They say slow and steady wins the race and Janet Truncale is one of the few classic examples. At a time when professionals switch jobs and even careers quite frequently, little would Truncale have known that she’d end up spending nearly 33 years at one company she joined as an intern in 1991.

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Come July 1, 2024, Truncale will succeed Carmine Di Sibio to become the global chair and CEO of Ernst & Young (EY). A certified public accountant, she is the first woman to make it as head of one of the Big Four firms.

“I am absolutely honoured to have been chosen to lead EY-an organisation I'm proud to have been part of for more than 30 years. I am excited to build on the great legacy left by Carmine Di Sibio and continue to build a better working world… Thanks to EY for giving me this opportunity and I look forward to continuing to work with our people, clients and stakeholders globally,” she wrote in a LinkedIn post.

A BSE graduate from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia University, Truncale, in an article on LinkedIn in 2019, wrote that when she started her career in professional services, female role models were scarce but she was lucky to have found one.

“I often felt conscious of being the lone woman in a room filled with men. The women I did meet at work and in the financial services industry, however, helped me feel more comfortable speaking out about what I needed on a personal level from my organisation and from my colleagues.”

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Already a hero to many, as Truncale readies to step into the shoes of the top boss, it takes us back to when she wrote, “One of my earliest mentors was a female Ernst & Young LLP (EY) partner who profoundly impacted my life and career. Her strong personality and ability to build relationships with the client earned her a seat at the male-dominated table.”

Five years later, she has earned a seat at an industry table where the front-row seats of the remaining three firms are held by male counterparts.

Three years after the COVID-19 pandemic made working from home a widely practised mode of operating, the debate on whether it is still needed continues with many tech services firms calling employees back to offices. But Truncale, a mother of three, witnessed a "bold move" over 30 years ago and was amazed.

"When I joined the firm full time in 1992, I watched as she (her then mentor) navigated being the first EY partner to have a flexible work arrangement, allowing her the opportunity to be her best self at work and at home with her kids. I remember thinking that was a bold move, and it was a signal to her female colleagues that we could do the same. We could have children and our dream careers—the two were not mutually exclusive."

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An inspiration for many women, Truncale currently not only leads a team of more than 14,000 professionals throughout the Americas as the Regional Managing Partner, EY Americas Financial Services Organization (FSO) but is also the Board Chair for Women’s World Banking, a global non-profit that gives low-income women access to critical financial tools.

Throughout her 30-year career in the global financial services industry, Truncale has provided assurance and consulting services to leading Fortune 500 companies and worked with boards, audit committees and senior management to resolve business issues.

Outgoing CEO Di Sibio believes in her as an exceptional leader who has a strong foundation in serving clients across all of EY’s businesses. “She is a great choice to lead our organisation through the next chapter of its history,” he said.

Awarded with the Profiles in Diversity Journal Women Worth Watching Award in 2019 and named in Crain’s New York Business Notable Women in Accounting and Consulting list in 2021, the 53-year-old is also on the Board of Directors of UNICEF USA and serves as a managing trustee for Liberty Science Center, a not-for-profit learning centre dedicated to inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers.

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Truncale has been a long-time sponsor of DE&I in the Americas, including as an active member of the EY Global Social Equity Task Force, in the build and launch of the EY ‘Uplift’ campaign and other equity initiatives across EY, and as a champion of DE&I in the marketplace and communities. She is also the executive sponsor of the EY US Veterans Network.

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(Edited by : Amrita)