25 Over Fifty-Five 2019 Award Winner
CATHERINE M. PARENTE | Partner, Sansiveri, Kimball & Co. LLP
HARD WORK HAS long been part of Catherine M. Parente’s life.
Whether it was becoming valedictorian of her high school class at St. Mary’s Academy of the Visitation, or graduating with the highest distinction from Bryant College (now Bryant University), where she earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1977, it seemed she was destined to excel.
Her 41-year career in public accounting firms – most of it in leadership positions – has established her as among the best in her field. As a partner at Sansiveri, Kimball & Co. LLP in Providence, she has been instrumental in developing the firm’s forensics and valuation service areas.
Parente has a few favorite achievements in her four decades in her profession – “making partner in a CPA firm [Murphy & Co.] in just nine years was certainly one of them – especially in 1987 when there weren’t as many women in the profession, let alone in the upper management ranks.” In addition to her work at Murphy & Co., which became Suls, Westgate & Parente LLP, she has partnered in the forensic and valuation services group at Grant Thornton LLP, and at CCR LLP, where she was a member of the executive committee, as well as office managing partner.
Parente values her community work equally. She has taken on volunteer leadership roles with United Way of Rhode Island, Crossroads Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. And she’s proud of how she’s helped others in the accounting field.
“My greatest accomplishment doesn’t have to do with personal workplace performance, as much as it does with making a positive impact in the lives of my colleagues,” she said. “I believe strongly in mentoring those I work with and helping them develop their talents. Nothing is more satisfying than running into a former colleague and hearing them say, ‘I have learned so much from you.’ ”
