Voice of Experience: Kathy Nieland, U.S. Sustainability and Climate Change Leader, Managing Partner, New Orleans Office, PwC

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Kathy Nieland, PwC‘s U.S. Sustainability and Climate Change Leader and Managing Partner of the firm’s New Orleans Office, has had a lot of experience seizing opportunity. Throughout her career, when the unexpected has occurred, she hasn’t shied away.

From having leadership thrust upon her at a young age, to leading the rebuilding of PwC’s New Orleans practice after Hurricane Katrina, she’s been up to the challenge. “Often, the perception of what you are capable of is a bigger barrier than the challenge itself,” she said. “A lack of confidence can keep people from being successful.”

She continued, “Don’t limit yourself. Seek higher positions in the company. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be shooting for the stars.”

A Career Path to Leadership

Nieland grew up in Nebraska and graduated with an accounting degree from the University of Southern Alabama. “As a result of boy chasing – and I ended up catching the guy – I ended up in New Orleans. I accepted a position at Price Waterhouse, one of the legacy firms of PwC, in the New Orleans office and spent seven years there. I became a manager, working with public and private clients.”

Then, Nieland said, she got a call. “I was asked to move unexpectedly to Houston. It was my first exposure to the firm’s leadership team.” And then another, bigger opportunity arose. “A year later, I was asked to come back to New Orleans for a much larger account that I wouldn’t have been qualified for unless I had made that initial move. On top of that, I was pregnant at the time.”

The larger opportunity, she explained, was due to a new client engagement. “They needed someone to move quickly, and I went straight into a leadership role on a large audit client. Two years later, in 2002, I had my second child and was admitted to the partnership. They needed someone to make the decisions that needed to be made, and I was prepared to do that. A month later, I was named managing partner of the New Orleans office.”

Rebuilding After Katrina

Nieland continued, “In 2005 we were hit by Hurricane Katrina. I lost my home. And out of the 45 professionals and administrative staff in our office, virtually everyone lost their home – or someone in their family did.”

“We didn’t know if the city would ever recover,” she said. “I’m most inspired by the volunteer efforts in New Orleans post Katrina.”

“In the meantime, I moved my family to Houston and maintained my clients, and then moved back the following January.” Nieland said she’s most proud of her work during this period. “Reopening the office was one of the hardest things I have personally ever experienced – and it’s also one of the most important things I have ever been a part of.

During a speech Nieland delivered at the University of Texas at Austin in March of 2006, she said:

“Then and now, there is very much the feeling from every person at PwC, from every office, from every one of the partners in every corner of the world, that we are all from New Orleans. In the midst of chaos and in the city that ‘care forgot,’ we were not left behind. That’s what I’m here today to tell you, in my opinion, no other company in the world would have done for its people what PwC did for us after Katrina.”

Six months after reopening the New Orleans office, Nieland was asked to participate in a leadership tour of duty with PwC’s Assurance team. It required extensive travel and her children were four and six at the time. Nieland, who had previously co-led work in diversity for the assurance team, accepted the role.

Nieland spent this time working with Bob Moritz, Chairman and Senior Partner of PwC, on the firm’s strategic planning both near term issues and over the next decade. “We were identifying the primary trends clients would need to address.”

She continued, “And we had an answer for everything in the ten year plan – except climate change.” She suggested the firm appoint a senior leader to drive the firm’s work in this area – and she herself was ultimately tapped to take the helm. In November 2009, she was appointed the US business leader for sustainability and climate change.

Nieland said the majority of her work around climate change focuses on risk management. “Our clients understand the regulation, but now they need to think ‘how does it impact my positioning in the market?’ Are there other physical exposures, such as water scarcity or biodiversity losses? It’s placing more emphasis on understanding the risks, and assimilating them into their business and responding to reporting requirements, like the SEC’s new interpretive guidance on climate change.”

She continued, “Initially, with the change in congressional make-up, and cap and trade [deferred indefinitely], a lot of folks said we don’t need to worry about climate change. And that’s not the case at all. Corporations are moving forward, it’s what we must do, rather than what the regulators say we have to do. It’s become a voluntary movement.”

Nieland said she foresees more disclosure and transparency in the coming years around sustainability issues. “Most companies don’t disclose until their competition does or the SEC says to do it. It’s likely to go into the next cycle.”

She also said that the sustainability work has had a positive impact on employee engagement at the firm. “We don’t have any problems in recruiting,” she said. “There is a lot of personal and professional interest in serving clients in this area. But many employees are impressed not only by PwC having a position on the issue, but also by our business focus and the many things we do with organizations.”

She explained that PwC has done work with the Carbon Disclosure Project, the UN, and other organizations, and has donated professional capabilities as well. “This enables us to attract the employees we’re looking for, because it shows our goals and values are aligned. It’s had a positive impact on the firm, and that impact will only increase in the future.”

Advice for Professional Women

“One of the biggest issues for women is work-life flexibility,” Nieland said. “A key issue is how to manage home and work and be happy. In this profession, working around a client schedule can make it more challenging.”

Nieland advises women to prioritize events and not to compromise on the most important ones. “Even with travel, I didn’t miss significant events for my children,” she said.

But she added that women need to be flexible. “Even if you are on an 80 percent or 90 percent work schedule, you still need to be flexible and responsive. Finally, enjoy not feeling guilty in either place. That’s really important,” she said. Nieland gives a lot of credit to her husband: “I wouldn’t be half as successful without his support.”

She also emphasized that young women shouldn’t opt out early. “A lot of women will say they’re going to have a job for a few years and then leave to have a baby. Don’t presume you can’t manage things. You’ll have to make critical choices, but it’s definitely do-able.”

Women advancing to the mid and upper levels of their career should be very direct in expressing interest, she advised. “A lot of women wait to be asked,” she explained. “Also, understand what it takes to be qualified. Make sure you can check that box on your credentials.”

Networking is also key, she said. “Understand that often there is a network in place that makes that selection – and work it. Make sure people know you’re interested, qualified, capable, and fun to work with.”

PwC hosts a number of programs designed to attract and retain female employees. “A new one is our global client engagement program. It’s a development program designed to enable individuals at the firm to advance much more quickly, and we’ve put a disproportionate amount of women into the program to increase the success of women at the firm.”

Another initiative Nieland points to is PwC’s Diamond program, designed to increase the advancement of women and minorities in the senior management and partner ranks. She also mentioned that PwC has created successful mentoring programs as well.

In Her Personal Time

Outside of the office, Nieland remains actively involved in non-profit organizations and efforts dedicated to rebuilding New Orleans.

One of them is Project New Orleans, in which PwC employees, along with 100 college students from around the country, helped renovate Warren Easton High School, Louisiana’s oldest public school. She noted that a number of other business leaders, as well as celebrities like Sandra Bullock, have consistently supported the school, as well.