Meet Betty Wilson.

• Position: President of the Tax Executives Institute - Interview

From St. Louis to Las Vegas, From Horses to Harleys TEI's Newest Leader Blazed a Different Path to Presidency

Betty M. Wilson of the Arizona Chapter was installed as Tax Executives Institute's 2000- 2001 President in Monterey, California, on August 8, 2000. In an effort to learn more about Betty Wilson, only the second woman to lead the Institute, The Tax Executive (TTE) recently sat down with Betty and talked about her background, her involvement in TEI, and her aspirations for the organization during her year at the helm. An edited version of the interview follows.

The Tax Executive (TTE): Congratulations, Betty, on becoming TEI's newest President. And thank you for finding the time to visit with us. Although TEI members and other readers of The Tax Executive may have seen your name and photograph in the magazine over the years, they may not know much about you personally. Maybe a good place to start is by you're telling us a little bit about yourself.

Betty M. Wilson (BMW): Thank you very much. It's my pleasure to be here today. Not only because it means I've attained one of my dreams -- to be TEI's President -- but because it gives me an opportunity to share with our members what we hope to accomplish this year.

You asked who Betty Wilson is? She's an honest, straight forward woman from the Midwest who now lives in Las Vegas. She's someone who started working for a white-shirt / navy-blue-suit public accounting firm and then a financial institution, and now works in the gaming industry and an advocate of casual dress. I was born in Moberly, Missouri, in 1947, and grew up in Centralia, Missouri. When I was eight, my family first moved to West Allis, Wisconsin, which is a suburb of Milwaukee, then to Terre Haute, Indiana, and finally to Collinsville, Illinois -- 15 miles east of St. Louis -- where I attended high school.

TTE: That's an awful lot of moving around.

BMW: Certainly back then it was. Now, I think it just goes with the territory. My father was an electrical/maintenance engineer, and the moves were tied to his job. After finishing high school in Collinsville -- which, by the way, is where my mother went to school and still lives -- I went to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, to study accounting where I graduated as the top student in the College of Business in 1969 with a BS in Business Administration and a major in Accounting.

TTE: What did you do after getting your degree?

BMW: I returned to the Midwest to work in St. Louis. My first job was with Arthur Andersen & Co. I spent one year on the audit staff before the head of the tax department asked me to transfer into the tax practice. I was unsure about the move, so I made him promise me that if I didn't like it, I could transfer back into audit after the busy season. I fell in love with the tax area and spent five years with AA in the tax department. I passed the CPA exam at first sitting and became a Missouri CPA. (I still have my license to practice there.) At the end of my fourth year at AA, I became the first woman Tax Manager in the St. Louis office. After two years in that role, I grew tired of bumping against the glass ceiling and decided to make a career shift. So I left public accounting and took the position of Director of Taxes for ITT Financial Corp. in St. Louis.

TTE: How soon after you joined ITT did you become a TEI member?

BMW: My ITT colleagues in New York told me immediately that I should join TEI and get active in the local chapter. They were very encouraging and very high on TEI, and so less than a month after I started work at ITT, I sent in my membership application. My membership certificate (No. 7071) was issued in March 1976.

TTE: Betty, we understand that you were the first female member of the St. Louis Chapter. Did you experience any problems in joining TEI?

BMW: The St. Louis Chapter of TEI welcomed me with open arms and I felt like...