Page 2 - Verracy's 2019 Course Catalogue

From Our Founder

Greetings from Austin, Texas! I was asked to write this letter and explain how this whole adventure – Verracy
– came to be. It took me a while to figure out where it started and how and where to begin my story. Lucky
for me my very insightful sister reminded me…

Remember those aptitude tests we all had to take back in high school? They were intended to help our guid-
ance counselors and teachers “guide” us into the area of study and careers we were best suited for. My re-
sults were extremely consistent. Every test pointed to “investigation and law enforcement.” This did not sit
well with my mother. At all. I guess she envisioned me as a beat cop and feared the dangers that job would
involve. It worried her so much that she went to the school and yelled at my guidance counselor for steering
me in the direction!
After high school, I attended Rutgers (Jersey Girl!) where I studied Environmental Science. But my electives
were all in Criminal Justice and Criminology. By my junior year I realized environmental science just wasn’t
for me, and I left school. A few part-time jobs got me interested in business (thank you Costco!), I re-en-
rolled, changed focus and received my accounting degree. I went on to get an MBA with a focus on interna-
tional business.

Costco had already thrust me into the audit world and my accounting education then led me through a series
of roles in accounting and internal audit in organizations such as Costco Wholesale, ConocoPhillips, Jefferson
Wells, Barclays Capital, Boart Longyear, and EZCorp. Along the way I obtained my CIA and stumbled and fell
into a dozen fascinating fraud cases, one of which ultimately became the largest SEC/DOJ settlement case
in history, at that time. That experience prompted me to obtain my CFE. The CIA / CFE combina-
tion proved to be incredibly valuable and I went on to run several internal audit functions as a
Chief Audit Executive, and conduct hundreds of fraud cases. Some small travel and expense
frauds; some large and in the millions. I also traveled the world thanks to the organiza-
tions I worked for, conducting both audits and fraud investigations on six continents.

So here I am, 360 degrees back to where my guidance counselors said I should be. Chas-
ing bad guys.
My career has been extremely interesting, but the thing I loved the most was seeing
my teams develop and my organizations benefit from their talents. So, when I left my
last organization, I started Empower Audit to help internal audit functions improve
their teams and programs through continuing education and skill development. I be-
gan writing continuing education courses which proved to be popular and I abso-
lutely loved delivering them. It made my career choice very satisfying to see the
proverbial lightbulb go on with participants. I continued to write more courses,
started inviting other instructors to join me, and the teaching started turning
into consulting opportunities.

Well, Empower Audit was a success! As we grew, I realized for many rea-
sons I would need to rebrand and last year we welcomed many new tal-
ented individuals and proudly relaunched the company as Verracy. It’s
been a thrilling journey which I hope to continue. And I hope to continue
working with all of you in internal audit, risk, accounting, fraud, and
compliance to help you and your teams develop your skills through our
continuing education programs, investigation and consulting.

Happy Auditing and Happy Fraud Fighting!