If Schellman & Co. CEO Avani Desai had to pinpoint a moment that changed her life trajectory forever, she would pick the day her parents decided to leave India in the 1970s to move to the United States, leaving their culture and religion behind. Desai's father spent his life mopping floors despite holding a Ph.D. in mathematics and her mother, a doctor in philosophy, made belts to give her children more opportunities.
According to Desai, it's common among Indian families for children to be expected to become doctors or engineers, which resulted in her enrolling in a computer science degree, where she gained exposure to information technology. After graduation, she left for KPMG, where she ended up overseeing IT risk management and privacy across service lines, which helped her develop her skills.
"I really took a nontraditional path to become a CPA because I really focused on how to support the financial audit," said Desai. "And in 2012, I left KPMG for Schellman, which focuses on cybersecurity, because I became a mother and needed more flexibility."
Created in 2002, Schellman is the only Top 100 Firm that deviates from the traditional tax, audit and advisory services model by focusing its activities on cybersecurity assessments.
With a 90% client retention rate, Desai said the Tampa-based firm's growth takes root in the quality of services and the fact that Schellman responds to a need for expertise in cybersecurity assessments. In the same mindset, Schellman released the SchellmanX program in 2020, which is a year-long immersive training program for college students to showcase the exciting aspects of accounting in the cybersecurity domain.
"This is something I'm really excited about because it's a close collaboration with 25 schools, and we're working hand in hand with these educational institutions to help with the talent gap," said Desai. "The students have an opportunity to work side by side with our seasoned professionals, and they can experience something they probably would have never been able to get through a simple five-week training,"
Desai said the workplace culture played a great role in the firm's success, which has been recognized by Accounting Today three times in a row as one of the Best Places to Work. Additionally, Schellman is one of the only Top 100 Firms to have a female CEO, COO and CFO. Desai attracted diverse candidates by fostering "excitement around the uniqueness of the firm." However, she said it takes years of trying and failing before finding the right balance.
Just like scientists build a hypothesis through observation and experimentation, Desai said a leader must be willing to take risks and learn from their experiences to pivot and bring their company to the next level. Another critical trait to lead a team toward success is accountability, and avoiding the temptation to only surround oneself with peers who share the same perspectives. In fact, a leader should always strive to highlight what makes them unique.
"Being a servant leader means that I need to prioritize the needs and growth of my team members," said Desai. "I want to empower them and provide them with the tools and resources they need to succeed while creating a positive and collaborative work environment that rewards innovation, creativity and excellence."
By promoting a space where people can share their doubts and shortcomings, a leader also creates a team whose members' qualities complement each other and where they can truly work on improving themselves. Leading a firm to the future starts with self-aware people who don't hesitate to have a productive conversation and challenge the status quo — or their leader. And it wasn't something Desai always knew.
In the early stages of her career, she thought that keeping her head down and focusing on the technical aspects of her role was the fastest way to get promoted. Despite her best efforts, however, her first performance reviews did not live up to her expectations and Desai felt like a failure for the first two years. At that moment she decided to focus on collaboration and feedback to find out what was missing.
"I was a computer science major, which means I was very good at development, coding and the technical aspect of things, but I couldn't get past it or merge technology with business," she explained. "I realized I couldn't work in a silo, especially in professional services. Sometimes you can be very good at certain technical topics, but you're going to need to reach out to people around you to connect all the dots."
That wasn't the only difficulty that Desai had to face. When she had a baby, she felt the pressure that caretakers endure better than anyone. In fact, Desai was six weeks postpartum when Schellman partnered with a private equity firm in 2021, becoming one of the first firms to do so. Now a mother of three, she said that flexibility played an essential role in her success, and that companies lose high-performing talent by neglecting the importance of remote opportunities.
Another thing that made this time difficult is that Desai wasn't always able to see a path for herself, as there were few women of color attaining leadership positions at accounting firms while maintaining a family life at the beginning of her career. Desai said that caretakers wouldn't feel like they needed to quit if firms showed they valued their contribution by offering more flexibility. However, she said that many organizations still function through the lens of sales numbers, manager revenues and utilization, despite quantitative numbers not determining who will become a great leader.
"One thing that we're constantly trying to find out is how to be supportive of women," said Desai. "COVID has done a lot of terrible things, but it was kind of a silver lining to us because we were able to pivot to a 100% remote workforce, which gave us the ability to tell them 'we're here for you' and answer to their needs."
Listening to feedback doesn't limit itself to mentors but to employees as well. Desai explained that Schellman recently went through a technology transformation but had to pull back from it because staff members shared their discomfort with the lack of efficiency metrics they needed. While Desai said a leader can sometimes overcome these kinds of obstacles by remaining agile and refining policies, she said that they sometimes need to know when to step back from their "ivory tower."
She recognizes it can be difficult for someone to renounce an investment they took months to prepare, because doing so means going back to the drawing board and admitting that something didn't go as planned. However, Desai explained that an executive can't make unilateral decisions that ignore their employees' needs. To simplify this process, Desai recommended approaching it as a learning experience and relying on user groups, so that would ensure such a mistake won't happen again.
She said it's thanks to that attitude that she managed to accomplish one of the most important achievements of her career, and Desai holds several memories close to her heart. There's the moment she became the youngest senior to be promoted manager in KPMG's history, or the evening her daughter believed they would be moving to the White House when Desai told her she became Schellman's president in 2018.
She also remembers fondly getting her CPA license, and the constant support of the firm's founder and former CEO Chris Schellman, who designated her as his successor in 2021. Mentors such as Schellman played a significant role in shaping Desai to become the executive she is today: They not only taught her how to make informed decisions and navigate the complexities of the profession, but they also advocated for her professional advancement by giving her a place at their table.
"Avani was instrumental in developing, implementing, and operating a first-of-its-kind IT risk management program and methodology for a professional services firm, at a time when most organizations did not formally manage IT-related risk," said KPMG privacy officer James Howard, who worked alongside her. "She demonstrated tremendous insight and creativity to take the vision through to execution, in an environment unfamiliar with the concepts. There was no guide or reference text. The result set the groundwork for what became a commonplace capability across the marketplace."
To make that kind of lasting change in an industry, Desai believes it's important for a professional to have mentors from multiple fields and backgrounds such as former KPMG CEO Lynn Doughtie, whom she considered a model of leadership and motherhood. Desai said it's the combination of their valuable insights that will allow someone to carve their own path because cultivating a strong support system and having someone have faith in one's abilities is the first step toward step-realization.
Despite these accomplishments, however, Desai doesn't intend to rest on her laurels. While Schellman made significant progress in terms of diversity, with notably three women of color on its leadership team, Desai said there are only 22% of female workers in the firm's professional services. Within the next few years, she intends to raise that number to 50%, while ensuring employees will never have to choose between being a parent and having the career of their dreams.
At close range: Avani Desai
Where did you go to college? University of Florida.
Where did you grow up? Orlando, Florida
Where did you begin your career in accounting? KPMG
Where and when did you first make partner ? Schellman, 2015
What is something that people may not know about you? I have a big love of Disney World.
Who is someone you admire? Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her dedication to justice and equality and, you know, transcending political divides and being bipartisan. I really think that she's left, especially for women, a powerful legacy.
What is your favorite book? "Grit" by Angela Duckworth
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