Kay Boyer graduated from University of San Diego with an accounting and real estate degree, but not much of an idea of what she was going to do with it. She wasn’t really interested in the traditional Big 4 path that many of her classmates pursued, but knew access to variety in her career would be important. After a brief dalliance with hospitality, she decided to put her accounting degree to work and became a CPA.
Kay spent the next seven years performing financial statement audits and audit readiness assessments for the federal government and non-profit agencies. From auditing the military retirement fund (the largest pension benefit plan in the world) to the agencies within the US Department of Defense, Kay was surprised by the breadth of experiences her position exposed her to.
On one occasion, Kay conducted an audit of an agency within the DOD and found herself in a room with a confiscated rocket launcher resting inside of a baby crib, having just counted fingerprint-dusted seized cash. On another occasion, she was spontaneously hugged by one of her auditees — a preschooler who was part of the Head Start audit Kay managed.
Though her federal government role gave her great exposure, deep down inside, Kay was ready for a career change. She wanted to move away from the external audit perspective and into an internal position where she would have the opportunity to make a more tangible and long-term impact. After a brief stint at Level 3 (now Lumen), she joined Zayo.
Kay’s hiring manager left shortly after Kay started and she found herself thrown into a senior role with a newly public company that was addressing two material weaknesses. It was a chance to build a team, solve complex problems, and demonstrate the audit function’s unique value to the organization, an opportunity that kept Kay interested and excited for the profession and her role.
Kay has grown and evolved alongside the business, progressing from manager to director to senior director, eventually taking over the function as the company went private in 2020. In eight years her curiosity hasn’t waned one bit:
“In external accounting, it’s highly regulated and prescriptive. In the internal auditing space, it’s more of an art than a science; you can get creative in finding solutions that work best for your organization. ”
Her favorite part of the job is holding the bigger-picture view:
“Anything that’s important to the business can be within the purview of the auditor. We’re not limited to just providing value in the financial space; there’s a lot of value that can be unlocked operationally. The opportunity to build strong relationships and become a trusted advisor across an organization is incredibly satisfying.”
The opportunity to build strong relationships and become a trusted advisor across an organization is incredibly satisfying.
It’s easy to see that Kay has, indeed, grown with Zayo and found meaning and career progression as a key part of her journey here.