>> My name Christal Beron [phonetic]
and I am a Director with Alvarez
and Marsal's Forensic Disputes and
Investigations group here in Washington DC.
Alvarez and Marsal, just so you know,
it's an international consulting firm
that among other services it provides analytical
and investigative services for major law firms
and corporate council or companies that
are in some kind of financial dispute.
My job basically entails doing some
kind of financial or accounting analysis
in a complex commercial dispute
so for example I do things
such as economic damage quantifications, I
do business evaluations, and then I do things
such forensic accounting investigations when
there are some allegations of wrong doing,
suggest fraud or money laundering.
So a typical day for me starts probably around a
good 6:00 in the morning or so and trying to get
out my house and coming into the business.
And you know, typically the
things that we do from the morning
to the afternoon is we're always in some
kind of meeting or we are answering emails,
we're working very closely with our clients to
try to find solutions for the kinds of disputes
that they have and so we are typically
working in teams within A&M and we are either
at the client's side working with the client
if we're doing an investigation, for example.
Or, we would be working in the office if
we were doing an economic damages case
where we get all the data from the client
and we're typically just building models
or doing some kind of analysis to
prepare a report before we were
to go to trial, for example.
[Pause] You know I really love the fact
that it's a very dynamic environment.
I really like that I'm working very closely
with the client and we are trying to find ways
to give them solutions for their problems.
I really like that we are very interactive and
that at the end of the day, it's very rewarding
for me to see how say for
example, we're going to trial
and we are the financial experts in the case.
It's very interesting to see how my work
just fits in the big round scheme of things
when you're going to a large
commercial litigation,
how my testimony can sway what
the damages are going to be.
How, because I did an investigation, how
we can help a company perform better.
I really, really enjoy that in my job.
It's very fast-paced and so you're
working with tight deadlines,
you have to adapt to a changing environment, you
have to make sure that you are being responsive
to your client needs and because it's
real time, and you don't have a lot of,
sometimes you don't have a lot of planning
time, I think it's very challenging to keep
up with all of those demands and find time for
things like work/life balance and to step back
and say okay, I have to take time for myself and
you get so caught up with day-to-day operations
that taking time away from
the work is a big challenge.
I think in the consulting world
in general, it's a big challenge.
[Pause] I think because I am in the financial
consulting world, you definitely have
to have strong competencies in the
areas of finance and accounting.
I think it's critical to have good technical,
strong, solid, technical skills in those areas.
But I think it's equally
as important to take class.
If I could go back, I probably would
take classes like in communications
because I think sometimes business folks don't
think about how important it is to be able
to articulate and explain and synthesize things.
I think that we know about crunching numbers and
we're good at analyzing, but then when we have
to explain very complex issues
in simple matters, it's hard.
I think taking communications classes would
be good in addition to our technical skills.
And maybe, you know we live
in such a technological world
that there is so much data out there.
Sometimes it can be overwhelming.
I would probably take, maybe like
an information systems class,
to make sure that I can understand
and master the area of data analytics.
I think that's very crucial
in what we do as well.
[Pause] So I am originally from Puerto
Rico and after I graduated from high school
in Puerto Rico, I had the opportunity to come
to Penn State and I got a Bachelor's Degree
in Finance from Penn State, as
well as a Minor in Sociology.
So after I graduated, I went back
to Puerto Rico, I worked for Price,
Waterhouse Cooper when I was there and
I was there for about two years or so.
Then I decided that I wanted to get
my Master's in Business Administration
and luckily enough I went back to Penn State,
got my MBA, and then after I graduated,
I was hired again by PWC
and I came to Washington DC.
At the time it was September 11th event had
occurred so I had the opportunity to be one
of the adjudicators for the September 11th
compensation fund and I think that was one
of the most rewarding engagements I have ever
worked with to be part of such a big event.
And then I've been working with Alvarez and
Marsal for about the past six years or so.
So initially I was a Manager, I'm Director
now, but it's essentially doing the same kind
of analytics and accounting and finance kind
of work and basically doing economic damages
or performing business evaluations or
doing forensic investigations for clients.
[Pause] Be smart, be intelligent,
but be informed
and the other day I was reading
this, The Freakonomics Book.
In the Freakonomics Book the author
said something along the lines,
"Ask many questions even if they
might seem like silly at the time
because eventually you will get an
answer that will be meaningful."
And I truly believe that I think that
in the work that we do, in consulting,
it's important to be informed, it's important
to ask questions and it's important to continue
to be inquisitive and Penn State
gave us a wonderful education
and we have a good foundation but now in order
to be leaders and succeed professionally,
I think it's very important for us to continue
learning, and to continue asking questions
and being abreast of what's happening in
our industries and in our environments.
So, I'd say continue learning
if I had to give any advice.