Her Story
About Cassandra
I started my career as an auditor at KPMG, where I spent my first 2 years working primarily on oil and gas or utilities companies, as well as governmental and non-profit entities. After that, I spent a year as an internal auditor at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida. For the past 4 years, I've been in financial services at Convera, where I currently serve as Lead Accountant and Financial Reporting. My expertise includes different types of financial presentations (GAAP and non-GAAP), international compliance and regulatory reporting, foreign exchange calculations, and transactional-based accounting including purchase price accounting. My most notable professional achievement was implementing the purchase price accounting for my company's almost billion dollar transaction in 2022-2023, where I was responsible for pushing down all the equity, goodwill, and customer relationships throughout the organization's entities. I hold a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting from University of New Mexico (December 2017) and a Master's degree in Accounting with a concentration in Information Assurance from the same institution (2019). I am also a Certified Public Accountant.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Cassandra
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think a lot of my work ethic and success comes from the fact that, despite what my last name might indicate, I'm half Mexican on my mom's side, and my sister and I are the first women in our families to really go to college and get a professional degree and be the breadwinners in our lives, let alone own our own homes and stuff. I think it speaks a lot to see my grandma, who's from Mexico, and how far we've come, and how much freedom that she probably would have loved to have had, but she just couldn't because of her circumstances. That has always been a motivation for me, is just trying to be a matriarch that goes further and takes care of our family, but also isn't afraid to pursue the professional path.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think my main advice would be to believe in yourself and maintain a level of confidence. I think women suffer from imposter syndrome a lot, and so don't doubt yourself - you are smarter than you believe. People might try and discount what you say because it is kind of a historically male-dominated, stuffy type of industry, but usually you know more than them in a lot of ways. There is nothing wrong with sticking up for yourself and being professionally confident and solid in your beliefs and solid in what you know.
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