Melissa Hooley: life after Enron.

• Author: Bronikowski, Lynn

Melissa Hooley will never forget those grim days in 2002 when the Enron Corp. scandal swept the nation, taking many innocents in its wake.

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She had worked for Arthur Andersen for 15 years and was on the cusp of making partner when the accounting giant's Houston offices were implicated in the securities scandal, forcing the closure of offices across the nation, including in Denver.

"It was a very sad time. We were like family and I had so much respect for the people I worked with," Hooley recalls. "It was the end of something that had been so good--all because of something that was out of our control."

Early in 2003, Hooley joined Anton, Collins, Mitchell, a Denver-owned and managed accounting and consulting firm focusing on entrepreneurs and growing companies. In January, Hooley was named a partner at ACM, the first woman among ACM's five partners.

Post-Enron was a time for reflection for Hooley--a time to take a six-month break from her career. "It was the summer between my daughter's junior and senior years of high school so we hit the road looking at colleges and had the best time," said Hooley. "It also gave me a moment to decide what I wanted to do with my career and made me realize I wanted to work for a firm that had the family atmosphere I had come to know at Arthur Andersen."

The Cincinnati native had spent most of her Arthur Andersen career in Ohio before meeting her husband at an Arthur Andersen training session in Chicago and transferring to the company's Denver office where he worked. Hooley credits her father, a retired vice president of an Ohio oil and gas company, with giving her the glimpse into the business world that would make all the difference. "I'd go with him to his office and organize his desk and things," said Hooley. "I think it is important for daughters to spend time with their fathers."

Whether she was keeping ledgers for the lawn-mowing business she ran as a child, majoring in music at Vanderbilt University or later earning her accounting degree at Xavier University so she could make a living as a...