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  By Terri Polley, CPA


Terri Polley, CPA, retired from the Financial Accounting Foundation, the parent organization of the FASB and the GASB, in June 2019, where she had served as the president and chief 


of research and technical activities at the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Te successor to David Bean, who served in the role for 31 years, Skelton knew it was now or never. “Tis role doesn’t open up very often. I looked at myself and said ‘if I really want to be the best accountant I can be, how would I not want to take this on?’” Skelton officially joined the GASB earlier this year on April 1. Te Financial Accounting Standards Board


I


(FASB) also welcomed a new technical director recently. Hillary Salo joined the FASB staff in August of last year as director of technical activities and chair of the Emerging Issues Task Force. Salo was not looking for a new job when she heard about the position opening. What got her thinking about it was her KPMG partner’s comment, “Well, that’s your perfect job.”


Looking at the backgrounds of Skelton and


Salo, one can conclude that it’s the perfect job for both of them.


 Salo has known she wanted to be an accountant since high school. During an independent study her senior year, she took an accounting course and it “clicked.” She picked her college–the University of North Carolina– based on its strong accounting program. Her professor nominated her for the FASB Post-Graduate Technical Assistant (PTA) program–a highly competitive program where new accounting graduates kick off their careers with a year at the FASB. Te PTAs are immersed in technical projects and the


 CPAFOCUS 


t’s the most exciting yet scariest thing I’ve ever done.” Tat’s what Alan Skelton says about accepting the position of director


standard-setting process. Salo’s year-long stint as a PTA enabled her to become an expert on the accounting for derivatives and hedging when the new standard–known then as FASB Statement 133–was finalized. “FASB set me up for success,” Salo says, parlaying her understanding of the ins and outs of derivatives accounting into the advisory practice at KPMG LLP in Chicago, and then several years later joining KPMG’s national office in New York at the beginning of the financial crisis. She served as a professional accounting fellow at the SEC–yet another prestigious appointment–starting in 2013. Upon rejoining KPMG in 2015, Salo became an audit partner in the financial services practice. In Skelton’s case, he doesn’t remember ever not wanting to be an accountant. He loved math and while he comes from a family of teachers, Skelton knew he wanted to be in the business world. Every business would always need math, which, for him, was like a puzzle and appealed to the logical side of his brain. He double majored in accounting and finance at Florida State University (FSU) in Tallahassee. Why FSU? Sure, it has a good accounting program. But Skelton’s real motivation was college football–Deion Sanders was one of his classmates. Skelton spent the first part of his career


working in the Auditor General’s office in Florida and then as a senior manager at EY. When his youngest son was in preschool, Skelton had a self-described “fork in the road moment.” For a school project on “What does your daddy love to do?” Skelton’s son created a piece of artwork with the theme, “My Daddy loves to work.” Ouch. “Kids are the most important thing,” Skelton says.


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