Legal Marketing & PR

Two Great Honors, Two Amazing Marketers, Two Firms, One Houston Office Building

By Michelle Golden

In June in Austin Texas, something really cool happened.

Two extremely dynamic ladies who work for competing firms in the same city--the very same building, no less--were both honored for their exceptional contributions to the profession of accounting marketing.

At the 2009 Association for Accounting Marketing conference--AAM's 20th anniversary event--Karen Love of PKF Texas was inducted into the AAM Hall of Fame (pdf), and Stacy Soefer of Gainer Donnelly & Desroches was named AAM's 2009 Rookie Marketer of the Year (pdf): awarded to marketers with substantial accomplishments within two years of entry to the profession.

Karen blew us (accounting marketing veterans) away when she created a strong awareness of the importance of community involvement LONG before "corporate social responsibility" was in vogue, and long before other CPA firms, large or small, got serious about it. Through personal and corporate commitment, she elevated awareness of her firm while "doing good" in Houston and beyond. She is a true leader in accounting marketing.

She was among the first marketers who were invited to become owners in their firms and, in 2002 was both AAM Marketer of the Year and recognized by Accounting Today as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the profession.

Stacy, too, is exhibiting leadership and conquering new ground with energy, campaigns, and total "unorthodox" creativity that, I kid you not, had some traditional marketers rolling their eyes. Until they realized she's onto something good...real, honest-to-goodness differentiation of her firm in a very crowded marketplace.

Now other marketers are sitting up and taking notice. And heralding her work. And most marketers are envious of her ability to sell her firm's partners on some pretty non-traditional stuff like, say, conceiving the notion to volunteer as official judges of the International Federation of Competitive Eaters' Inaugural Matzoh Ball Eating Championship for charity.

That two Houstonians received such notable recognition in the very same year is remarkable and maybe even coincidental. But anyone who knows these two lovely ladies knows it's well-deserved on both counts!

Congrats to you both! And kudos to Houston for fostering such great and influential business-women.

Full post as published by Golden Practices on August 18, 2009 (boomark / email).