Episode 32: Improbable Does Not Equal Impossible With Kimberly Ellison-Taylor
We hear a lot of amazing stories of unlikely people rising to success through a combination of luck, the right mindset and hard work. Improbable does not equal impossible; no matter your background, rising up the ranks of any profession, even the most prestigious professions, is something you can achieve as long as you set your mind to it. Joining Amy Vetter is Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, Global Executive Director for Oracle and Former Chairman of the Board of the American Institute of CPAs. Kimberly shares her life's journey from the inner city of Baltimore and the lessons she learned as a child that led to her success as a CPA in the accounting profession.
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Improbable Does Not Equal Impossible With Kimberly Ellison-Taylor
Welcome to this episode where I interview Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, a CPA, CGMA and CISA. She’s a transformational leader with a compelling background in strategy, finance and technology. Her career achievements include leadership roles at Oracle, Motorola, KPMG and NASA. In her role at Oracle, Kimberly serves at a Global Executive Director of Finance Thought Leadership. Kimberly is a Former Chairman of the Board for the American Institute of CPAs and the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants. She has an undergraduate degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and an MBA from Loyola University. She is well-known in the field. She shares with us her journey from being in the inner city of Baltimore and the lessons she learned as a child that led to her success as a CPA in the accounting profession.
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I'm excited to be with Kimberly Ellison-Taylor. If you don't know who she is, she's here to tell you. Kimberly, do you want to give us a little brief intro on who you are, so everyone knows if they don't know you already?
Thank you, Amy, for inviting me. I am Kimberly Ellison-Taylor or known as KET. I live in Maryland. I have two sons, 15 and 17. I am married to my college sweetheart. I've had the privilege and honor of being a chairman of the American Institute of CPAs. I work for Oracle as an Executive Director of Finance Thought Leadership. I am excited to be here.
I'm excited for you to be here too. We met a couple of years ago and couldn't stop talking.
Tom Hood introduced us. I don't know if you remember that.
We took off and he was like, “Okay.” You have such an interesting background. I would love to get into your story because what this show is all about is the stories that shape us and end up leading us into the path that we're in. Also, the things we have to break along the way based on when we get our own knowledge and life. I'd love to start off with a little bit of background on your childhood, your parents and how you grew up, that sort of thing.
I grew up in the inner city of Baltimore. I tell this story because it's important for breaking a belief that people who come from humble beginnings have the same opportunities later in life to succeed. I grew up there with my mom and dad. My dad worked at Bethlehem Steel. My mom was a stay-at-home mom, so she was there to keep a close eye on her girls and believe me, she did. Growing up in an inner-city, I lived across the street from a library and the bulk of the time that I had free, I spent in that library. Lots of hours, reading books and imagining what I would do when I got big. My story is probably similar to a lot of people. Maybe the backdrop isn't Baltimore, but they have similar aspirations and dreams that started for them when they were kids.
Was it your mom that led you to the library? Were you curious and went to the library yourself?
My mom was strict, “Come home from school, I need to know where you are, do your homework, education level is the playing field.” There were only a couple of places that I could go and the library was one of them. My mom would agree that I could go to the library and then after that, I fell in love with books. I was curious about the world and what the possibilities were.
Why do you think was that?
This is interesting. We had one television, let me start there, at our house. That’s back in the day where there was aluminum foil on the antenna. It’s to get the best reception. When I tell my kids the story, they're horrified. When you could fall asleep, you could wake up and there will be static because the television literally stopped. It was our white noise. For me, I wanted to know about the world, the possibilities. To have financial success when I got older and a lot of it was around the environment that I was in. My parents did the absolute best for us that they could. They taught us a lot of core values that are important to my family and me. They’re core to me being a CPA, but a lot of that, “What is the world like? What can I be when I grow up? The possibilities are endless,” was shaped by my family and from going to that library.
When you say you wanted financial success, was that because of how you were growing up? Was that something that your parents were drilling into you? Why was that important to you?
That was important because my dad worked from 7:00 to 3:00, 3:00 to 11:00 and 11:00 to 7:00. I never saw him ill. He always went to work and we didn't have a car. I didn't learn how to drive until I was 22, which is unheard of, but I was old in the tooth learning how to drive because we didn't have a car and my dad caught two buses. When I think about people, sometimes they'll say, “I can't do this.” I’m thinking, “Are you kidding me?” There will be a blizzard and my dad will still figure out a way to get to work. He added so much value that when there was no bus service, they sent a car or a truck to come and get my dad. I learned a lot from being in that environment and also, quite frankly, from having that one television. I said, “When I get big, I'm going to have a television in every room.” It started out as shallow as that. I wanted a TV in every room. We couldn't get sweet cereal. My family probably would kill me for telling you this, but we had to eat cornflakes.
