At the January 16 meeting at Faith Lutheran Church, Syosset Woodbury Chamber of Commerce Board member, Russell Green (RPG Wealth Management) with fellow Board member Mike Palazzolo, owner of Island Signs & Graphics on Robbins Lane; new Chamber member Catalina Chew of Accounting Brew, and (right) Chamber board member, Networking & Membership Committee Chairman Alan Goldberg of CardWorks Merchant Services and Water Solutions of Long Island.
For 2020 Woodbury resident Catalina Chew is expanding operations in accounting, tax and business finance consulting, serving Long Island individuals, companies after nearly two decades working for corporations in the Boston area and in her native Manhattan.
The first order of business within her company, Accounting Brew, is to provide the community with useful, appropriate information on tax reform, ‘adding’ value with her expertise and perspective as an experienced corporate controller and manager with large investment and real estate firms. Chew’s four-year-old son attends the TOBAY Day School for pre-kindergarten located at 140 Syosset Woodbury Road in Syosset. At the venue on Tuesday, February 11 at 6 pm, she will host a seminar and discussion based on new Tax Reform legislation, SALT deduction, tax deductions and explaining “how people are using tax credits and how small businesses can benefit.” Refreshments will be served. No RSVP is required.
Chew is a new member of the Syosset Woodbury Chamber of Commerce, attending the nonprofit business and networking organization’s first two events of the year on January 16 at Syosset’s Faith Lutheran Church and on January 27 with the 2020 Chamber Installation Dinner for its officials at Lisbon Café on Jericho Turnpike.
“My strengths are in identifying issues but there is no need to create a huge fire drill (alarming) — instead we identify the issues and work with management, business owners or individuals to take steps in correcting and ensuring there is a process in place to mitigate risks and issues going forward. You do not need to handle accounting situations by throwing fuel on a fire — each task is doable with setting expectations and timeframes. When I was working in the corporate world, there were many times when issues were minor or just deserved a conversation, instead ended-up becoming fire drills; that is something I want to avoid at all costs! Fire drills are unnecessary if we can take a moment to just calmly think and discuss things through.” Sometimes it does take someone external to look and ensure validity. This allows clients to be comfortable and have assurance that the materiality — even if there were minor issues, there would not be anything significant,” Chew said.
Chew says her role was to ensure the accounting and financial reporting is done properly in order to report to investors and demonstrate the financial health of the investments. Many times, small businesses and independent professionals are not given as much attention which their accounting and financial information may require when they turn to a larger, corporate-brand accountants. Chew hopes to fill a customer-first niche in her new home of Syosset and Woodbury while maintaining clients and advisory roles with companies in New England. Her experience in the last 15 years in real estate investment accounting goes hand-in-hand with her talents for development and construction accounting (covering lender draw and requisition packages). She planned collaborations with informational “spotlight” material for Chamber director Tricia Shannon of Syosset’s Douglas Elliman Real Estate (office at 317 Jackson Avenue).
“I can work with realty businesses in tax and property portfolio accounting, as that is one of my niches. I have worked in the corporate world for about 20 years in different capacities and industries rooted in accounting and tax functions” Chew said.
Starting her career with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) after college led Catalina to develop skill and experience in auditing protocols. She also understands the importance of securing and keeping information confidential for her clients. At PwC, Chew had professional training on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and internal controls. With a great variety of clients and investors, Chew has overseen and examined return calculations, business and property valuations and REIT’s (operating and mortgage) in her management support roles.
Operating virtual workspace is another key for timely and efficient follow-up. Documents are easy to share through secured online portals and networks, Chew says, as sensitive finance materials isn’t a responsibility she would take lightly. “I enjoy preparing to help and answer questions. My clients are often rushed or leaving meetings with accountants without knowing each detail. With Accounting Brew and running this as my own company, I treat every client as if they’re my only client,” she said in an interview this week.
Born in New York City, Chew attended Fisher College for her bachelor’s degree in business administration, earned with honors and a GPA of 3.3. She spent nearly the last two decades in and around Boston, gaining many insights from executives and on- the-job training in her career. In Boston, Chew was recognized with the Woman of the Year Award from The National Association of Professional Women (NAPW) in 2012-2013. She has been a member of the Treasury Management Association of New England since 2006. Coinciding with her move to New York, in the city Chew served as controller for Thor Equities LLC, from 2017 to mid-2019, when she became vice president of financial reporting for Silverstein Properties LLC.
“I worked for Berkshire in Boston where I grew my career working as an assistant controller for several major funds. One of the first development projects, I covered finance and construction accounting for was the seaport project — one of the most beautiful set of buildings (The Benjamin Building and VIA Seaport Residences) in Boston, but it was our firm’s largest development project at that time and it literally was a hole in the ground,” she explained. “We had some major challenges during the audit but we managed to get through it as a team.”
