153: Following the Opportunities Where They Lead – A Discussion with Delene Taylor

Delene Taylor, CPA and Marketing Director for Deming, Malone, Livesay, & Ostroff in Kentucky joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting, the Where Accountants Go podcast.

The early days…

Delene started her career in accounting because of the positive influence from both her mother and father.  Mom had worked in accounting, and Dad worked in systems with IBM.  Consequently, when she entered college she decided to pursue both accounting and computer science.  However, she found out quickly that she didn’t care for coding, and therefore decided to drop the computer science focus.

Delene's first job out of college was with Arthur Andersen.  She was an auditor on some of their larger client engagements.  To her surprise, the audit role wasn’t something she enjoyed as much as she thought she would.  The particular engagements that she worked on were limited in scope, and she felt like she was always a bother to the client being audited.  It wasn’t something that she could see herself doing for long.  Consequently, it became time to look for something new and Delene moved into industry.

A preference for people!

After a few years in industry, she decided to move back to her home town and figure out what the next step may be.  A family member introduced her to a prominent accounting firm there, and she joined in somewhat of a floater capacity.  Delene basically would help out on whatever project had a need, and eventually this flexibility led to her having the opportunity to work in firm administration, marketing, and recruiting!  Many years later and after a merger, Delene moved on to take the position of Marketing Director with the local firm Deming, Malone, Livesay, & Ostroff (DMLO) in  Louisville, Kentucky, where she has been since 2013.

Social enterprises

One of the facets that Delene most enjoys about DMLO is the freedom and support of her involvement with social enterprises such PBC’s and B-Corporations.  In fact, DMLO has won philanthropy awards locally four years in a row, having booked 6,300 volunteer hours with their small team of only 90 employees!  They definitely value community service.

If you enjoy this episode with Delene Taylor, you will also enjoy our episode with Harriet Helmle.

For the publication mentioned in this episode, click here.

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