When you started reading your books on what you could be, what were some of the things that you thought you were going to be when you grew up?
I would say, in the third grade, someone came to my elementary school. I went to William Pinderhughes Elementary School, and it was a career day. They were talking about all the various disciplines they said, “Be a lawyer, be a doctor, be an engineer.” I listened and listened. Finally when they said, “Be a CPA. CPAs managed money and that we have influence,” all I could hear, and the whole room stopped on, “Managed the money.” All I could think about was, “I'm going to get a TV in every room. I'm going to have a car and sweet cereal.”
That’s such an important lesson because you have to speak in the language of your audience. If your audience are third graders that don't have any examples of CPAs, lawyers and doctors, and so forth and you're running a career fair. If you go in and start talking about debits and credits, they're not going to care, but when you're talking about managing the money, that got your attention. That's important for all of us to understand. You can't communicate in the same way to every audience and if you're trying to inspire people to do things that have never seen an accountant before, never seen a lawyer before. How do you speak in their language so that they would want to learn about it?
That is true. I can tell you, when I go to career days, I have created a board and I'm shameless with it, but we are trying to win students over to the CPA and accounting profession. I will put something up about Disney. I'll have McDonald's taped to the board. I've talked about athletes. I've talked about entertainers. Jay Z and Beyoncé have CPAs, I'm sure, managing their money. It’s the same with LeBron James. I'm shameless about trying to bring out real-life examples. I don't go in and talk about reasonable assurance on financial statements and how we are working to earn the public trust because that will come, but that's not what's going to capture their attention, not immediately.
It reminds me, because we've been at many conferences together, you had told a story and it stuck with me. It was probably a long time ago and you're like, “Do you remember that?” It’s where you went to high school and you did a fashion show of how you show up to work. What's the right thing to wear?
It was a Wyoming state society. There are some generational differences. I grew up, I'm Gen X. What are the notions of dress with success? They told us growing up to dress for the position you aspire to. This generation, they're saying be your authentic self. I don't know if you could tell people to be their authentic selves without explaining more what that means, because it does not mean yoga pants. Some of the students wear pajamas to school. We have to be a little more explicit. In that particular example, the Wyoming CPAs had a fashion show where they had some of their new and young professionals doing do's and don'ts, “Do this. Don't do that.” That's what we need.
It’s real. If you don't have an example, how do you know? I worked at Petite Sophisticate to get a discount, so I could interview in a suit.
You bring out a good point, Amy, when you said, “If you don't see it, how do you know?” That is why I try to get out into the school systems and I've encouraged every accountant and CPA to help us tell our own story. Go into those environments. Our kids, our neighbors, our grandkids or nieces, nephews, everyone's having a career day. We let other people define our brand and we let other people define our own stereotype. I was excited when we got the accountant and I was planning that, “We're going to have watch parties.” Someone said, “Kimberly, he's an assassin.” The point is we don't get that sizzly role. We usually would get the role of the nerdy accountant not recognizing that we are in many different facets of the profession. Our students need to see us know that it's a possibility.
Going back to your story, you got inspired to manage the money. What was your path from high school to college to get there without having the example?
It's a windy road, Amy, because I clearly didn't ask the right question when I went to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. I said, “Can I be a CPA if I come here?” They said, “Sure,” and the answer is correct, but I would have to go through Econ, no offense to the Economics major.
I had trouble understanding it.
Rising Up The Ranks: People who come from humble beginnings have the same opportunities later in life to succeed.
I didn't want to be an Econ major. I majored on a whim in Information Systems Management. I majored in IFSM. They said, “You could take the classes you need and you don't have to major in Accounting to be a CPA, you just need the classes.” I said, “I'm going to major in Information Systems.” After I finished that degree, I went to get my MBA, then I came back and went two years at a community college and spent three years working during the day at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and at night going to school until I could get my Accounting degree.
You must have been mad at that counselor that told you the information.
It all worked out. Look at how interwoven technology is nowadays. By the time I got on the track of being a CPA, I was probably 6 to 7 years behind my colleagues who went to an accounting school and passed the exam. They were 24, 25 years old whereas I was 28, 29 years old, basically getting on this accounting path.
