A few months after Leslie joined the PwC US New York office, her director invited her whole team and their ‘significant others’ to a happy hour. She told him she would bring her girlfriend; then she watched to see if he would miss a beat – and he didn’t. He just said he really looked forward to meeting her.
Leslie was delighted. Her sexual orientation was clearly a complete non-issue – something that was underlined still further by the super-warm welcome that the team gave to her girlfriend at the gathering. For Leslie, the sequence of events simply confirmed that she’d made the right choice in coming to PwC. Nineteen years later, she’s still here – and still loving the inclusion that she experiences every working day.
“I think there's something unique about how PwC allows you to do and try different things as you figure out what you want your career to look like. Within my own experience, I’ve worked in three different offices – including one international secondment – and two different tax groups. Every time my interests have changed or I’ve wanted to live somewhere else, the firm has been willing to kind of grow and move with me. I've been here for 19 years, and everyday feels different!”
In many cases, a significant slice of that working day is taken up with Leslie’s role as the PwC US Partner Champion for Shine, PwC’s LGBT+ community and ally networkOpens in a new window. Alongside her day job advising clients on their tax affairs, Leslie oversees Shine’s US initiatives to support PwC’s LGBT+ community and is thoughtful in developing the next generation of LGBT+ leaders. She’s made a concerted effort to raise visibility and awareness of the diversity within the LGBT+ community with programming around Lesbian Visibility Day and Bi Visibility Day.
It's all a long way – both geographically and culturally – from Leslie’s early years. She grew up in a small town of 3,000 residents in Alabama – “It doesn’t even have a stop light!” – before studying for a degree at the University of Alabama. She began her career in Atlanta, but yearned to move to the Big Apple, her desire influenced by the numerous romantic movies she adored set in New York.
This was when PwC US came into the picture. When Leslie interviewed with the New York office and heard what PwC US had to offer, she was struck straight away by the high degree of flexibility she would enjoy, with opportunities to do many different things and experience different places. As a 20-something, she hadn’t yet decided what she wanted to do with her life or what areas of tax she wanted to work in. She could see that at PwC she’d have the opportunity to find out.
Since she joined – she hasn’t looked back. A few years into her PwC journey she embarked on her next big move, an international assignment to the London office of the PwC UK firm for 18 months. She returned to New York with a continued thirst for exploring the new, and it was at this stage in her career that she made the move to the West Coast. During her 12 years in Los Angeles she became a partner in 2017. In the summer of 2023 she came “home” to New York, where she now lives in the suburbs, a short walk from the seafront. With each move Leslie feels she has really grown as a person, established an amazing and diverse network, and honed her leadership skills.
“I’m passionate about Inclusion & Diversity, and PwC has always allowed me to play a part in that space. Even at a very junior level I was allowed to lead different initiatives in our Shine community and other inclusion networks. At a time when I wasn’t so senior in my career these endeavours really helped me build my leadership skills and exposure in a way that client service work didn’t yet provide.”
Overall, Leslie sums up the feeling she gets from working at PwC US as a strong sense of belonging. From day one she felt she belonged with the firm in general and her team in particular – and this feeling has been strengthened still further over the years through her involvement in ShineOpens in a new window. She feels there’s something really powerful about being part of a community with people whose lived experiences are similar to your own: it provides space for shared vulnerability and mutual support at work and beyond, continuing when people leave or retire from PwC. Furthermore, she feels that there is so much power in the value creation that comes from investing in firm building activities beyond the scope of her client work. Value creation for the LGBT+ community, for the PwC network, and for those who do the work.
Leslie’s also proud to be a visible role model to help junior PwC people see what’s possible for an openly out person. This is particularly important for the lesbian community where there can be a lack of women role modelsOpens in a new window. However, she stresses that being an effective role model is about much more than just being visible: it’s also vital to connect with more junior members of the community and actively provide mentoring. With this in mind, Shine is currently expanding its existing local mentorship initiatives into a coordinated national program across the US, bringing people the ability to build a broader network and exposure to development opportunities.
When she isn’t working, Leslie loves the outdoor life – cycling, hiking, and playing tennis or pickleball. Her morning routine consists of walking her dogs down to the water, sitting on a bench and enjoying the fresh air and seascape. Every day the view is slightly different, just like a day in the life at PwC.
Lightning round: quick questions and quick answers
From your experience, how do you sum up Inclusion & Diversity at PwC?
Inclusion & Diversity is the bedrock of PwC.
What should others know about PwC’s commitment to Inclusion & Diversity?
At PwC, Inclusion & Diversity is absolutely foundational to everything we do: to the services we bring to clients, and to how we operate and bring unique, creative thoughts together as a team of solvers.
