Consulting Magazine - April 2020

Consulting® APRIL 2020 15
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Ask Avani Desai about her greatest professional achievement and she says that “being promoted to
President of Schellman & Com-
pany is up there. That was memo-
rable, not because of the hard work
and dedication it took to get here,
but because of the proud look in
my parents’ eyes.”
Her family never cared how
much money she made, or how
much recognition she gained—
they only cared that she committed
to better herself and those around
her in a field she found satisfying.

They cared that she workedto push herself to the forefront,craved innovation, and chose tobe a leader. Her father and grandfather would say, “a family dedicated to the pursuit of knowledgewill always be wealthier thanthose dedicated to the pursuit ofprofit. Money will come and go,but knowledge can never be taken.” Still, having immigrated tothe U.S. in the 1970s, they neveranticipated that they would seeone of their daughters take on thisrole, she says.

“It was also memorable for my
children,” Desai says. “I always
worry that my responsibilities and
the attached time away hurt them,
But as is often the case, De-
sai ended up in consulting not
so much by choice, but rather by
chance. She says she never thought
she would go into computer sci-
ence and then somehow segue
that into working for an account-
ing firm. “However, when I think
back, everything that I considered
exciting and attractive in a poten-
tial job—solving problems, data
analysis, encouraging collabora-
tion for decision making—is what
I’ve found. I’m so happy as to how
it’s all worked out.”
Being a trusted partner for cli-
ents and helping them hand in hand
solving their technology compli-
ance issues has been exciting since

2012 when she started and still is
today, she says. “We are not just
helping our clients, but we are
helping them write their story so
they can tell their customer how
much they have achieved,” Desai
says. “Whether it is emerging re-
quirements from technologies like
blockchain or artificial intelligence
of the threat of cybersecurity the
compliance market is seeing a lot
of growth and I am excited that I’m
at the forefront to help clients.”
Over the next 12 months, Desai
says she is looking forward to con-
tinuing to work with women in the
technology and information secu-
rity and mentoring them into lead-
ership positions. “There is a huge
pool of latent female talent which
is doubtless inhibiting not only the
speed of commercial change, but
the potential of all our business-
es,” she says. “We women have
a mission-critical battle which is
to fight against the gravitation-
al pull of our own self-doubt to
achieve 100 percent gender parity
because we no longer must prove
that women can be incredibly suc-
cessful leaders. Being able to help
young women achieve that and
hopefully continue that has been a
mission for 2020 and beyond.”
AVANI DESAI