ALLISON PLAGER TALKS TO MELISSA GEIGER, YOUNGEST FEMALE PARTNER AT KPMG, ABOUT HER CAREER
It’s amazing what you end up finding out about people when you talk to them. It turns out that Melissa Geiger enjoys ballroom dancing and is an avid fan of Strictly Come Dancing.
I had to ask who her ideal partner would be and she replied Brendan Cole or James Jordan – perhaps the bad boys of the show and definitely two of the more challenging partners. If this tells us anything about Melissa it is that she is up for a challenge and is confident that she can hold her own.
But who is Melissa Geiger? She is not only the youngest female equity partner at KPMG, but she was also recently named on Management Today’s annual ‘35 women under 35’ list which recognises outstanding young business women in the UK.
How did she dance her way to these giddy heights and why? We at Taxation 2 felt we needed to know more about this extraordinary and talented young woman.
First steps
Geography was Melissa’s chosen subject at university. This is not really an obvious indicator that she would decide on a tax career, but then how many of us really think at 18, ‘I want to be a tax adviser’?
After graduating, Melissa joined KPMG Bristol and found herself in the first year of the firm’s tax business school in 1997. She passed the ATT and then qualified as a CTA.
What is the attraction of tax? Melissa describes herself as a ‘detailed person and quite risk averse’, which are two reasons why she finds ‘tax very appealing’. She also likes tax for the way it brings together written and numerical skills, in a way perhaps that pure accountancy does not.
She adds that tax is intellectually challenging and an important part of working in tax is to make it all fit together in a logical way for clients.
Melissa works in corporate tax, although she has also touched on VAT, PAYE and income tax. She moved to private equity which she says links with company tax but in a more individual way.
Different moves
Overall, Melissa was in KPMG Bristol, then KPMG London for four years, but decided she needed to see how tax works from the outside for a while.
To this end, Melissa joined Accenture’s Tax Strategy team in 2001 where she stayed for a year and had the opportunity to work in San Francisco. However, she needed new challenges and moved to Standard Chartered Bank where she worked in the tax planning and structured finance division for three years.
It was a valuable experience being the customer, says Melissa. ‘It helps you understand what the client needs and what the client will do with advice.’
New shoes
The difficulty with working in-house is that promotion can be a problem and to a large extent depends on the person senior to you leaving. This led her to return to KPMG where she joined the private equity tax team, which was by then led by her former boss from KPMG Bristol, Michelle Quest.
She worked with Terra Firma on the EMI deal, and also with banks, eg HSBC, HBOS (now Lloyds Banking Group), Deutsche Bank and Barclays on a range of transactions.
Melissa’s next move was to financial services and into M&A work. Ultimately however, Melissa was aiming high and was being encouraged by the firm to work towards partnership.
Part of this, she says, involves an ‘out of box’ assignment where you have to do something different to become more rounded. Her time working in-house was excellent preparation and she feels ‘certainly helped her as a director and partner’.
Crucial to her reaching partnership has been Melissa’s support network. She mentions two women, both of them are partners in KPMG, who have been instrumental in her career and sponsored her for partnership. They are Michelle, her first boss in Bristol, and Sian Hill, her current boss, and they have been full of encouragement and are there with help and support. It is so important, says Melissa, to network.
She has kept in touch with Michelle since 1997. It is sensible to stay on good terms with your peers and bosses, she says, even if you move elsewhere, as ‘tax is a small world’.
In the spotlight
As well as being mentored, Melissa also acts as a mentor to others. Clearly it is a good idea ‘to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses’ she says, but it is a big help also ‘to know people who are good at what you are less good at’! This means that you can turn to someone to help you if you need it, in addition to being able to help others.
I am always surprised, says Melissa, ‘how people I mentor don‘t know where their strengths lie’. But it really is so important to focus on your abilities. It is also helpful to work for people who will challenge you as this broadens your capabilities and gives you confidence when you succeed.
Melissa also goes beyond the walls of KPMG to help inspire young people. She mentions that KPMG does a version of Dragon’s Den for Hackney primary school children and she helps out with this, saying ‘it is good to help other people and widens your own outlook’.
So, reaching the sequinned heights of partnership has taken a lot of hard work and determination as well as talent. Clearly, Melissa has made good use of the opportunities offered to her, but is equally generous in giving her time to encourage others.
Biography
After taking a geography degree at Bristol University, Melissa began her career in 1997 working for KPMG Bristol where she qualified as a CTA. She moved to Accenture and Standard Chartered Bank reaching her current post.
Her interests include ballroom dancing, skiing and video-editing.
