A Meaningful Career in Government Audit
Ft. Tesa Lanoy, CFO and Comptroller of the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)
In this episode of the "All Things Financial Management" podcast, presented by the Society of Financial Management and Guidehouse, Tesa Lanoy, CFO & Comptroller of the U.S. Special Operations Command, sat down with host Tom Rhoads to discuss the latest ongoings in the financial management space. The pair discuss Tesa Lanoy’s pathway to her current role, what makes SOCOM unique compared to other combatant commands, and advice for young professionals. Listen to this new episode to gain valuable insight.
Tesa Lanoy's Story
Tesa Lanoy: Yeah, it's been a little bit of a wayward journey. But if you don't mind, I'm going to start back when I was in college. Because for me that's where the commitment, the relationship with the department began. I went to the University of Dayton. Go Flyers. I was an accounting major and my sophomore year... One of the reasons I went to the University of Dayton is they had a fantastic cooperative education program, and the outplacement rate was 98%. So I went as a sophomore, you could sign up for interviews. And up to that point in my college curriculum, they really pushed public accounting. That's really all they pushed, being a CPA, I was in the Accounting Club. And I come to the interviews where you sign up and the interview list for the public accounting firms was very long. And then there was the Air Force, and there were maybe three names on the entire list. And so, I was curious because at that point, I hadn't heard anything about government accounting. I didn't know what they did and how it was different, but they had a pretty high GPA requirement, so that was probably a limiting factor for others. And so, I just threw my name on the list and thought, "What the heck? I'll interview and see how this goes."
So, fast-forward, narrowed it down to two options. One was Arthur Andersen and the second was the Air Force. And Arthur Andersen was putting a lot of pressure on me to make a decision because they needed to move on. I couldn't make a decision. They were so different, and I didn't know enough about the government. I told my roommate I was going to flip a coin, and she freaked out and said, "Hey, decision, I think you should talk to someone." So, I had talked to everyone at that point that I knew to talk to. She said, "Well, what did your parents say?"
And my father was a registered blaster; he's retired now but was a registered blaster in a coal mine. I grew up in a small town in southeast Ohio near Pittsburgh. And my mother was a registered nurse, so I didn't know what kind of feedback they'd really have in this decision. But I called them, and my dad was upstairs on one phone, my mom was on the other, back when we had landlines in the house. And finally, they made me lay out the pros and cons. And finally at the end, my mom said, "Oh, Tesa, I don't know, just flip a coin." Which was hilarious because I had not told her that was my plan to start with. So anyway, heads Air Force. It was pretty interesting to tell you the truth, because Arthur Andersen, every time I'd met with them, they kind of upped their game and it was fancier facilities, fancier coffee cups. And then when I went to Air Force, they had always met me off base. And so, when I actually came that day, I thought, "Oh my goodness, what did I do?" The facilities obviously were not as fancy and nice. But anyway, obviously we all know what happened there with them and Enron. So, it turns out, it was a good decision in that respect. But frankly, it was the right decision for me.