Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Profile

Marion Albanese

New Position: Managing partner, Ernst & Young, Tampa. Previous Position: Partner in charge, North Florida tax practice, Ernst & Young, Tampa

By Times Staff Writer
Published July 25, 2005

Marion Albanese is used to being first.

She is the first female managing partner in Florida for accounting firm Ernst & Young. And during her 20 years with the firm, Albanese was Ernst & Young's first female partner in its Tampa office.

Even though her promotions represent milestones for the firm, Albanese noted that while she "received tremendous support, most of my partners and my clients would not necessarily look differently on the fact that I was a woman but (on) my ability to work with my people, regardless of gender.

"I would hope that I was the right person in the right place," she said.

As managing partner, Albanese oversees more than 225 employees. One of her primary responsibilities, she said, involves "overseeing the growth of the practice and the involvement in the community" by Ernst & Young employees, including volunteer work with area nonprofit organizations.

At the Tampa office, one of six Ernst & Young offices in the state, clients "reach from the Naples area all the way up to Tampa and across into the Lakeland area, as well as the Gainesville area," Albanese said. "We make sure we have the right expertise on the right client."

In her new role since July 1, Albanese said she is spending about two-thirds of her time working with clients and helping others in the firm with their client services. Recruiting is another area of responsibility, she said.

"The industry, as a whole, has had some major challenges in attracting and retaining qualified professionals," she said.

A native of Miami, Albanese attended Florida International University, then moved to Tampa to attend the University of South Florida. There, she received a bachelor's degree in 1985 in accounting and finance.

She began her career with Arthur Young, a Tampa accounting firm, which merged with Ernst & Whinney in 1989 to become Ernst & Young. The merger "taught me a lot," she said. "As a result of the merger, I learned a lot about integration, about bringing people and cultures together."

Her start with Arthur Young, on the firm's tax staff, involved "lots of tax law aimed at businesses and tax statutes," she said. "I love it. It's creative understanding of how to work through a puzzle to get the right and best answer."

Albanese said she also enjoys the challenge of working with so many different types of business clients. "Over my life, I've probably worked in 500 different businesses as a consultant," she said. "What a great way to meet all different types of people, all different entrepreneurial sorts, (and) understand so many different businesses."

Albanese, 49, and her husband, David Adriana, live in Tampa. They have four children, ages 17 to 29, three of whom still live in the Tampa Bay area. "We do a lot of family stuff," she said.

Boating is her favorite recreation, and the family is in a boat and on the water nearly every weekend. "One of my clients said I clearly have the water gene," she said.

One annual venture in the family boat is a trip with three other boating families to Key West a week before commercial lobster season opens, the last week in July, when noncommercial guides can seek out the lobsters. However, "with the price of gas," Albanese noted, "the price of lobsters is getting awfully expensive."

[Last modified July 21, 2005, 19:54:03]