PwC

Inside the crisis

The Consumer Finance Group was a hybrid of audit and consulting built for mortgage banking and credit cards, a niche few firms had a team for before the crash. When the crash came, the work came with it. The group grew 300% while I was there.

As an associate I built the financial analysis behind foreclosed property and short-sale liquidation for one of the five biggest banks in the United States. I helped redesign the audit and attest approach for an $87 billion mortgage bank. I tested internal controls, validated the models that priced mortgage assets, and documented all of it so someone else could check it. I coached newer associates and interns, and helped write the proposals that brought in new work.

Muscat, first

I’d already had a summer with the firm, in 2008, in PwC’s Assurance and Business Advisory practice in Muscat, Oman. I interviewed executives about how work actually moved through their companies, drew the process flows, and turned what I found into risk assessments and heat maps for internal audit. Chicago was bigger and faster, and the stakes were real money in real homes.

Why I left

I was on a fast track to early promotion, and I felt underused. I’d spent my summers in Kibera and Muscat, and now I spent my days inside spreadsheets that measured one thing. I was convinced business was the strongest tool we had for social and environmental good, if it measured more than profit.

In 2011 I left to find out how. My parents were not thrilled. The toolkit came with me: read the balance sheet, build the model, test the control, find the number that matters. I’ve used every piece of it since, in a hostel office in San Juan del Sur, on a construction budget in Wicker Park, and as CFO of a cacao company.