How did you feel in college? Did you feel you're in the right place? Did you feel that you were sure of the decisions and people were accepting of you?
That is tough because when I went to college, I had a roommate that looked different than me. I'm sure it was a first for her. It was a first for me. I thought I was going to get there early. I must have gotten there like 7:00 AM because everyone says, “Get there early so you can get the side of the room you want.” I got there and she is already in bed, at the window. I didn’t get there early enough. She was from Missouri, so she had come early. There's no way I could have beat her there, but we learned a lot about each other. That experience was a good one.
I can tell you, coming from the inner city, I was determined that I was going to be successful. I was determined that I wasn't going to have the shame of going back home. My parents had told me, “You do your best. We'll be there to support you. If you need us, we'll figure out a way to get to you, but we know you can do it.” I did feel confident, but I knew and expected that I was going to have to work hard. I was that student that studied three hours for every one credit hour, because that's how determined I was to make sure that I would do well, and I was on a scholarship. That’s why there was no opportunity not to do well.
What kind of mentors did you have to look up to at that time that helped guide you in this new world you were going into?
I've always had secret mentors. That's a new word now, but there were people that I aspired to be, people who were doing the things that I thought, “They probably have a TV in every room.”
There’s one criteria.
Having a TV in every room was the criteria. It's funny because not many people even watch TV nowadays. I had a number of professors. There were a number of leaders. By then, I had joined my sorority, which is Sigma Gamma Rho sorority. There are a lot of leaders from a community service perspective. I saw women in that group, basically still doing their day job, still having their families and still helping the community. With that kind of ecosystem around me, it helped me shape some of the perspectives that I have even now.
What were some of those?
Basically, too much is given and much is required. I live by that. I say that all the time. I say it to my kids. I remind them that the problems that they have, other people wish they had, that we should all be grateful. My dad would say this every day, “Every day you wake up, it's your birthday.” Growing up, my sisters and I thought he said that as an excuse not to buy us birthday presents, but if you think about life that way, you wake up a little more excited than you do otherwise. I think that's true. I have maintained that you reap what you sow. It's one thing to be blessed, but it's better to be a blessing to others. That's the energy that I hope I give off that if I was the first person you met for your day, would I help you get on the track for having a wonderful day or would I help you be on a track to be miserable for the rest of the day? I hope interactions with me are positive and they feel the energy that I feel.
Having an example like that from your father who doesn't have a car. Any of us could have taken a bus to work and you may or may not like, but it’s an exhausting day. To get up with that attitude and share that attitude. How many sisters did you have?
Two, I’m the middle child. Four years older than me and one, four years younger.
To have that attitude and share that is important. You started out at NASA. Where did you go from there? How did your career start moving on? What type of work were you doing?
This is the a-ha moment for me. I'm working at NASA. I love it. I think it's the best place in the whole world.
What were you doing there?
I was a Computer Specialist. I helped manage the mainframe data center for administrative and financial workloads. It’s exciting. Nothing as jazzy as putting people on the moon, but I help people get paid. There you have. I managed the help desk and also did some work around integrated financial management projects, which was cool. My a-ha moment was that people were thinking, “Kimberly, you should come and work here.” That was Motorola. I was like, “I love it. This is my good government job.” When you grow up, in some environments, your family would say, “You stay in one job for 100 years.” My a-ha moment was that, “Maybe I can go somewhere else and work.” My parents were appalled, but I left NASA to go and work at Motorola and it was a great experience. At Motorola, my a-ha moment was I failed the CPA exam. I’m going to school at night and by the time it was time for me to take the exam, I had not studied at all. I bought the books. I didn't think I needed a review course. I’m a textbook for, “Why you need to do a review.” Clearly, I thought that I could do it on my own. There was not even a crease in my book. I'm ashamed to say.
That’s amazing. I studied and studied but I still didn't pass my first time.
I needed to leave Motorola. I left Motorola and went to KPMG. I was in an environment where you're looking around and everyone's excited. Back in the days where the dinosaurs roamed the Earth, we took the exam twice a year. Everyone knew if you passed the exam or not. Back then, before the privacy rules, they posted your name on the website if you passed the exam. Everyone would know if you pass it or not. I was like, “I failed it. It was terrible. I'm never doing this again.” I failed it in February. I passed it in November, the same year. I had a wake-up moment. I was like, “I need to study.” Maybe all those old people who said what you have to do to pass the exam, maybe they're not wrong. Maybe I need to focus and stop doing so much of this other stuff. I did and so I passed the exam. Those were great moments for me to realize that you learn a lot more from failure sometimes than you do from success.
