Walk me through your background and why you are here today.

I grew up in a small town, studied accounting at a state school, and joined a large audit firm after graduation. For three years I've audited mid-size industrial companies. That means I've spent a lot of time inside the financials of businesses with $200 to $800 million in revenue. The turning point was last year, when one of my clients was acquired. I was involved in the diligence process and worked with the deal team a little. I realized I was more interested in the questions the bankers were asking than in my own work. Since then I've been getting ready to move. I've been studying modeling and talking to people who made the same switch. So that's why I'm here today. I want to move from checking the numbers to advising on deals. What I bring is that I can read a set of financials quickly and I know where the problems hide.

I grew up in a small town, studied accounting at a state school, and joined a large audit firm after graduation. For three years I've audited mid-size industrial companies. That means I've spent a lot of time inside the financials of businesses with $200 to $800 million in revenue. The turning point was last year, when one of my clients was acquired. I was the senior on the audit, so I spent six weeks answering the buyer's diligence questions, things like why working capital swung so much in the fourth quarter. I realized I was more interested in the questions the bankers were asking than in my own work. I was checking whether the numbers were right. They were asking what the business was worth and why, and I wanted to be on that side of the table. Since then I've been getting ready to move. I've built merger and buyout models on my own time, I've had a former colleague who's now an associate mark them up, and I asked to be staffed on two more clients going through transactions. So that's why I'm here today. I want to move from checking the numbers to advising on deals. What I bring is that I can read a set of financials quickly and I know where the problems hide. What I need to learn is valuation and the pace, and I'd rather say that than pretend three years of audit covers it.