Amy Pitter, the President and CEO for the Massachusetts CPA Society, and former Commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting, the Where Accountants Go podcast.
From Law to Tax
Amy’s path actually started in law school. While pursuing her law degree, she found that she frankly didn’t enjoy the subject matter as much as she thought she would. However, that all changed when she took her tax course. She so enjoyed the tax subject matter that she went on to add a Masters in Accounting to her JD, and she started her career with one of the Big 8 national accounting firms.
Finding her path
It turned out that the Big 8 environment wasn’t as good a fit as she had hoped, so decided to look for something different. Amy spent some time in industry and real estate development, before landing a position with the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. She thoroughly enjoyed her roles with the DOR, and that further propelled her career into the area of taxation authority consulting. Along the way she handled consulting projects with the Internal Revenue Service and the Australian Taxing Authority, before landing back in the role of Commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
Diversity & Inclusion
“D and I” is a passion for Amy for many reasons, both personal and professional, and she has been a change maker in that area. She was a leader in creating a program while at the MDOR that encouraged young minorities to pursue an accounting education path with a local community college that eventually would land them an internship and likely a full-time position with the DOR. Plus, more recently, she has been a driver in the MSCPA participation in the CEO Action Pledge, which encourages CEOs to sign a pledge to actively work on diversity and inclusion issues in their own organizations. They have had 10 firms commit to being a part of that best practices sharing program so far, and it’s something that is just getting started. It will be exciting to see the progress that is made as time moves forward.
If you enjoy this episode with Amy Pitter, please check out these episodes as well: Jina Etiennne (D&I) and Bill Cotter (IRS)
To listen in on the interview with Amy, please click on the link below:
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