Latest / Scrappy but Successful [Consultant's Personalities When No One's Watching]
67. From selling in 5th grade to leading CAS for the biggest accounting firms with Deb Defer
Deb Defer is the Director of Client Advisory Services (CAS) at Woodard, where she helps accounting firms modernize and build real advisory practices instead of stopping at compliance. She was named one of Accounting Today's 2026 People to Watch, but her path there was anything but traditional: selling her parents' cigarettes in fifth grade, keeping the books (and delivering foals) on a thoroughbred racehorse farm, driving a rescue squad, and teaching herself QuickBooks while managing the finances of 23 families in Cleveland before landing in public accounting and leading the tech team at BDO…
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