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' T i l M. he days of tedious detail work are gone. Trying to compare accounting for the securities brokerage industry today with what it was only a few years ago is like talking about flying the Concorde compared with a DC-3," Ed Lill, the Firm's brokerage industry specialist and national industry director, said recently. "There's been a revolution in securities brokerage, a revolution that's still taking place. And this has affected our professional relationship with brokerage clients. Perhaps most important from the point of view of the staff accountant considering making a specialty of securities brokerage, the change has been largely to the good. Some of the most onerous requirements have been eliminated, and the brokerage industry's strong move toward automation and diversification has added new dimensions to the services we provide for them. To put it simply: the industry is a lot more interesting today than it was when I was assigned to my first brokerage engagement." But if Ed's entry into the world of securities brokerage eventually proved the ideal mating of man and career, its beginnings were dictated more by chance than calculated decision. Edward J. Lill was born in Paterson, New Jersey and graduated from Passaic Valley High School before entering Seton Hall University in South Orange. An excellent student who majored in accounting, Ed was elected to the Cross and Crescent, a highly select honor society recognizing outstanding achievement in both academic and extracurricular activities. More interested in private industry than public accounting when he graduated from Seton Hall (or so he thought at the time), Ed joined an advanced technology corporation as a cost analyst. Before the end of that first summer, however, he reevaluated his career goals and decided that public accounting was the road he really wanted to follow. After interviews with several of the large CPA firms, Ed joined the New York office of Haskins & Sells in September 1953. Ed's early years with the Firm gave no inkling of his later rise to prominence in as specialized an area as securities brokerage. "My first years with the New York office gave me the kind of grounding in my profession that any career-minded accountant really needs," he said. "I was assigned to engagements for a producer and distributor of frozen foods, Seabrook Farms; a large educational institution, New York University; a hospital, Cornell Medical Center; a nonprofit organization, the Marine Historical Association; and a large chemicals manufacturer. Such broad experience is valuable from at least two points of view. In the first place, it gives an accountant increased proficiency in many of the techniques of his profession. You just naturally become more self-confident when you can handle responsibilities on a variety of engagements. Secondly, and a point often overlooked, you can make a decision about specializing in an industry or a specific area of accounting with much more authority if you've been exposed to a range of experiences. You don't have to depend on someone telling you: 'Try it, you'll like it.' You have tried it and you know whether you like it." It was while on the chemical company engagement that Ed met Dorothy Allen. "My work involved a division that was preparing to move from New York to Virginia," Ed recalls. "Dot was from Virginia and had been sent to New York for special training prior to the division's relocation. That was when I met her." Dorothy returned to Virginia after her training was completed and Ed stayed in New York. About a year later, however, Ed was asked to spend six months in Virginia on the engagement. He said yes. Shortly after his second year on the engagement he asked Dorothy to marry him. She said yes. I t was New York partner Carl Sturgis who introduced Ed to the securities brokerage industry. "Carl asked me to be senior accountant on an engagement for a relatively small brokerage house. I found the work interesting and the fol- 24 PEOPLE IN H&S: EI)W\R1) JL LILL
Object Description
Title |
People in H&S: Edward J. Lill |
Author |
Anonymous |
Contributor |
Karales, James H. |
Personal Name |
Lill, Edward J. Sturgis, Carl L. |
Portrait |
Lill, Edward J. |
Office/Department |
Haskins & Sells. New York Office |
Citation |
H&S Reports, Vol. 14, (1977 winter), p. 24-29 |
Date-Issued | 1977 |
Source | Originally published by: Haskins & Sells |
Rights | Copyright and permission to republish held by: Deloitte: Photographs by James H. Karales |
Type | Text |
Format | PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi |
Collection | Deloitte Digital Collection |
Digital Publisher | University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection |
Date-Digitally Created | 2010 |
Language | eng |
Identifier | HSReports_1977_Winter-p24-29 |