It's true and limiting your focus. You have to cut things out in order to achieve the goal that you wanted to achieve. You've had an incredible CPA career. From KPMG, is that when you started working with the Maryland CPA society?
Right before. I was at KPMG when I started working with them. I started working with the Maryland Association of CPAs and Tom Hood. It's been amazing. I answered the call to volunteer and I am glad I did.
Why did you volunteer? When you said you answered the call, what does that mean to you?
Because they sent out an email to say congratulations on passing the exam, “Congrats, you’re a student. You're in the pipeline, and then congratulations on passing the exam.” I was excited that they knew who I was. Little did I know then that letter went out to everybody. I thought it was only for me like, “They know who I am. They want me.” I felt like the time that I studied was blood, sweat and tears on that exam. I said, “Every single day, I'm going to make it worth it.” It's been such a huge return on that investment over and over again. That's what I tell my sons when I'm trying to talk with them about the importance of how critical speaking the language of business is, that this is only a blip in time compared to the return on investment that you get from being recognized as a CPA.
Rising Up The Ranks: We’re all trying to win students over to the accounting profession, so you have to find ways to connect with them.
It's interesting because it comes back to outreach because we talked about that with school and then Maryland CPA said the right words to you to make you feel accepted. I know another story of the same thing that got you involved in a whole other way with the AICPA, and that's with Rich Caturano. That was a definite outreach moment to change the paradigm of the makeup of how you got involved with the AICPA. I'd love for you to share that story. KET came about around that time, right?
Pretty much, since I've been married, people thought Kimberly Ellison-Taylor was long. I was Chairman of Maryland, and then when I worked on Horizons 2025 with Paul Stahlin. Paul Stahlin was the past Chairman in charge of nominations. He called me and said, “KET, would you be interested in serving further in AICPA?” Between an application process and probably a lot of people speaking on my behalf, I made it to the Board of Directors. That was an incredible experience. Meanwhile, on the board, I got to meet many amazing people, colleagues that I call friends, and hopefully we'll be in touch with forever. One of those was Rich Caturano and Tommie Barry. I can't say enough about Tommie, but in this case, Rich Caturano’s theme was diversity and inclusion.
He was the Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and it was all white men.
He was the Chairman of AICPA and chose as his theme even higher diversity and inclusion. When you're the Chairman of AICPA, you have all of the usual dashboard issues. Small practitioner, you want to help public interest, all of that. You get to do something that is personal and real to you. Rich could have chosen anything. Something much easier, a little more concrete that you can get your arms around that wouldn't make people uncomfortable, and he chose diversity and inclusion. I am sure he and I talk about this all the time because fast forward, Rich is the Chairman of the National Commission on Diversity and Inclusion and I get to work with him as his Vice Chair.
Rich was the 100th Chairman of AICPA and I was the 104th Chairman. Bill Balhoff was the Head of Nominations. I remember him teasing Rich saying, “It was great of me, Rich, to help you out there with your platform. You'll see the fruition of it.” I love that kind of teasing. I also think it is important that sometimes we step out of our comfort zones and we do things that are uncomfortable. We become allies, champions and that's what Rich did. He ended up walking into meetings with his peers and having probably candid, courageous conversations about diversity on every level that you can imagine, what inclusion feels like, and what the end state was. I am aware that there are many other individuals that are diverse, that could have been the chairman, and I'm grateful that it was me because it could have been any number of people.
From hearing him talk, one of the things he said was, “You can't wait for them to apply, because if they don't see me in us, you're not going to apply.” They did outreach to try to find targets to change the diversity makeup of the committee of the AICP leadership. It’s not like he had the background to know to do that, but it's important when we think about changing the paradigm, whether it's women, ethnicity, religion, or whatever it is. That we're actively going after it versus passively waiting.
That's true because sometimes we don't have visibility to the talent inside our organizations. I'm going to assume positive intent and I am going to think that the CEOs and hiring leaders don't always know what talent they have. I would encourage them to take a look. I know we can source talent from outside the organization and from a number of different places. By no means are we asking people to lower standards for quality and lower their standards for excellence. I happen to believe, maybe I'm biased, that you could find talented, diverse team members who could join your organization and help you move the ball forward. At the same time to convey that you are living your mission, purpose and values. A lot of organizations talk about inclusive leadership, but if you look at their core, right-hand woman, right-hand man, their board of directors, and their closest executives, that's not reflected. I’ve got to think that we didn't look as hard as we could have to find that kind of talent and bring it in because it's a voice and a perspective that's missing from the decision making that will serve them in good stead if they were able to capture.
