Stories of Our Community

One CPA's Journey from Spain to New Jersey

Growing up as the daughter of parents who emigrated from Cuba, Isabel Del Corral, CPA, saw the importance of working hard and starting out on her own. Her parents left Cuba initially for Madrid, Spain, where Isabel was born and lived until she was about 18 months old with her older sister, Lucia, and then they moved to Hudson County, New Jersey, to be close to other relatives already in the Garden State.

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Isabel learned firsthand what it means to run a business from her father, who started and sold three businesses in his lifetime. He successfully ran a grocery store, a liquor store and eventually a meat distribution operation until he retired. That entrepre­neurial spirit stuck with Isabel and can be partly credited with the reason she initially became a sole practitioner; then an audit manager with her partners, Darren J. Fusaro, CPA, and David McIntee, CPA, now retired; and eventually a partner of McIntee Fusaro Del Corral, LLC in 2013. Previously, she worked as an audit supervisor at Wiss and a senior accountant at Withum.

“Obviously the businesses my father had were labor intensive and he worked a lot of hours, but he was always saying, ‘I don’t have a boss. I can do what I need to do and get to make my own decisions.’ That stuck with me,” she says. “Always in the back of my mind, I thought I would love to become a partner, where I would have control or a say in what was going on,” she explained.

Her father’s influence also shaped her interest in math and eventually accounting. “My dad was a numbers guy, which is where I got my love of accounting,” she adds, which started with her first introduction to balancing debits and credits in high school. “That’s what made me love accounting. The debits and credits must balance,” she remarks. Isabel went to Pace University, where she received her B.S. in accounting. “What I liked about Pace was that they had a public accounting major. They prepared you so students could pass the CPA Exam once you graduated.”

Today, she likes many other things about accounting, including the variety. “I like the fact that my day is never the same. Sometimes I’m in the office; sometimes I’m at clients’ offices; other times I’m working from home,” she adds. “I’ve had the opportunity to work with a wide variety of clients, for example, working with construction companies and doing inventory observations. I was up on a crane looking at the observation tower at Newark Airport.Obviously, there’s the numbers in this profession but there’s also a lot of interaction with people and the opportunity to work together with clients to help them reach their goals.”

Nonprofit Niche

After working at Withum and Wiss for about 10 years, she started out on her own and provided consulting services for another 10 years. During her time working as a consultant, she developed an interest in audits of nonprofit organizations. One of the main reasons she joined her current firm, which now consists of a staff of five, was because they specialized in audits of nonprofit organizations. Her firm also provides accounting and tax services, and she leads her firm’s employee benefit plan audit services. Isabel is also an active member of the NJCPA, having previously served as a Trustee and as president of the Hudson Chapter. She is currently vice chair of the Volunteer Relations Committee and a member of the Nonprofit and Accounting & Auditing Standards interest groups.

Sticking to her Cuban roots, Isabel, who is bilingual, has provided services to clients located in Latin America. Enjoying the ability to wear many accounting hats, she acknowledges, “Accounting is one of those professions where you can do so much.”

Taking the Road Less Traveled to Become a CPA

One could say it was in Christine Fabbro Brunner’s blood to obtain her CPA. Growing up in Edison in a family of doctors, lawyers and CPAs, she was used to people working towards advanced degrees and licenses. So, when Christine found the opportunity to obtain her CPA when she was already a mother of twins and working for more than 20 years, she took it.

Being raised Italian, her family had a big influence over her. Her father was a doctor, and her uncle was a CPA who had his own practice. I was introduced to being a CPA by my uncle. That was always in the background, she says. She was also influenced by her relatives’ career transformations. Her father was originally a chemical engineer and then put himself through medical school, while her aunt was a teacher who went back to get her law degree. “That transformation has always been part of my family,” she notes.

Given those influences, it’s no surprise that Christine, who obtained her CPA in 2022, also received her Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) credential and her Master of Accountancy (MAcc) degree.

The Early Years

Christine graduated from Seton Hall University with a B.S. in accounting. I’ve always loved math and science and was very interested in math, she explains. She found taking the CPA Exam in New York daunting since it required taking all four parts at the same time, so she opted instead to work in Manhattan and do investment accounting for hedge funds. She worked in asset management for CIT Group in Livingston and eventually Ziff Brothers, a multi-billion-dollar family investment firm in New York, for 16 years.

After marrying her husband, Daniel, who was with the FBI in New Jersey and has since retired, Christine left the workforce to raise her children. When they eventually went to school, she decided to obtain her MAcc online from Rider University with a concentration in forensic accounting. Still in the test-taking mode, she studied for, and passed, the CPA Exam. In order to be able to testify in forensic accounting, you need to have your CPA, she says.

And, since her husband was studying for his M.A. in International Security Studies at the University of Arizona at the same time, it made it easier in their family life. According to Christine, "The study plan worked because Daniel was also studying at night. We would put the twins, Hunter and Harper, now 7 years old, to bed and then study. That’s how we were able to do it."

