Cines of the times

She's the only female chief executive at a Bowman's 100 firm. But Aronson's Lisa Cines says she's 'just one of the boys'

Member spotlight

Lisa Cines, CPA
Managing Officer, Aronson & Company

By Bill Sheridan
MACPA E-Communications Manager

Lisa Cines never set out to be a torchbearer. She just wanted to be a good CPA.

As it turns out, she's both.

In a profession historically ruled by men, Cines is rewriting the rules. As managing officer at Rockville-based Aronson & Company, she is the only female chief executive among the nation's 100 largest accounting firms. (Aronson was listed 47th in the 2002-03 "Bowman 100," an annual list compiled by Bowman's Accounting Report.)

That's some pretty select company. But the only woman in accounting's "boys' club" says it's the job, not the gender, that matters most.

"I'm just one of the boys," said Cines, 43. "To be perfectly honest, becoming managing officer was never part of my gameplan. My career has been driven less by this position as an end goal than by the fact that I just wanted to do a good job and feel the personal rewards that go with this profession."

'I loved what I was doing'

Her initial goals weren't even that lofty. After graduating from Silver Spring's John F. Kennedy High School in the late 1970s, Cines chose to study accounting at the University of Maryland "because I thought it was something you could do part time when you had kids."

That indifference quickly turned to passion. Cines embraced the logic accounting required and grew to love the world of business while interning at a small, local firm. Eventually, an Aronson spokesperson captured Cines' attention by promising her a regional job and the opportunity to grow with her clients. She was hooked and, after graduation, joined the firm in 1982.

"From the very first engagement, I just loved what I was doing," she said. "I had a passion for it and knew I needed to develop a work-life balance that allowed me to develop my professional career."

With strong support from her family, she did just that. In 1991, Cines was named Aronson's first female officer. The firm's Board of Directors elected her managing officer 10 years later. She officially took the helm on June 1, 2001.

With the new title came new responsibilities. Instead of providing audit and accounting services to her clients, she now finds herself focusing on providing leadership and positioning the firm in the marketplace through brand awareness — "working on the business, not in it," she explains. That means learning and refining an entirely new set of skills — how to communicate effectively, to give presentations, and especially, to lead.

Leading the way

Those duties don't end when she leaves the office. Cines feels a responsibility to lead not only at Aronson, but in the profession as well. She is an active member of the MACPA's Accounting Reform Task Force, which produced a nationally acclaimed white paper of recommendations for restoring faith in the profession. She also is involved with the AICPA's Major Firms Group and Moores Rowland International, an association of independent accounting firms.

"We have a responsibility to be active," Cines said. "I think a lot of CPAs go into this profession to find a comfort zone. For many of us, (being active in the profession) is not our personal strength. We need to place value on those skills and begin to work on them earlier in our careers."

In the meantime, she has her hands full meeting the everyday challenges of running one of the nation's biggest accounting firms. Staffing remains a huge obstacle, as does rolling with the changes. Pronouncements, methodology, technology — they're all changing so rapidly that keeping up has become a full-time job itself. Then there are the profession's issues — legislation, ethics, reform — that have nearly doubled a managing officer's workload.

"We've come a long way in restoring credibility, but it's tentative," Cines said. "Every day, every action is open for scrutiny. We need to remember that and behave accordingly."

Somehow through the years, Aronson has kept pace — and set the pace on many occasions. Earlier this year, Cines looked on proudly as the firm sold a client that began its business life with Aronson some 14 years earlier. At sale, that client was worth nearly $40 million in revenue.

"That's what we want to do for our clients — assist them in every stage of their journey," Cines said. "I think we do a wonderful job of that."

A new era?

Times have changed since Cines joined the profession. In 1982, Aronson had no female officers. Nine years later, she became the first. Today, four of the firm's 18 officers are women. That's more than double the national average of 9 percent.

What's different at Aronson?

"It's difficult for me to say," Cines said. "I've spent more than 20 years here, so I think of what we have as normal. I hope what makes us unique is that we treat each person as an individual. We take people's strengths and we play off those strengths. Our goal is to make each person as successful as they can be."

Contact this Author: < William Sheridan > bill@macpa.org

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