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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Mary Akpovi

Title: Partner Company: Martini Iosue & Akpovi City: Encino Specializations: International business and taxation, estates and trusts. With a doctorate degree in business administration, Mary Akpovi consults with multinational and domestic businesses on tax planning and financial strategy. Last month she won the Business Journal’s annual Women’s Council Award for Lifetime Achievement. Why accounting? When I took my first accounting class in high school, I got fascinated with the problems. Favorite part of the job: Contributing to clients achieving their financial goals through planning, compliance and consulting on important tax and business issues. Biggest challenge: The younger generations do not embrace the long hours during tax season as well as the older generation did. We are dealing with the problem by having flexible work schedules, including the ability to work remotely. Most memorable experience: Dashing to the airport to catch a client’s former partner to sign a separation agreement while he was waiting to catch an international flight. The agreement was signed on the hood of a car at the front of Delta Airlines at LAX. We do whatever it takes. How does your personality make you good at accounting? I have a lot of energy and I am very passionate about anything I am involved in. That strength and passion carry me through the long hours of tax season without experiencing burnout. How has your gender affected your career? Being female makes it difficult to pursue some traditional networking opportunities. Being female makes it difficult to invite a male client to dinner events, entertainment events, etc.  While the landscape is slowly changing, a lot of C-Suite executives and business owners are still more male than female. Any changes in the workplace in the #MeToo era? No change because our firm or even the profession for that matter do not have the issues being addressed by the movement – at least not that I am aware of. Impact of tax reform: More complications and more work for accountants. That’s not necessarily bad since some of the provisions are beneficial to our clients. Biggest challenge for clients: The world is becoming more connected commerce-wise and the pace of technology makes products and services obsolete rather quickly. Thus, clients must be forward-looking more than ever. For example, products that could only be bought locally in the past can now be bought online from anywhere in the world and Amazon.com is there to help. Products are also becoming obsolete more quickly due to the pace of technological advance. How is the accounting industry changing? There are more flexible work arrangements such as flex days, working remotely, etc. Anticipating more of the same in the future. Changes you would like to see: Due dates more spread out to ease the tax deadline crunch. Advice to executives looking for an accounting firm: Meet the team who will be working on the client’s account and ensure they have the knowledge and experience to provide the desired services. Advice to people considering a career in accounting: Come on down, do an internship and check it out. It is fantastic, provides excellent variety of work and provides the opportunity to really make a difference in the lives of the clients. Anything else? More mentoring programs are needed in high schools and colleges to let students understand what is involved in accounting so as to alleviate the accountant being perceived as a bean counter. There is a lot more to it that is really fascinating – from estate planning to consulting for international business and mergers and acquisitions. The boring image of accountants is changing slowly but more needs to be done for up-and-coming students to truly understand how exciting accounting can be. To be there when a merger and acquisition deal closes and the client gets rewarded for years or decades of hard work is a great exhilarating experience.

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