Rosemarie Rivera
Rosemarie “Roe” Rivera is an accomplished finance leader serving as Accounts Payable Manager at Al J. Schneider Company in Louisville, Kentucky. With nearly 30 years of experience in accounting, she specializes in both accounts payable and accounts receivable, bringing deep expertise in invoice processing, purchase orders, shared services, and cash flow management. In her current role, she is responsible for optimizing financial operations, strengthening treasury practices, and building high-performing teams while ensuring accuracy, efficiency, and strong internal controls.
Throughout her career, Rivera has worked across multiple industries—including fire protection, construction, beverage alcohol, and hospitality—holding key roles with organizations such as Suntory Global Spirits, Sazerac Company, and Orr Protection Systems. She is known for transforming accounts payable functions into strategic business partners by shifting the perception of AP from transactional processing to analytical, impact-driven operations. Rivera emphasizes team development and empowerment, coaching her staff to think critically, understand cross-functional impacts, and take ownership of their roles, allowing her to focus on higher-level strategy and escalations.
In addition to her corporate career, Rivera is a certified life coach, a credential she earned during the COVID-19 pandemic, and she actively works with clients several days each week. She integrates her coaching philosophy into her leadership style, prioritizing kindness, inclusivity, and personal growth. A strong advocate for policies, procedures, and continuous learning, she takes pride in achieving her professional success without a formal college degree—demonstrating that experience, mentorship, and dedication can be equally powerful. Rivera is a lifelong learner who values collaboration across departments such as legal, HR, and finance, consistently seeking knowledge to elevate both herself and those around her.
• Certified Life Coach
• SHRM Certification
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to God first and foremost. I started out on the administrative coordinator side in the service industry, working in fire protection and construction, always surrounded by men. When I moved from New York to South Florida for 18 years and then to Louisville, Kentucky for 20 years, I started working in a corporate office which gave me opportunities to advance. I've always stuck to mentors, people I had good connections with and worked closely with. I learned that AP works with everybody, so I worked with legal, HR, AR, and took a little bit from everybody. I'm still being coached and mentored in my current job. What I'm most proud of is that I don't have a college education or any degrees, but I've gotten myself up to this level all on my own. I believe you have to learn how to do any job, even with a degree. My attitude is that I'll never say I don't know how to do something because I'm going to learn. I don't try to get in my head with negativity. I'm a lifelong learner who is adaptable. I read what I'm interested in, look things up constantly, and I'm very self-taught. Experience is starting to supersede degrees in our society now, and that just goes to show you don't have to go to school to succeed.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
For accounts payable, you start out at the bare minimum, and my advice is that accounts payable is a lot bigger than what people think it is. People think it's just paying bills, entering invoices, and going home, but it's really not that. I like to develop people into a different mindset. Think about the impacts - if you do something incorrectly, like code something wrong or delete something or forget something, who else is going to be affected by that? We only see the front end of entries, we don't see the journal entries and that back work that other people have to do. Getting people into that mindset makes you more interested and makes your job more interesting. You start looking for certain things, you get more analytical, and from that step, that's how you become a manager. You stop the processing, you do the analytics on it, and you let your team do the processing. It's not just about entering invoices. A lot of people in the accounting world will tell you AP is not accounting, but it is. We are the catch-all. When there's a flood, call AP. We're that kind of service. AP knows if they can do it or they're gonna tell you who you have to go to. And the cool component of being in accounts payable is that you can go through any industry.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I believe in treating everyone the same way. Whether you're my closest friend or somebody I really could care less to deal with, I'm gonna talk to you and treat you just like I do everybody else. We want to be treated all the same way, and that's what I really try to implement when I work. I'm very big on being kind and inclusive. I'm a rule follower, so I'm all about policies and procedures. I only surround myself with great people because I don't have time for energy vampires. It's my choice - nobody takes my energy, I just have a bad habit of draining myself and then there's nothing left for me. I want to make sure I can lay my head down at night and have a good sleep and not feel guilty. People either like me or they don't, there's no in-between. I practice what I preach - I'm a 360 kind of girl. Who am I to sit and tell you to do something but I'm not doing it? That's not really doing my job. I just want to live a simple life, I want things to come more easy to me, and then I can focus more on my challenges.