are in now?
I have been at WithumSmith+Brown for 21 years and I have been afforded some great opportunities here. When I joined WS+B, I had an unbelievable passion for our profession and a desire to be the best at what I did. I also believed that nothing stood in the way of my desire to become a partner at WS+B. Throughout my entire career, I did not let hurdles and obstructions get in my way. I did not get hung up in the actions of others, nor did I feel a constant need to compare myself with others. Also, I focused on my abilities and what I wanted to do to reach my goals. I also focused on what people before me did, to emulate the good and to learn from the mistakes made by others. I worried about my own work and how to best serve our clients. I saw our managing partner as a great mentor and that mentoring was extremely important to me, even though I never told him. Even today, I believe that if it were not for our managing partner and the example and lifestyle that he set, I might not even be in this profession today.
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals WithumSmith+Brown
What are some things that you learned on the job and not in the classroom?
School prepares us all to be accountants, but it does not teach us how to take it to the next level, to be a great accountant. That is something that you learn to do on the job. It is Withum philosophy to provide that on-the-job training, so even early on in my career I was going out to clients and working on challenging engagements. Through this, I learned how important it is that I listen to my clients, their concerns, their needs. Understanding the needs of your clients and fulfilling them is what makes you a great accountant.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your career? What would you most like to change?
It is most rewarding when I see how appreciative clients are when you go out of your way to service them. We know that we are not the least expensive firm in town but we provide our clients with the highest level of service. All of my clients know this and that is the reason why they have no problem paying a premium, they get better, hands-on, responsive service. I would love to change the timing of tax season. Tax season is so busy that I wish we could spend more time engaging with our clients day to day than the in’s and out’s of the tax process.
What personality traits or attributes do you think make for a good, effective executive?
Good listening skills and the ability to give compliments in addition to criticism.
What impact has your career had on your personal and family life? Do you have any special techniques, methods and philosophies that help you maintain a work/life balance and be a successful professional?
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Family is No. 1 in my life. I have always found ways to bring my family and work life together, and fortunately for me, I work at a firm where this belief is part of firm culture. I have managed all of my son’s and daughter’s baseball and soccer teams from t-ball through majors. We spend a significant amount of time together. Every year my son and I fly to the MLB All Star Game and Home Run Derby, we go as a family to all of the NJSCPA Get-Away conventions, I’ll bring my kids on due diligence trips if they are off from school and they will learn about the business our client is buying or selling. Most recently my son accompanied me on a trip to a cedar oil production plan in Arkansas where he learned how cedar oil is produced from scrap cedar wood chips.
What has surprised you the most about working in the finance industry?
The fact that there are so many people out there with so many unique ideas to make money. It’s always inspiring to see these very successful people who so passionately pursue them—the most unexpected endeavors that you wouldn’t imagine could be so successful.
What advice would you give a young person considering a career in finance?
Intern within the industry while you are in college. Instead of flipping burgers, find a firm, like WithumSmith+Brown that has a great intern program. You will get real-life experience that looks unbelievable on a resume and will put you in the front of the lines when employers are evaluating other candidates.
Have you ever been mentored, or mentored others? How can someone find a mentor within their company/industry?
Our firm has a formal mentoring program where we identify those to be mentored and we associate someone their senior to mentor and guide them throughout their career. However, when I started here our firm was very small with no structured mentor program. So, I focused on the traits and characteristics exhibited by our managing partner. I watched what he did, how he balanced work and life, how he always made time for his family and the activities that his children were involved in, as well as his passion for what he did and our profession. Although we had no formal mentor program, he didn’t realize it, but his actions were mentoring me.
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CAREER LIBRARY
163
View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals WithumSmith+Brown
If your firm doesn’t have a formal mentoring program look for that person whom you admire and let him/her become your informal mentor.
What other careers and life choices did you consider before deciding on a career in finance? If you were not in the field, what would your dream career be now?
This was my only career choice. In high school I had a CPA as my accounting teacher. I took three years of accounting in high school. He brought real-life experiences into the classroom. I made a decision to be a CPA when I was in high school. He was an unbelievable inspiration.
Any predictions about the future of the industry?
College graduates that plan to major in accounting over the next five to seven years will have no problem landing the position of their choice, either in public or private. With the increased regulation in our field, increased need for compliance with a significant number of new standards, increased awareness in the areas of fraud and risk management, a high school or college student today who is focused on a career in the field of accounting will have no difficulty in having the comfort of job security even before they complete their senior year of study.
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View from the Top: Advice from Finance Professionals WithumSmith+Brown
“School prepares us all to be accountants, but it does not teach us how to take it to the next level, to be a great accountant. That is something that you learn to do on the job.”
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— James C. Bourke, Shareholder and Director of Information Technology, WithumSmith+Brown
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CAREER LIBRARY
165
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About the Authors
Aman Singh is an associate editor at Vault. She graduated from New York University and currently lives in New Jersey with her fiancé. Won Kim is an editor at Vault. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and is an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two boys.
Customized for: fugui Family (ffugui@gmail.com) University of California, Irvine Online Career Library
Visit the Vault Finance Career Channel at www.vault.com/finance for insider firm profiles, message boards, the Vault Finance Job Board and more.
CAREER LIBRARY
171
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