>> A little background, well, I went to high school in New Jersey, the Garden State.
I went to Penn State for my undergrad, started there in engineering and then switched
over into business school where I studied accounting
and received my BS in Accounting degree.
I also had a minor in the legal environment of business which was extremely helpful
for my pursuit of my CPA license.
I'm a CPA in the state-- in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
I did accounting for about six years and I--
at some point, I had a former director of HR approached me and say, "Hey,
would you be interested in coming back and work in an HR."
And I often make the joke that probably meant one of two things.
Either I wasn't a real strong accountant or they saw a potential for me in HR.
And it was at the time when HR I think was still called personnel management back in early '90s.
I decided to do it.
The other thing this person said was think about really going back to graduate school, and I did.
I was at the time when I was still single, and had no children at the time.
So I went back to the University of Pittsburgh for my MBA
in HR Management, Human Resources Management.
It was a one-year MBA program and that was my-- some of my transition.
At the time, I was working for Coopers and Lybrand which subsequently merged
with Price Waterhouse to become PwC or Price Waterhouse Coopers back then.
But it was a great bridge to take me from the accounting focus to the HR focus.
But because I understood the business, it allowed that bridge
to be a little bit easier to overcome.