When her children were older, she reentered the workforce, doing consulting at firms like Bederson LLP, where she handled forensic accounting, litigation support and tax controversy. Eventually Christine and Daniel realized their skillsets would be a perfect match for a forensic accounting and security firm, so they co-founded Brunner Sierra Group (BSG) in 2022.

Since they are also avid skiers, they opted to raise their children as well as set up shop in Montana. They are now able to service clients in both Montana and New Jersey.

Women Supporting Women

Christine, now CEO of BSG, also attributes her career success to strong female support. A lot of my jobs have been with wonderful women who have really helped me get ahead in my career as a woman. That was very instrumental to me, she says. At Ziff Brothers, in particular, there were many female leaders heading up tax, legal and finance departments at that time.

Women also supported her in studying for the CPA Exam, with her family plans and in co-founding her business. For those who know Christine, most would argue if anyone was going to pull off an active family life with twins and a strong professional career, it was going to be her.

One Millennial's Determination Leads to 30 Rock

When NJCPA member Danielle Karacsony, CPA, sets her mind on something, she typically doesn’t let anything stand in her way. That explains how the Millennial from Jersey City passed all four parts of the CPA Exam on her first attempt with an average score of 93. It also explains how she worked for both NBCUniversal and The Walt Disney Company before the age of 30.

Danielle’s career path started out at KPMG as an audit associate, advancing to an audit senior. Though auditing offered great opportunities, she saw the chance to work for a company she admired since childhood — Disney. “I really liked auditing, particularly risk assessment. But you should always be aware of the job market. You always need to be prepared,” explains Danielle. After two years at KPMG, she jumped to Disney, where she spearheaded fixed-asset accounting and analyzed marketing expenses.

“I thought I wasn’t ever going to have the opportunity to work at Disney if I didn’t move to Florida or California, where most of their operations were located. I was on their website and saw a job posting in New York for their streaming business. I applied and was selected,” she explains. Disney licensed out their platform to other third parties, which meant she had to know all the income streams to do her job well. “Getting involved in the fixed-asset process was important for me to understand how the business worked as a whole,” she says.

Danielle eventually made the leap to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York as the manager of accounting. Here, she manages its subscription revenue process; oversees the automation tools for revenue recognition; resolves discrepancies; and collaborates with operations, marketing, partnerships and technology advisors on compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act controls. In short, she focuses on improving its business processes.

Her department also implemented a new software solution that automatically recognizes revenue. “Our (streaming) procedures had to be scaled in such a way that we could handle moving from a small business to a large-scale business. The manual process we had for recognizing subscriber revenue was not capable of handling the volume of transactions,” she explains. Danielle also works with marketing and partnership teams over vouchers for companies like JetBlue.

Early Decisions

As someone who enjoyed math throughout school, Danielle considered engineering before selecting accounting as her major. Danielle’s mother, Debra Karacsony, CPA, also a member of the NJCPA and formerly the director of quality control at Sax LLP, influenced Danielle’s choice to start in accounting. “She didn’t push me to become an accountant, but she said I should consider taking a class in college,” she says. Her mother’s only stipulation for Danielle and her sister, Amanda, now an interior architect, upon entering college was to select a major that led to professional opportunities. Danielle’s mother said, “Choose something you like, but you need to have a career path in mind.”

After initially entering the University of Delaware as an undecided major, Danielle took her first accounting class during her second semester and loved it. “Once I fully understood accounting, it was a no brainer. At the end of my freshman year, I declared an accounting major,” she says.

So, what specifically appealed to her? “It is very logical; accounting involves a different way of thinking than I had ever thought of before,” she explains. Jobs were also readily available. The Big 4 and other accounting firms were frequently on campus, offering internships and jobs, she says. “They had many events which you could participate in and learn about the profession. It became the obvious choice.”

A CPA Who Returned Home to MSG

It’s no wonder that Hoboken resident John Gibney’s love for the world’s most famous arena took him exactly where many sports enthusiasts would like to go: Madison Square Garden (MSG), home of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers. The former student manager for Fordham University’s men’s basketball team hasn’t strayed too far from the sports action. From an internship at MSG to returning to his dream job as a senior accountant for Venue Operations at MSG Entertainment Corp (MSGE), John — who is a CPA and CFE — has truly come full circle.

“I help manage expenses for live events and sports properties, such as boxing, college basketball, the MSG arena, The Theater at MSG, Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theatre and the Chicago Theatre. Everyone knows about Billy Joel’s record-breaking residency that’s winding down. A lot of people don’t realize MSGE also operates these other iconic venues which host some of the stars like Diana Ross or Barry Manilow. The Rockettes are in full swing right now,” he says. “There’s a cross benefit for having certain acts in certain venues. I work with the finance staff who make estimates for these events. I monitor the actuals and accruals and see where there can be some variances and work together to investigate them further.”