Chew worked long hours and weekends, sometimes 3 or 4 a.m. on that audit as her team completely did a do-over of the accounting but still managed to get the audit out in a timely fashion. Chew attributed this to ways she and her team managed people’s deliverables and perspectives. Along the way a penchant for mentorship also developed. “Because we were able to work as a team and manage everybody’s expectations, the audit was able to be completed. When I was about to leave Berkshire and move to New York, I had been selected for a mentorship program with the company. I remember when Jessica was an accounting manager and she was with Berkshire for nearly 9 years, she is so bright, I wanted to teach her all I knew. Jessica wanted to learn and grow but never had anyone to mentor her, I took Jessica under my wings and after a short while she was promoted to an assistant controller position,” Chew said.
In 2012 Fisher College selected Chew among its alumni base to participate in a “Distinguished Alumni Panel: Life After College” engagement. “That was so exciting when the school reached out to me and invited me to speak about my successful career since graduating. There were young professionals and soon-to-be college graduates in attendance as they looked into fields and areas to go into. I spoke about mentors that I’ve had and there are really no negative experiences I could convey. These young people entering the workforce should know there is really no mistake that they can make as they enter career fields and begin learning. Learning is the key and any mistake you make is an experience. Everything I have been through and encountered in accounting ‘counts’ as my experience — that only grew my confidence, competence and career,” she said.
Warm Introductions to the Community
In recent years Chew decided to return to her home of New York to be close to her family. She has over 25 cousins living in Nassau County, Suffolk County and in New York City. In 2017 she began planning a move to New York. After researching and a fun first visit, Syosset and Woodbury appealed to her the most. TOBAY Day School was a major draw after Chew spoke with its Director Allison Cacace.
While still living three states north, Catalina drove from Massachusetts down to New Haven, Connecticut, and took a Metro-North railroad train for two hours into Grand Central Station, then headed to Pennsylvania Station, and finally hopped on the LIRR to Syosset — where Cacace picked her up, just so she could visit TOBAY Day School and get a glimpse of life in the community and tour the TOBAY Day school. Expanding her accounting operations and offering her talents to Long Island companies is a professional and civic-minded endeavor.
“I had clients in the biomedical, retail and real estate fields. You have a lot of personalities within your own work environment as well as externally that are interested in the financial data and modeling. In order for me to grow and develop corporate accounting as a career you need to be able to manage people. There are those that have different perspectives or are asking something different — you must be able to adapt to it and understand what the want is, the need is and the priority is. I want things to work and we need to figure it out and there is always a way, and we need to provide transparency, this is important” she says. As an accountant her work never provided too many networking opportunities and social interactions for potential future clients and business connections. “I knew the people I would work with from managers to accountants and attorneys, yet in the firms’ settings I never got to go out in the field for my business to be successful. Now that I have done so, I love it!” Chew explains.
A month ago Chew spoke to Alan Goldberg, Syosset Woodbury Chamber of Commerce director and chairman of its Membership and Networking Committees and the president of Water Solutions of Long Island. “I talked to many people in the accounting and finance career field, also people in Syosset and Woodbury, and I went online to research the Syosset Woodbury Chamber’s website. Everyone I have met in Syosset and Woodbury has been so great, and I considered this chamber a way to ‘get out there’. “Alan had a 90-minute conversation with me and I learned so much from him explaining all the variety of Chamber member activities.” He has his own successful business and Alan does so much with his skill set. He genuinely is invested in seeing Chamber businesses succeed once he meets new people,” she said.
The name of the company Accounty Brew, is ‘freshly ground’ from Chew’s love of coffee. Chew developed her theme and slogan because “You can’t have coffee unless you count the beans.” One of her passions is getting together with clients, friends and fellow business people over a cup of java. She says she can imagine a day when she is prepared to follow her dream of opening up a coffee shoppe — maybe with an influence of Mongo’s Coffee, another Syosset Woodbury Chamber business, at 170 Michael Drive in Syosset.
“Somehow I’d like to combine my love of coffee such as having a café within my office or something related to coffee within my business. Many times, people are heading home, from a long day of work when they are on their way to their accountants to meet about their personal accounting or tax returns; who wouldn’t want to sit, relax and converse about their business and goals over the great aroma of coffee? It’s calming to have when you’re completing and reviewing forms and documents and gathering information, rather than sitting in my office just filling out forms? We can have a coffee, or tea, while talking and developing a good business relationship,” she said.
“This is an extremely busy time of the year for tax professionals like myself and ‘my love (coffee)’ is what I look forward to in the morning and afternoon. Who wouldn’t want to enjoy a cup of ‘Joe’ while discussing tax deductions and tax refunds!”, Chew said.
Chew smiles at the parallel in her new professional life in Syosset Woodbury, as she wants to “have a relationship with her coffee” every day.
“My accounting/finance career is built on relationships and you have to have great relationships. I am so thankful for my opportunities to connect, to have a get-together in local coffee shops and having wonderful conversations in our community. I am learning so much and developing many friendships here,” she said.
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