Latest / The Diary of a CFO / Moving From Big 4 Auditor to Controller to CFO, with Andrea Hecht
Transcript
- 0:00Andrea Hecht: Yeah.
- 0:00Wassia Kamon: Wow. Impressed. Now let's get to it. Welcome back to the Diary of a CFO podcast, the podcast where finance leaders share the lessons, challenges and wins that shape their careers as well as their organizations. I'm your host, Waseya Camon, and today I'm super delighted to have with me Andrea Hedge. Andrea is the executive vice president and chief financial officer at CSAA Insurance Group.
- 0:06Andrea Hecht: All right.
- 0:27Wassia Kamon: Prior to joining the company in 2017, she was a managing director in the insurance practice at BKD LLP and spent 12 years at Ernst & Young providing accounting services to clients in property and casualty insurance, financial services, retail and manufacturing industries. Welcome to the show, Andrea.
- 0:46Andrea Hecht: Thank you for having me.
- 0:48Wassia Kamon: Of course, you have such an amazing career. I—a dream career for a lot of college grads—going into public accounting and saying, okay, maybe I'll do some time in public accounting and then transfer to industry and become CFO one day. And you did it. What drew you to public accounting in the first place, and was being a CFO always something you had in mind?
- 1:13Andrea Hecht: What I've wanted has evolved. I went to Ohio State from 1999–2003—9/11, Enron/Arthur Andersen—lots of upheaval. I started wanting to be a lawyer, chose business for a solid work path if law didn’t work. I joined the honors accounting program because my roommate did—ended up loving accounting and finance. I interned at EY and liked it, got an offer when some classmates suddenly lost Andersen offers. I put law school on hold—frugal accountant—didn’t want loans. I stuck with public accounting and loved it for a long time.
- 3:37Wassia Kamon: What did you like about public accounting versus what you didn’t?
- 3:53Andrea Hecht: I loved the variety and the people. I picked insurance just because I liked the team—didn’t think I’d stay in insurance, but here I am. The challenge, expectations, and clear career path felt like an elevator. The hard parts were the stress and long hours, especially in busy season.
- 5:07Wassia Kamon: At what point did you decide it was time to move on?
- 5:16Andrea Hecht: I actually moved on twice. About four years in, I left for an SEC reporting role in industry—better hours, some variety—but I didn’t like the monotony or culture. I missed being challenged at EY and came back after 10 months. Later, after 12 years, I was passed over for partner and feeling worn down. I still liked public accounting and moved to BKD (now FORVIS)—smaller, more entrepreneurial, building an insurance practice in Columbus. A mentor I met at an industry conference helped recruit me. Then, months later, a former EY boss—now CFO at CSAA—texted to meet; he asked me to interview.
- 8:52Wassia Kamon: Both moves—BKD and then CSAA—came through allies. Can you go deeper on how those relationships helped?
- 9:35Andrea Hecht: Some is luck, but be ready when luck happens. A partner once told me: tell people what you want. It’s not just doing good work—you need people who’ll help you. My BKD mentor was a genuine connector. For CSAA, a former boss had seen my work and wanted a different leadership style in that role. Keep connections warm—go places, be open, nurture relationships—they matter when opportunities come.
- 12:13Andrea Hecht: I don’t think advice came too late. I believe things happen for a reason; otherwise I might still be a partner and not have the life I have now. I didn’t start with “CFO” as a goal—I wa