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Lori Reiner
Click here for Part I, Part II & Part III
A leading provider of accounting and business advisory services
Lori Reiner is the Partner-in-Charge of EisnerAmper in Philadelphia. Founded in 1965, EisnerAmper has grown into one of the largest accounting firms in the US, with offices in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, and the Cayman Islands. Today, the firm provides audit, advisory, bankruptcy, employee benefit, tax, and financial services clients in a variety of industries ranging from construction to real estate to sports and entertainment. Lori is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA), and has earned honors from the Philadelphia community for her accounting expertise and leadership, including a "Best 50 Women in Business" award, a Small Business Administration "Woman in Business Advocate" award, and a Young Leadership Award from the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
Lori Reiner spoke with citybizlist publisher Edwin Warfield for this interview.
EDWIN WARFIELD: You’re very active in the community. Can you tell us about some of the ways you spend your time in the community?
LORI REINER: I grew up in the business community. Very early on in my career, a manager walked up to me in the hallway of my accounting firm and said, “You will go get involved in the community.” I shook my head and said, “Yes sir,” and decided from there where to get started.
A lot of the organizations I’ve volunteered in for years are social service organizations. I always have felt that when I volunteered for them I’ve gotten way, way, way more out of them than any amount of time or money that I contributed - even though I did a lot of both - and I would say that no matter what your career is, it’s certainly important to give back to the community. I think that so many people understand that, however what you may not imagine is possible is that you will get out of those experiences not only a happy heart in many ways but you will build skills that you can bring back to your employer.
I know for me, when I looked at the kind of work that I was doing in the community, I could easily see that in order to be successful in public accounting you needed to have strong technical skills, and you also needed the ability to develop relationships with people, and also talk about the services that you were offering in a way that they could understand and then ultimately would want to hire you for. So, I very quickly started to learn how to do development, to do solicitations for organizations that I was doing volunteer work for. And I will say that that was excellent, excellent sales training that I would never have anticipated being able to try out - sometimes almost when it would not count as much because I was testing out new skills - and then I would have them and bring them back to the firm. So, sales skills, leadership skills, presentation skills - a lot of things that I developed while volunteering: learning how to run a meeting; early on, if I joined a committee whether it was a marketing or communications or development committee, or even a finance committee - since that was obviously something that I would be able to easily ascend into. It really depended on the committee. However, the softer skills were really what I brought back to the accounting firm, and [what] I could plug in to helping my career progress.
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ABOUT NEWMARK GRUBB KNIGHT FRANK
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NGKF’s 12,800 professionals operate from more than 370 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.
With roots dating back to 1929, NGKF’s strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NGKF’s full-service platform comprises BGC’s real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.
NGKF is a part of BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC’s common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit www.bgcpartners.com.
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