Female & Minority CEOs in Accounting: Avani Desai

What this episode covers

On behalf of the Accounting Influencers Broadcast Network (AIBN), this is the "Success in Accounting" show, going live every Monday. In this episode 11 of the brand new Success in Accounting podcast, we begin a series of deep dive interviews with prominent and influential female leaders in the accounting world. This week, it's Avani Desai, Chief Executive Officer at Schellman, the largest niche cybersecurity assessment firm in the world that focuses on technology assessments. Avani is an accomplished executive with domestic and international experience in information security, operations, P&L, oversight, and marketing involving both start-up and growth organizations. She has been featured in Forbes, CIO.com, and the Wall Street Journal, and is a sought-after speaker as a voice on a variety of emerging topics, including security, privacy, information security, future technology trends, and the expansion of young women involved in technology. Also passionate about strategic philanthropy, Avani sits on the board of Arnold Palmer Medical Center, Philanos, Audit Committee chairwoman at the Central Florida Foundation, and is the co-chair of 100 Women Strong, a female-only venture capitalist based giving circle that focuses on solving community-based problems specific to women and children by using data analytics and big data. Listen to her share insights on the challenges and opportunities for women and minorities in accounting, leadership advice, being and searching for role models, finding career advocates and champions, making mistakes and what lessons get learned, the accounting profession at large, what separates the good accountants and firms from the great ones and much more. Avani is also an avid runner, always looking to sign up for the next Disney marathon. She considers her greatest accomplishment to be personal rather than professional—she is the proud mother to her 10 year old son, Sahil, 7 year old daughter, Sareena, and newborn son, Hastin. https://www.linkedin.com/in/avani-d-596366/ ◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢ A reminder of 5 great shows in the Accounting Influencers Broadcast Network: ❶ Success in Accounting - MONDAYS. Our flagship main show featuring panels, highlights, combinations, panels, topics, live interviews and best ofs. ❷ Insights in Accounting - TUESDAYS. The best news, analysis, commercial awareness, news under microscope, podcast mentions and recommendations. ❸ Influencers in Accounting - WEDNESDAYS. Deep dive 1-1 interviews with leaders, experts, influencers from around the world. ❹ Best Practice in Accounting - THURSDAYS. Practice development, growth, management, consulting, examples, stories and practical here's what works stuff for accountants, bookkeepers and the fintech/software people who serve them. ❺ UK Matters in Accounting - FRIDAYS. A UK focused show featuring UK related topics, news items, events and interviews. Find them all on your preferred podcast app, platform or channel. Thanks for subscribing, sharing and listening! └╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┘ FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA: We'd love to get to know you! ➺ Main show website. For access to every single show with full shownotes: https://accountinginfluencers.com/podcast ➺ LinkedIn. For announcements of published shows, tagging guest so you can build your network and offer feedback on the show: https://www.linkedin.com/company/accountinginfluencers ➺ Youtube. For videos of all podcast interviews and bonus video content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3AwPLSr2rCqTylGj0s7TJQ ➺ Twitter: https://twitter.com/accinfluencers ➺ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/accountinginfluencers ━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━