My son and I found the show on Netflix, which is funny but you learn, it's called 100 Humans. They do these experiments on 100 people that are coming from all different backgrounds. They did a show on unconscious bias where they had them, in the beginning, saying who thinks they have any bigotry or any kind of bias toward anything else. Only 6 out of 100 said they thought they had it by the end of the show with all these experiments. People don't even realize when they're doing it or think about the questions you need to ask before you make an assumption about people and so forth. Also, the work that it takes to go that extra mile that you got in third grade. If you hadn't had the example or someone even telling you there was something called a CPA, how would you know? These things are important planting these seeds because look at the impact you've had on the profession because of it.
I appreciate that. One of the things that are heartwarming to me would be the emails, posts, and the letters that I've gotten from people all over the world saying, “I never thought I'd see the day that there was a black Chairman at AICPA, a woman at that.” Imagine me reading this email or me in this post environment that we're in, I'm going to have to rethink my hugging strategy. I’d hug people from all over because they wanted to hug me and I'm a hugger.
I was talking about this. I'm like, “What do you do?”
I know because I am a hugger, but I have to rethink what I do. Maybe I’ll rub elbows or something, but if I have had any impact on changing someone's perspective or broadening what's possible, then I am excited by that.
When you think about this course of your life, what do you think you had to overcome in your own belief systems beyond the TV thing? It got you here and that’s important, but what do you think you had to break in your own thought pattern in order to achieve what you've achieved?
For me, it's around studying because when I graduated valedictorian, I went to school on a full scholarship. I'm used to studying and learning my way forward inside the organizations. Along the way, I learned that it's so much more about relationships than it's about people. You still need the technical skillsets, no question, but you also need to have relationship skillsets. I use that every single day. I'm always trying to build a bridge even with my kids. I'm the female in the house because I'm here with a 15 and 17-year-old, with my husband. I'm constantly doing it without even thinking about it. That's probably why I feel included.
I don't feel out of place anywhere. It's always because my automatic reflex is to build a bridge. I’m meeting you in the middle. I'm looking for commonality. I'm looking for things that we can discuss. We have kids in common. We're into the same school. We're CPAs. We like the color green. Whatever it is, I am constantly looking for the bridge to build to bring us closer together because there are more things that we might have in common than the things that separate us. When people realize that, then suddenly they forget I'm black and they are Caucasian. They think we're two people having a discussion about a topic and we don't have to think about those surface things that might cause unconscious bias.
I’d like to ask you some quickfire questions. Pick a category. Your category is either family, friends, money, spiritual or health.
Spiritual.
Things or actions I don't have that I want as far as spirituality?
Internal peace.
Things or actions that I do have that I want?
Hope.
Rising Up The Ranks: Going forward within organizations, you realize that while it’s important to have the skills, it’s so much more about relationships, about people.
That's what's gotten you through?
That’s right.
Things or actions I don't have that I don't want?
Negative thoughts and cynicism.
Things or actions that I do have that I don't want.
Disappointment in people sometimes.
Is there any big takeaway that you want people to have that they walk away from this interview with? You've given a lot of lessons, but is there an overriding message that you want to make sure people want to walk away with?
I would say that improbable does not mean impossible. I have given a couple of presentations about that when I'm asked to talk about inclusive leadership. Because if someone had given you my background on paper, you didn't know who I was, you didn't know what I looked like, but knew I came from the inner city. The social-economic status alone might give you pause and then you say, “She's black and she's growing up in a school system that may not have all the resources that we would like. She’s in an environment where people are not walking around her that are usually college grads, except for her teachers at school, would you think that she would one day be the chairman of such an amazing organization like AICPA and Maryland Association of CPAs?” I would probably say, even I'd have to admit it myself, that the answer is probably, “No, I wouldn't think that would be probable,” but just because it's improbable, doesn't mean it's impossible.
Thank you for having this interview with me. I know there are going to be many takeaways for people to take into their life as well.
Thank you for all that you're doing especially because we need wellness and mindfulness and you are the leading expert on that.
