A leader for all generations

LEVERAGING TALENT: Renee Aloisio, left, chief operating officer and partner of LGC+D in Providence, looks to expand the firm's offerings and more fully engage staff at all times. Here she speaks with Jessica Santamaria, middle, digital media and marketing specialist, and Denise Lema, receptionist. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
LEVERAGING TALENT: Renee Aloisio, left, chief operating officer and partner of LGC+D in Providence, looks to expand the firm's offerings and more fully engage staff at all times. Here she speaks with Jessica Santamaria, middle, digital media and marketing specialist, and Denise Lema, receptionist. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, PRIVATE COMPANY

Pushing the status quo, refusing to accept “no” and embracing change have been winning strategies for Renee C. Aloisio of LGC+D LLP, one of Providence’s top accounting and consulting firms. Hired 27 years ago by a predecessor firm as a tax associate – and rising steadily through the ranks – Aloisio was named chief operating officer and partner in 2014.

Wherever Aloisio sees a need – for clients and employees – she meets it. Long before being named the firm’s first and only female partner, she recommended the firm adopt a more focused approach to administration and human resource management. By creating an office manager position, Aloisio enabled principals to focus on client service, wrote Tracy Tavares, marketing and practice growth senior manager, in Providence Business News’ C-Suite award application. With each administrative promotion, Aloisio expanded and professionalized her human resources and marketing functions.

“Leaders don’t – and can’t – know everything. Building a team of experts that can tell you what you don’t know brings tremendous benefit to an organization,” said Aloisio. “I’m especially proud of my team. We work hard to capitalize on our strengths.”

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PBN’s awards programs are “important and inspiring for emerging leaders. … There’s this community of leaders to call upon and help each other,” she said. In 2011, Aloisio was one of PBN’s Business Women honorees, a Women to Watch in Financial Services.

Acknowledging that shifting cultures takes time and energy, Tavares wrote, “Upon her promotion to partner … she took ownership of improving the firm’s culture, and brought new services to the marketplace, in conjunction with the firm’s growth strategy.”

Given her extensive networking experience and lengthy LGC+D tenure, Aloisio envisioned a business opportunity that grew into an award-winning service line. After observing that many business owners and operators had limited time and resources to manage finance, human resources, information technology and social-media marketing, she led the effort to bring a bundled portfolio of such services to market.

LGC+D’s newest service line, Leveraged Solutions, is a one-stop-shop offering these services. Named one of PBN’s Innovative Companies in the financial services category in 2015, in less than two years it has grown into a 10-person team and a $1 million-plus (and growing) segment of the firm. Overall, LGC+D projects $12 million in gross revenue for the firm in 2016, reported Aloisio.

Committed to nurturing women’s professional growth, Aloisio, claims she never felt any “glass-ceiling” discrimination. Her influential grandparents, she said, led her to believe when she was growing up in Cranston that gender wasn’t a barrier. Aloiso is a founding member of LGC+D’s Women Count, which enhances relationships with women-owned/operated businesses, supports women’s initiatives in the business community, and offers internal mentoring, networking and leadership opportunities.

“With [Women Count] … I’ve learned … what barriers women face,” she said. “Sometimes it’s having the confidence to push forward or having a voice.”

In addition to growing the employee base (now 80 strong) and revenue, Aloisio “has balanced the fine line between being an advocate for the staff and implementing firm policies and directives,” wrote Tavares, who noted that, even as COO, Aloisio maintains primary responsibility for overseeing the 14-person administrative support team. Through her leadership, coupled with her knowledge of the firm’s operations and her recognition of each employee’s individual talents, several administrative staff members have been promoted to client-service or managerial positions.

With an eye on the future, Aloisio will continue to look for value-added services and new business opportunities, within and beyond Rhode Island. As millennials enter the workforce, businesses must be prepared to redesign their workplaces for future generations, said Aloisio, who believes in capitalizing on the strength of all generations in the workplace.

Her firm is a sponsor of the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women – a national movement to end women’s heart and stroke disease – and Circle of Red – a group of women committed to educating other women about heart and stroke disease prevention. “Our combined focus is to provide education about physical and fiscal fitness,” said Aloisio, who lost a close family member to stroke.

A co-delegate for Vision 2020 RI, Aloisio serves on Advancing Women’s Excellence’s advisory board, the executive leadership team of Go Red for Women and Circle of Red. Later this spring she joins the board of the American Heart Association Southern New England. n

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