VOE: Kapila Anand, National Partner-in-charge, Public Policy Business Initiatives KPMG LLP

As part of our on going Voices of Experience series, The Glass Hammer’s managing editor Pamela Weinsaft spoke with this powerful woman leader from KPMG on her climb to the top, barriers to and her passion for championing women in the industry.

As a computer science major at Michigan State, Kapila Anand took an accounting course because she needed something to help bring up her grades.  And the rest, as they say, is history. 

Ms. Anand, who is now the National Partner-in-Charge, Public Policy Business Initiatives at KPMG, said “I enjoyed accounting, kept taking classes and ultimately got an internship which was very lucrative—much more than a computer science internship would’ve been—and decided I liked it as a career.” She continued to work throughout college, going from internship to internship.  Since all the internships were in accounting, she ended up earning both her undergraduate and master’s degrees in accounting in just 5 ½ years.

When she moved to Chicago, she was offered an opportunity to join KPMG. Within six months from her start in the audit practice she became a specialist in real estate and hospitality.  She explained: “For my very first job at KPMG, I worked for a partner on a particular engagement.  The next engagement did not have a senior associate assigned and, since he thought we were a good team, he asked if I had interest in real estate and hospitality. The more I thought about it the more I realized that the industry fit well with my personality as I am an entrepreneur at heart. I love working with people and clients in real estate and hospitality because they have great people skills.  It seemed like a great match.  After that, I moved very quickly up into the supervising senior ranks so I was managing people by the end of my first year. I had my opportunity and I grabbed it.”

She continued to rise up in the ranks in the audit practice over the next ten years, ultimately becoming the first woman in the country from the Real Estate and Hospitality sector to be named a partner.   But she still had more she wanted to do. “In public accounting at the time, your primary  goal  was to make partner. But once I got to be partner, I asked myself, ‘ok now I made this, now what?’  My own goals were to work in areas in which I would continue to learn because it was almost like if I stopped learning—if I did the same thing over and over again—I just knew that it wouldn’t be exciting and that at some point in time I’d have to move on to something else.”

In addition to the audit work, she began to take on the “lead partner” role, acting as an account executive responsible for developing client relationships and client delivery teams. “That kept me going for a few years, until 2000, when I realized there was an opportunity to take a little bit of a risk and work in our advisory practice. And, so, within real estate/hospitality, I moved from the audit practice into the advisory side of our business.”   The move raised a few eyebrows.  “My husband said to me, ‘You have this great responsibility and you love it, why would you go into something else?’ And I said, ‘It just will keep me on my toes.”

She explained: “I’ve never wanted to just get comfortable with what I’m doing.  I am  always looking for the opportunity to help me grow.  All my people laugh because I’m always telling them, ‘If you’re not growing, you get stale.’” 

She credits KPMG for providing her with continuous opportunities to grow. “I was selected to be in a leadership development program.  It was very pivotal for me: being selected for the leadership class and selected to network with some of the great people in leadership today in our firm…That particular leadership class was important for me in that it was the leadership forum that came up with the work-life work environment initiative, which also became the KPMG network of women.”

Anand champions the women’s network because she remembers the challenges she faced at the beginning of her career. “When I started in the profession, there were so few women.  People would tease us if we were sitting next to each other. Now if someone says anything like that, all the women go sit next to each other just to make a point.  A bit of the revolutionary side of me coming out,” she laughed, “But, at the time, each of us as women, would do our best to network only with men. We weren’t networking with each other. I  focus on networking with men and women now.” 

Despite past challenges, Anand, who has been sitting on KPMG’s Board of Directors since 2005, doesn’t believe there are permanent barriers to women in the profession, adding that it’s often the women that hold themselves back.  “There are always going to be some barriers but they are not necessarily permanent.  I think that my Board representation is an example of a position that I would have not have even thought to aspire to it until one of my mentors said that I’d be a great board member and that I should throw my hat in the ring, And I sort of looked at him like ‘who are you talking to?’ 

She continued, “I will tell you that if you had asked me years ago, I would have said that it is not something I’m qualified to do.  So I think that the barriers may often be self created.”

Almost two years ago, Anand threw her hat in the ring again, this time to help build and lead the private equity practice. “And as my husband said, ‘You saw a cliff and jumped right off it.’  But luckily I had a parachute: the people around me, both in and outside of the firm [to whom I turned to get up to speed and get contacts.]  My career successes all go back to networking and mentors.”

She does point to two factors—work-life balance and a lack of female role models—that are challenges for women, albeit surmountable ones. “When I look at the women I surround myself with, I still think work-life balance is a challenge in a client service business.  But there are a number of support systems that are  in the firm today that weren’t there five years ago, so it is becoming easier.”  She continued, “I also think one challenge still exists: there aren’t as many female role models in leadership as one would want to see.  So that’s why I belong to a women corporate directors group.  Even there we talk about how to get out and make sure that other women see us in the roles.  It is just so important for other women to be able to see us and say ‘if she can do it, I can do it.’” 

As for where she sees herself in the future, she said that while she tries not to put up any barriers, she does have certain criteria that must be met.  “There are some things a new job must offer,” said Anand,  “It has to be challenging. I must be able to continue to grow. And I need to continue to be able to give back by developing and mentoring people.  But I love what I do today and if I’m still doing it five years from now I’d be ok with that.”