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It's time to take those Mindful Moments and reflect on this conversation that we had with Kimberly Ellison-Taylor. She has such a fascinating journey and there's so much there from the multiple conversations I've had with her. With her beginnings, being in the inner city of Baltimore and not having an example of the profession she is in, she fascinates me with how she got there. I love the examples of the little things in life that we aspire to have, like having a TV in every room or having sugar in the house, those things that she believed that having financial success would give her that TV in every room. We talked about it during this interview of how important it is that outreach happens with everyone inclusively in the world, because not everyone has examples of different careers in their families. A lot of times, we go toward what we know rather than taking an uncomfortable path of something we don't know.
Having someone come into her school in third grade was such an important thing, but speaking in a language that she could understand, which was about managing money. Because this financial success theme was important to her, that started shifting her path along the way. That's important for us to think about when we're speaking to audiences, clients, people that don't necessarily have the same expertise that we have. A lot of times, we speak over people's heads, or we use terminology or acronyms that people don't know, and therefore can't relate to what we have to say. If we need to get a message across, it's important that we understand who our audience is and what's important to them, not just us, in order to influence their decisions. To have them be able to change their perspective from what they thought before. We all get stuck in our belief systems, because that's all we know. Being able to communicate in a way that people understand is important.
When we talk about her journey, she talks about having secret mentors, which is funny because it's something that I've always done as well. We don't always have to define mentorship as something official and someone that we meet with and it has to have certain parameters around it. We can go seek out the people we aspire to or the people that give us inspiration that helps us to understand what was their journey or what are the things that they're doing that we want to model to make our own. We find that it's important in our own lives as well.
She talks about her a-ha moment in her career journey about not being focused enough to achieve the goal that she wanted, was to pass the CPA exam and to want to take on everything because you're excited about doing that. When we do that, sometimes we stretch ourselves thin that we don't actually accomplish the thing we want to accomplish the most. It's important when we're prioritizing our thinking about what we want in our lives, that we prioritize the right things and not try to take on everything. It's hard for us to be a master of everything in order for us to achieve what we desire and that takes some time to step back.
We also had a long discussion in this interview about reaching out to people and bringing them into the fold with us of where we want to create inclusion. A lot of times, if we don't make the outreach, it doesn't happen. Because if I don't see myself in your organization or with friends that you have, I'm going to assume that I don't fit in there. It's up to us to have those open arms and to be reaching out to people that we want to bring into the fold that may be different and it is uncomfortable, but learning how to communicate, like in her third-grade class, in a way that shows that they are included. That you do want them and that their goals might be different than your own. How do you make sure that you're creating the career and the pathway for people that are important to them? We have to ask those questions.
One of the big takeaways that Kimberly had said in her life that she had to break was that we sometimes have our heads down. We're not thinking about relationships and understanding what other people need and what makes them tick. If we want to build a bridge, it's important that we're thinking about others, not just our own needs. How we bring that together so we can meet in the middle as she talked about to decide what we have in common, what we can share so that people do feel included in the process. If we have something to take away from this, it’s understanding our communication, our language, even our own unintentional biases are important. Because what we can actually create as some of the most important leaders in anything that we do, when we open ourselves up for something different. Think about now, even in your own life, where can you make yourself uncomfortable? That you're going to grow and learn from the process because you did something that was maybe outside of your wheelhouse, outside of what you know, and outside of your belief system.
Important Links:
Rich Caturano - LinkedIn
LinkedIn - Kimberly N. Ellison-Taylor
Twitter - @KEllisonTaylor
Kimberly Ellison-Taylor on Facebook
About Kimberly Ellison-Taylor
Successful finance, technology, and strategy executive with impressive achievements in highly competitive organizations and industries. Strategic, financial and technical leadership across diverse services, products and technologies. Demonstrated leadership and qualifications include operational management, team building, problem solving and critical decision-making. Results-driven with unfailing bottom line achievement.
Specialties:
Certified Public Accountant
Chartered Global Management Accountant
Certified Information Systems Auditor
Expertise
-Board Governance (Chairman, Audit, Finance & -Talent/Remuneration Committees, etc)
-Business Development
-Inclusive Leadership (Diversity & Inclusion)
-Innovation, Strategy & Digital Transformation
-Technology (Shared Services, Cyber Security, -Cloud, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, etc)
-Digital Transformation
20 years + Board Experience
Keynote Speaker
Speaking Engagements on Facebook links
https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonCPAs/videos/10156441573348899/l
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154869311434494&id=24488034493
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