THE EARLY YEARS

A native of Fair Haven, John grew up with the knowledge that being a CPA was a wise career path. Furthering his education at a New York-based college with a great reputation like Fordham gave him several advantages. John, who was always good with numbers, had a few internships at notable companies such as Cantor Fitzgerald and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) before also interning at MSG on the finance side. “I always loved emerging from Penn Station and seeing the huge marquee outside. My father and I came here every March for the Big East Tournament. I wanted to do something in sports entertainment. I reverse engineered that. I realized nobody wants to do the nitty gritty accounting side of it so I figured that could be a niche,” he explains. “When you are a sophomore, junior or senior, that’s the time you can try something new and network.”

After graduating from Fordham, John started his accounting career in a traditional manner as an experienced assurance associate in PwC’s Private Company ServicesGroup in Florham Park after having pre­viously served as an intern in New York. “Most of my clients encompassed a wide variety of industries. I worked on small teams; I was probably doing more as a first-year than some folks working in public accounting as a second-year.”

Amid the COVID pandemic, he made the leap to corporate accounting at the fast-paced L’Oreal USA, where he stayed for two years as a finance analyst doing financial planning and analysis and supporting the engineering team. “I was making sure invoices were getting paid and monitoring budgets and trends for all the capital spending,” adds John. “It was during the pandemic and dealing with global sales. Things were changing on a dime.”

He always wanted to go back to the sports industry, however, and eventually found the opportunity in Venue Opera­tions this past January. “I like working on the entertainment side of MSG since it’s entrepreneurial in that new shows and residencies are always being added. The Arena itself hosts approximately 320 events per year,” he explains. “I’ve always been black and white about the numbers and like having a set of answers for everything.”

MORE SPORTS

Today, John is still active in the sports world himself, having played many sports, including basketball, while growing up. He is also a newly certified Junior College basketball official.

The Business and Accounting Side of Music

Jennifer L. Rosen, CPA, didn’t immediately set her sights on accounting or what it could lead to, nor did she expect to end up on the business and accounting side of music when she was playing the piano growing up in South Jersey. At that time, accounting was probably one of the furthest professions from her mind.

Jennifer and her older brother, Stephen, were introduced to music by their mother at an early age. Her brother, also a music enthusiast, eventually became an attorney who specializes in music. Jennifer performed in regional piano competitions throughout her childhood, driven around by her mother and father, and enjoys music so much she left at least one job to get back into it.

FOLLOWING THE NOTES

After obtaining both her Bachelor of Science degree in accounting and her M.B.A. in finance from American University, Jennifer started out in a traditional accounting job where she worked in auditing for a public accounting firm and then made the leap to EMI Music as the publishing royalties manager. There, she managed the department responsible for the calculation and payment of foreign royalties to music publishers and songwriters.

After briefly leaving EMI to be an internal auditor for the sports and entertainment group at Aramark, the food services company, she returned to EMI — this time to EMI Music Publishing, feeling something was missing. There she spearheaded the team responsible for uncovering missing or misappropriated royalties that songwriters and producers are due, somewhat like forensic accounting. “It highlighted to me that the music part of it was key to me enjoying the number aspect of it,” she adds.

“At EMI, I was running the Infringement and Compliance unit. My job was to bring in money that otherwise wasn’t coming in — identify folks using music without a license, etc. My job was really investigative but on the financial end of it,” she explains. “There was something very satisfying about that full-circle approach, knowing that songwriter is getting paid. We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars over my 15 years at EMI.”

In 2012, she joined Google Play Music, which was looking for someone who understood digital music licensing. “If they had an accounting background, it was considered even better,” she says, noting her CPA license was highly regarded. Later, she was also part of the team that sunset Google Play Music when Google Play and YouTube merged products in 2018. “At that time, we had two competing music services. It didn’t make sense to operate both,” she says.

Jennifer, now head of music publishing partnerships (North America) at YouTube, combines the best of both the business world and music. She manages YouTube’s relationships with music publishers who represent artists like Taylor Swift who writes many of her own songs. “I still talk to the folks I met back in the ’90s. The music business is very small in the grand scheme of things,” she adds.

The relationship part of the job has been key to her success. “At EMI, people had to like you to want to pay you and at YouTube, it’s critical in keeping the music available. So, if I’m calling, it’s essential the phone is answered; it’s a lot about building partnerships and relationships,” says Jennifer, who now resides in Wayne with her husband, Chad, and still enjoys playing the piano. “Even when I was doing the forensic accounting stuff, the relationship was the biggest piece of that,” she adds.

However, the most interesting part of her job is meeting famous singers and performers and hearing about their journeys as well as listening to live music. “I have met a lot of celebrities. Stevie Wonder and Sting were heros, and of course, being a Jersey Girl, meeting Jon Bon Jovi was epic,” she says. “For me, it was very cool to present Cyndi Lauper with her million-subscriber button. That’s an accounting function!”