Her Story
About Pragati
Pragati Desai is a CPA and fractional CFO professional with more than 20 years of experience in the field. She owns a fractional CFO firm where she provides services including financial statements, tax return review, fraud detection, IRS dealings, bankruptcy accounting, and financial statements for for-profits and non-profits. Additionally, she works with another company to train CPAs and accountants at various firms on taxation, accounting, and audits, and she develops curriculum for these trainings. Pragati holds a bachelor's and master's degree in accounting from India, an MBA in finance, a second master's degree earned in California, and her CPA license. She is a member of CalCPA and AICPA. Prior to her current roles, she worked as an auditor with KPMG in India and as an investment banker with JPMorgan Chase, living in London, Paris, and Hong Kong.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Pragati
01What do you attribute your success to?
I firmly believe it's hard work. You might need luck, but dedication and hard work goes a long way. Being committed to what I want it to be, having a vision of where I see myself, and then drawing a roadmap and sticking to it. I worked full-time 10-12 hours a day and then come back home and study for 4 more hours for my CPA exam. It's hard work, dedication, and just how do I make myself better tomorrow than today? I'm competing against myself.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Do not skip the basics of what you do. Take your time, it's okay to be an intern for a year. Spend time on learning your basics. Every day, read one article in your field. Take care of yourself and try to have balance in life. When I'm doing my work, I'm not on my phone. When I'm with my kids, I'm not doing work. Give your 100% to it.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Network, network, network. The strength of networking is that every job after the first will come through someone picking up the phone. It's not who you know, who knows you is more important. Go out, network even if awkward, build connections, send thank you emails. Especially in fields where you don't see a lot of females.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Challenges: Being a woman with voice is sometimes looked down upon. Being judged for how many hours I work and having two kids. Being a brown-skinned person, sometimes questioned if I know enough because I didn't grow up here. Opportunities: Accounting has grown so much. You can have an accounting firm without doing audits or taxes. Many speaking engagements. High demand since for every 7 accountants retiring only 1 or 2 new people.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I'm an extremely ethical person. I don't compromise on my ethics when it comes to work or family values. Do things because this is what is the right thing to do, not because someone's watching. Be nice to people because they are people. Don't look at every person as potential client. Give the best advice. You don't know what circumstances someone is in. If you cannot say good things about someone, don't say anything.
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