NAWBO

How long have you been a NAWBO SEVA Corporate Partner? Originally since 2002

Your NAWBO SEVA Committee and Board Positions: Corporate Board Advisor, Corporate and Economic Development

Thank you for being an active partner and advocate for NAWBO SEVA. Can you tell our readers why you are so passionate about the organization? When I first was introduced to NAWBO, there was only one women partner at my office and less than 6 in the entire firm. It was important to me that I be exposed to women who already achieved what I wanted to achieve. NAWBO fit that bill. In addition, NAWBO focused on women in a position of ownership as opposed to women in a particular industry segment. There are groups for women in real estate or women in construction and such, but those women, while accomplished in their own right, were often not in the position I was searching for. NAWBO members offer a unique perspective that other groups don't always understand.

Based on your experience, what do you see as the most important thing a member or corporate partner can do to grow with NAWBO SEVA? Listen, participate, and invite others in your sphere of influence to join. The chapter is what its members make it.

Can you describe the key business services and solutions you provide? At Goodman & Company, we can handle all of your accounting needs - from traditional auditing and accounting services, to guidance in tax planning and preparation, management consulting, accounting software selection, business valuation, outsourced accounting solutions, human resources and retirement planning. We're investing in our region's future through a partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a quarter-million-dollar pledge to area colleges and universities, and we are the sponsor of the Goodman Accounting Challenge, an interactive collegiate competition for accounting majors.

In a few sentences, what makes your services unique? Accounting for your future, Goodman & Company is recognized as the fourth largest firm in the Mid-Atlantic region and among the top 30 nationally ranked firms. In addition, members of our firm are annually recognized by their peers as "Super CPAs", a listing compiled by Virginia Business magazine.

Throughout our 77 year history, we have fostered one overriding purpose- to provide each client with personal service and quality work. By adhering to that principle, we have grown to be a successful and well-respected firm of 81 partners and more than 500 highly qualified professional staff.

Our affiliation with the Moore Stephens group allows us to bring knowledge of the global marketplace to our clients. Moore Stephens is the largest international accounting and consulting group worldwide, with 647 offices in 98 countries worldwide, and provides us with the resources that we need to help our clients grow, and protect their best interests. Through our affiliates around the world, we learn about the local business climate and how it will affect our customers, enabling us to give our clients accurate and timely advice on national and international issues.

Which city in Hampton Roads do you call home? Chesapeake since 2004, Virginia Beach for the 37 years before that

What do you like to do when you're not working? Cooking, Kids, computer games, music, TV

The last really great book you read that you'd like to recommend to NAWBO SEVA members and partners? Haven't read a really good book lately, but I will always recommend one from High School - Advise and Consent by Allen Drury. This is a fictional novel from the late 1950's which described the process of getting a Presidential appointment approved. At the time I read it, I thought of it a pure fiction - surely no one would dirve someone to suicide just to earn political capital. Having matured a bit sense then, I have come to realize 2 things - the first is that as nasty as politics can seem now, it appears to have been that way for a long time and the second is that there are people in this world that will do things to achieve their own goals that are unacceptable to my personal values. Identifying them and avoiding them is key to my sanity.

Someone you admire and why? My Grandmother - Rachael Christiansen. My Grandmother was born in 1913. Her father died when she was a child and she and her mother ended up living off the kindness of extended family. She chose to get an education and became a nurse instead of marrying young. She was in her late 20's (an old maid by the standards of the time) when she married my grandfather, a widower with four children of his own. She was 30 when she bore my mother, her only natural child. She went back to work after my mother was in school at the Norfolk City VD clinic and then at what is now Lake Taylor hospital. She was strong willed, stubborn, self-sufficient, honest and didn't take anything from anyone. Her friends called her "Sarge" (as in drill sergeant) and she taught me that being strong and self-supporting is key to having true freedom.

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