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Jeanne Sharkey

Corporate Tax Manager
Smithfield Foods
Smithfield, VA

 

In her senior year of high school, Jeanne Sharkey faced a life-changing decision: Band or Accounting? In her small town, band practice took place at the same time as accounting class. It was one or the other. Although none of her friends thought she could give up band her senior year, that’s exactly what she did.

“A friend of mine was having trouble with her accounting class,” she explains. “So I was trying to help her make sense of her accounting books without having taken the class. I somehow understood it – and ended up helping her out. I took that as a sign.”

Today, Jeanne is the Corporate Tax Manager for Smithfield Foods, a Fortune 200 company and the world’s largest producer and processor of pork. And after 23 years as a CPA, she’s never looked back. She knows that most people don’t have the lightning flash of insight that she had, and says that the key is following your passions when you feel strongly about something. It’s an approach that’s served her well in her professional life. And hey, it sure beats band camp.

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