FROM:
Why Accounting: Real Life CPA's
American
Institute of CPA's Career Marketing Website
James Wesberry, Jr.
Semi-Retired
in Quito, Ecuador
International Consultant / Project Director
Quito, Ecuador
“What I like about accounting,” James Wesberry
says, “is that it is purely logical.” So how does he explain some of the less-than-logical things about his life
and career?
Like the fact that he ran for and was elected to the State Senate at age 28, even though he was
already running his own accounting firm? Or that he used to leave the house at 6 AM and not get home until nearly midnight,
thanks to all the community service projects he worked on? Or how about that he currently lives in the Andes
Mountains of Ecuador, of all places, and has about 60 animals of all kinds, including eight – count ‘em, eight
– Chihuahuas? Yep. Chihuahuas.
But it all does make sense, in a strange way, at least to James. “I could never stand to do the same audit more
than once,” he said. Other people might have preferred the predictability of a familiar project, but not him. “I’ve
always volunteered for new challenges.”
That willingness to take on the unfamiliar has taken James to Peru, Mexico and Ecuador, where he
headed the regional Western Hemisphere Anti-Corruption project for USAID. He’s also been international advisor to the
US Comptroller General, as well as Financial Consultant for The World Bank.
And to James, this is all perfectly logical – once you consider where he came from. “A CPA career is what
you make of it,” he says. If you work hard and look for variety and challenge, you can get plenty
of very unusual opportunities.” And as if James hasn’t already packed plenty of accomplishments into his very
impressive life, he wishes he had taken accounting in high school so that he could have moved “even
faster.”
