Paving the way; Sharon Allen: from Boise to the boardroom.

• Position: Q & A - Cover Story

FROM A SMALL office in Boise, Idaho, to chairman of Deloitte & Touche USA, CalCPA member Sharon Allen discusses her career, changes in the profession and what the future may hold for accounting.

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When Sharon Allen became chairman of Deloitte & Touche USA in May 2003, she not only became the highest-ranking woman in the firm's history, she became the first woman to hold that role at a leading professional services firm.

Allen's journey to Deloitte's board started soon after she earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Idaho. Her first job out of college was at a Touche-Ross office in Boise, Idaho, a few hours' drive from her birthplace of Kimberly, a rural Idaho community of 2,600.

During her professional ascent, she has seen the profession go through many changes, including increased regulation and audit complexity, and a change in the public's perception of accountants. Another significant change has been the increased level of diversity in corporate America's boardrooms, something that Allen has helped to affect.

Allen recently sat down with California CPA to reflect on her career, outline some of the challenges facing the profession and look ahead to the future.

Q: How did you decide upon accounting? Was there a turning point in your life that led you to accounting?

I credit my college roommate for starting me down the track to accounting. I began as an education major; she was an accounting major and convinced me to take an accounting class. Not long thereafter, I changed my major. But so did she--to education. I just hope my influence on her was as positive as her's was on me.

I think it is fair to say I always was good with numbers. I'm not a mathematician, but I did enjoy what I call the logic of math. I remember when I first began to appreciate the foundations of accountancy, the rationale behind it and how you could progress logically through a decision-making process. When I discovered that the public accounting profession was where I could combine my affinity for accounting in an environment that required people and communication skills, I knew I had found a match.

I received an honorary doctorate from my alma mater this past year. I was born and raised in Idaho, so you can imagine what this meant to me. It's been quite a ride from Kimberly, Idaho, to Deloitte's board room.

Q: What was your first professional job and how did it help shape your career?

I have been with Deloitte for my entire career, starting in our Boise, Idaho, office. I think working in Idaho, and in what was then a smaller practice, gave me a very different experience than my colleagues who grew up in larger practices in Los Angeles and New York. I was given the...