Yvette Pietsch was once a succession plan.
The retirement of a senior male partner at her then firm Pitcher Partners gave her guidance, experience and the clients she needed to progress to the partnership herself at the age of just 30.
Now, as the only female managing principal at accounting firm Crowe Horwath, which has around 50 such positions across Australia, she’s doing her bit to try and tip the gender imbalance at the senior end of accounting.
Taking the regional role covering the Central West in NSW in 2013, she says the lack of females at the senior end of accounting reflects a common problem in professional services where plenty of women enter such professions but few progress to the leadership ranks.
She believes that becoming a partner before having children has helped, as has family support and a number of individuals who realised her potential and helped push her career – such as the senior partner who slowly stepped back from his position at Pitcher while she stepped up.
“I was in my twenties, he was in his sixties and we had a similar management and behavior. He was family orientated, while being extremely dedicated to clients,” says Pietsch. “He was my business mentor. And when he was comfortable and the clients were comfortable, he stepped back.”
Pietsch spent a number of years with Pitcher before leaving Sydney for the regional management role at Crowe Horwath. Packing up her home and family, including two young daughters, to make the move, she says the position has a number of unique challenges, particularly managing a large number of people over a wide geographic area.
“You don’t have the luxury as most people do with their businesses of having the people you’re working with being just a short distance away. It’s a really a matter of committing the time – and making what can be a three to five hour drive – to being there, and staying there for more than just a meeting.”
The management role covers eight offices which sees Pietsch travelling an average two weeks a month to locations up to five hours away. Pietsch also personally manages a number of Sydney-based clients and serves on the firm’s diversity council.
She says family support makes her career possible, as does her dedication to working with those she manages, rather than against them.
“There are businesses and management styles where they walk in and say, ‘you need to fix it!’ That’s not me. I always ask why something’s not happening and what I can do to help. I find that if you’re like that, people will engage with you rather than think, ‘watch out, here she comes!”
Yvette Pietsch is a finalist in the Regional/Rural Entrepreneur or Manager category of the NAB Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards. Want to join NAB and Women’s Agenda to celebrate Australia’s leading women? Get your tickets now.