Strike a balance: new CalCPA Chair Teresa Mason carves a steady path--personally & professionally.

• Author: English, Damien B.M.
• Position: Cover story

CalCPA Chair Teresa Mason knows how to achieve balance. She's balanced work and school in her professional life; a give-and-take relationship with her mother, who is also her business partner; and she encourages a healthy quality of life balance when hiring new employees.

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Mason has been mastering balancing acts in the Bay Area all her life. "This is the farthest I've ever lived from home--not even 10 miles," she says, while sitting in her Oakland office, just miles away from where she lives with her husband, Keith.

Home is San Francisco, where she was born and raised. In fact, her mother, Sandra Collins, still lives in the house Teresa grew up in.

Back when they lived together, neither Collins nor Mason imagined they would end up partners in the same firm. When Mason was growing up, being a CPA seemed like the last thing she would ever want. But with some inspiration from mom, a couple of life-changing events and the help of CalCPA, Mason has jumped into and risen to the top of the profession. Now, she is eager to give back what she can as CalCPA chair.

"If I could use one phrase to describe what my year as chair will be about, it would be 'advocacy for the profession,'" says Mason. She plans to achieve this advocacy by addressing issues like mobility and peer review; by encouraging growth, through programs such as the Financial Leadership Forum and Young and Emerging Professionals Conference; and by promoting diversity with CalCPA's first event to celebrate women CPAs.

Even though being a CPA seemed to be the last thing on young Teresa's mind, her mother is not surprised she has risen to the top of her profession and CalCPA.

"Teresa is a born leader," says Collins. "She is never in the background if she's committed to an organization, cause or committee."

THE BEGINNING

Mason began her academic career at Saint Finn Barr School, a small Catholic school in San Francisco, attended Mercy High School and, after graduating, took some time off from school. At the time, her career was the last thing on her mind. "I just wanted to have fun, party and move into my own place," she says. "I was definitely not ready to buckle down and study in college."

So, she got a job as a secretary in a big San Francisco-based architectural firm--about 200 people--and was there for almost five years before deciding to go back to school. "It was a good job in a fun industry."

One of her first jobs was working on the Fairmont Hotel, during which she had the chance to don a hard hat to visit the big ballrooms before they were ballrooms. Mason describes the job as "an introduction to the business world," as it gave her a peak behind the curtain at the inner workings of a business.

Business was something Mason was averse to growing up. Her mom was a CPA and, from what Mason could tell, it was the last thing she wanted to pursue for herself. Mason's mother was born in Eureka and took the first bus to San Francisco as soon as she graduated college to get a job.

"That was very difficult for her as a woman in the '60s, in this profession, but Touche Ross gave her a chance and she was the first woman they hired in a professional capacity," says Mason. "After a few years, Mom broke away with a number of folks to start their own firm. It became successful and eventually, they sold the firm back to Touche Ross, at which point Mom started her own firm.

"When I was a little kid, Mom used to take me to work with her on Saturdays, and I saw how hard she worked," Mason recalls. "I saw it all as numbers and sitting behind a desk. It seemed like something I really didn't want to do. But then when I got in business, even as an administrator, I started getting involved in some of the numbers and financial planning and saw what it...