Careers

Blending of Family & Work

I've been very fortunate to have a very supportive wife in Susan. And she realizes that the blending of our family life and my career life, my work life, are really important. And she's very helpful in that process, to make sure that she says, hey, you know, time out, put the BlackBerry away, it's time for us to go do something.

Because sometimes I get caught up when I'm getting all this stuff done, and you lose sight, track of time and what's really happening. So she keeps me humble and keeps me in a very good spot from that standpoint.

Family time together

I have two terrific kids. Laura, graduated a year ago from Villanova, and she's working in the city now and really enjoying life. And it's great to see her really blossom in her professional career as she moves down her academic career. Our son, Tyler, is going to go to Fordham this fall. And he's very excited about that. He'll live close to home. But as he says, he'll have a chance to really, really take on campus life, and he'll visit back home once in a while as he moves through that process.

But really, the chance to have the career I've had, has clearly taken me away from my family at some critical points in time. But it's also allowed me to bring my family with me on many trips around the world. It's allowed me, I think, to give them a broader perspective. As they look at their own development and where they're going in life. And it's allowed us to really focus on the time together. And when you have that time together, really capitalize on it and really spend time doing it.

Overcoming challenges

I can think of many, many sleepless nights where you lay awake, at work worrying about something, what the outcome might be. And instead of tackling the issue and solving it, you worry about it. I think as you mature in your career and have more opportunities to take on challenges, you realize that things are never as good as they seem, and never as bad as they seem. And if you bring the focus to the issue and bring the right resources, get the right clarity of thought, bring the right support and people to help you through it, you can accomplish great things.

Would You Do It All Over Again?

You know, I get asked the question quite a bit in terms of how did you get to where you achieve in your career? If you do it all over again, would you join KPMG? And I look at it from a standpoint of I've had a tremendous career. I've achieved a level within an organization that really, when you start, you never think is going to be possible. And I feel that there's lots of people that could be sitting in this chair here today talking as Chairman of KPMG. I happen to be fortunate to be the person doing it at this moment in time in our firm's history.

But when I think about KPMG and think about would I do it over again, it's not because I land in the chair here today. It's because of the opportunity it's given me and my family. I've had 28 years of a tremendous opportunity at KPMG. It's been challenging, at times frustrating. But it's always been, for me, it feels like home. The culture's been comfortable, the people have been terrific to work with, the leaders I've learned from and tried to emulate, have taught me many things. And it's made me the person I am today.

And there's no way that you could go back and recreate all those moments that were the special moments, but you can always think about those moments. You can't recreate them, but you can look back upon them very fondly. And so I think about my career at KPMG, it's been tremendous. It's been challenging, it's been fun. At times frustrating. But all in all, it's been tremendous. And I wouldn't change a thing.