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THE L AST W ORD
THE LAST WORD / Tim Keefe, CPA, CGMA

Tim Keefe, CPA, CGMA, is
director of finance at Lund,
a not-for-profit organization
in Vermont serving children
and families; founder of Philo
Financial Consulting LLC; and
board president of the Vermont
Society of CPAs.

Favorite cuisine: Italian is easily my
favorite. I recently visited my daughter,
who is studying in Rome, and that was
the best week of eating I can imagine.
Favorite music: The Eagles have been
my favorite for more than 45 years.
Favorite place to visit: I started a proj-
ect to see a Major League Baseball game
in all 30 stadiums and a professional
game in all 50 states. I’m exactly halfway
to reaching each goal.
‘Most solutions require listening, analysis, and creativity.’

Finance runs in the family: My dad was Vermont’s deputy more young people to accounting. The Vermont Society has an
state auditor for 24 years, and his dad was an auditor and a active young professionals’ group that helps engage young people
utility accountant. I have one sibling that is a CFO and another and helps them see a career path in accounting. My advice to
that is an auditor. I started as an auditor with a Big Eight young people is to learn as much as you can and do as many
firm in Maine and spent nine years specializing in banks and things as you can in as many different industries as you can.
municipalities. I returned to Vermont to run the SEC report-
ing of a publicly held commercial bank and went on to become Make career moves that suit your personality: One of the
CFO of Vermont’s only natural gas utility for 10 years. In 2019, most important career decisions I made after college was
I joined Lund as director of finance. In public accounting, our choosing a firm whose personality was similar to mine. I did
audit philosophy was “understanding the client’s business.” I auditing in Maine, a part of New England where people are
have practiced that mantra throughout my career, and it has known for being practical. I see myself as a sort of practical
helped me transition from commercial banking to public utili- accountant, and I really enjoyed working with clients and
ties, state government, and nonprofits. I created Philo Financial helping them make sense of their financial statements.
Consulting LLC when I went out on my own to do fractional I had many mentors — my dad, college professors, and
CFO services work. I have kept it active, as I still do some work other supervisors I have had along the way. Looking back on
from time to time, and my intention is to do more of it when I my career, it appears I had a plan all the way through, but a lot
move into semiretirement. of it was figuring it out along the way and moving on to new
roles when I was ready.
Invest in accounting professionals: I firmly believe that the
money nonprofits spend on their finance and accounting teams Important skills for successful CPAs: Listening is most im-
pays dividends, whether it is in the form of lower audit fees or
portant. Second is strong verbal communication skills, and third
PHOTO BY ANDY DUBACK/AP IMAGES hard to fund-raise for overhead, but it is harder to fund-raise analysis, and creativity.
would be analytical ability. Most solutions require listening,
enhanced credibility with funding sources. It is true that it is
without solid management of finances and internal controls. If
you can, pool resources with other smaller nonprofits to share
— As told to Teri Saylor, a freelance writer based in North
the resources.
Carolina. To comment on this article or to recommend an AICPA
member as a Last Word subject, contact Courtney Vien at
Young professionals are key to the future: We need to attract

50 | Journal of Accountancy Courtney.Vien@aicpa-cima.com. June 2022