
Managing Editor at re: The Auditors.com
Greater Chicago Area

Managing Editor at re: The Auditors.com
Greater Chicago Area
Ms. McKenna has managed business development, client relationships and project delivery in a range of industries.
She is working on independent projects and a writing project. Her blog, http://ReTheAuditors.com, comments on the Big 4 audit firms in the age of regulation and globalization.She is a freelance writer with credits in the Financial Times, Accountancy Age, Accountancy Magazine, and various financial, media, and technology blogs and the Huffington Post. She has been interviewed by accounting and social marketing/media sites. Her public speaking credits include private training, university teaching, and speeches for the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, and the MD Assoc of CPAs. She has taught in DePaul University.
She is interested in projects related to finance/accounting transformation, IT governance, SOX remediation on either the finance or IT side, and consulting on operations issues in Mexico and S. A.. She also consults on selected litigation matters related to professional services.
She served PwC Internal Audit Services clients and was a member of PwC's IA team, auditing operations globally. McKenna was Midwest RVP for Jefferson Wells, Inc., a subsidiary of Manpower, managing sales, operations, client relationships and overall P&L for ten offices, including Toronto.
She was the first female MD in Latin America for BearingPoint, leading the Industrial, Automotive and Transportation practice and serving clients such as Cemex and Big 3 auto makers.
As a VP at JP Morgan in Latin America, she led their Y2K PMO and is fluent in Spanish.
McKenna completed the HBS course, "Leading Professional Services Firms" and "The Women's Leadership Program" at the Center For Creative Leadership.
Ms.McKenna passed the Illinois CPA exam but is non-registered or licensed. She is a member of the IIA and ISACA (Chicago Chapter President). She earned her B.S. in Accountancy at Purdue University.
Experienced in creating, improving and expanding international service delivery to clients of professional services firms and in leading the Project Management Office for systems upgrade/integration, finance transformation, IT governance and SOX remediation in finance or IT.
She has established new offices and new practices globally, identified and sourced personnel globally, and developed/managed of models for successful international engagements.
(Online Media industry)
October 2006 — Present (3 years 2 months)
re: The Auditors is a blog about the business of the Big 4 audit firms, exploring in an independent, objective, and often critical way the role, responsibility and regulation of the audit/accounting industry in the global capital markets. McKenna is a freelance writer with credits in the Financial Times, Accountancy Age, Accountancy Magazine, and various financial, media, and technology blogs. She also blogs at The Huffington Post. She has been interviewed by accounting and social marketing/media sites. Her public speaking credits include private training, university teaching, and speeches for the Institute of Internal Auditors, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, and the Maryland Association of CPAs.
(Partnership; 1-10 employees; Management Consulting industry)
July 2003 — Present (6 years 5 months)
Recent Clients:
Global $12 Billion Manufacturer of Trucks/Engines For Commercial/Military – Developed SOx Quality Assurance Program. Performed QA for work completed by Corporate Audit and their vendors. Consulted with VP/Internal Audit on restructuring of IA post-restatement.
$1 Billion Revenue Producer of Soup and Infant Feeding Products – Provided specialized internal audit services and SOx 302 Certification support.
Grant Thornton (Chicago, Cleveland and Mexico) – Supported this global audit firm in SOx related projects in Mexico and US. Completed IT governance related SOx work for an international manufacturing company.
Moore Stephens Orozco Medina (Mexico City, MX) – Led a regional accounting firm to develop internal audit and SOx-related Services Practice.
Compuware Mexico – Provided training/functional support in SOx, COSO and COBIT to México operation’s technical team.
Pink Elephant Mexico – Provided specialized consulting to the México office of this ITIL firm.
(Partnership; 10,001 or more employees; Management Consulting industry)
August 2005 — October 2006 (1 year 3 months)
Ms. McKenna focused on serving PwC clients in Internal Audit and Governance Advisory Services. She was a member of PwC's Internal Audit Core Team, responsible for auditing "PwC The Firm" globally, as well as responsible for providing services in Internal Audit and Advisory to multinationals.
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Management Consulting industry)
October 2001 — July 2003 (1 year 10 months)
Led the Midwest Region for this professional services firm that provides internal audit co-sourcing, accounting and finance staff augmentation and Sarbanes-Oxley consulting.
•Resonsible for P&L of 10 offices/direct reports and more than 500 staff.
•Management of all functions including
-C-level client relationship management,
-Quality of engagement delivery,
-Lead generation , business development and closing of contract, and
-Operations and administration.
•In early 2002, the vast majority of effort was directed towards developing the service offering and implementing the strategy for meeting clients’ Sarbanes-Oxley compliance needs.
•My former Jefferson Wells team is responsible for providing services for Sarbanes-Oxley to some of the largest companies in the Midwest and Canada, including: Daimler Chrysler Financial, GM, Household/HSBC, Nicor, Sara Lee, P&G, Harris/Bank of Montreal, Honda Canada, and Principal Financial Group.
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Management Consulting industry)
September 1993 — October 2001 (8 years 2 months)
Led the Industrial, Automotive and Transportation Practice in Latin America.
•Responsible for key account client relationship and practice management for Industrial Materials, Automotive and Transportation accounts throughout Latin America and solution leadership for Supply Chain, eProcurement and Systems Integration solutions, including design and implementation of Marketplaces.
•Management of more than 20 active account relationships and more than 60 staff throughout Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela with Sales Goal of more than 20 million
•Development and delivery of ERP (SAP and Oracle), eStrategy, eProcurement, eWorkforce, CRM, Marketplace, and Web-enabling Infrastructure Solutions for our clients
•Management of the complete sales and delivery cycle for key accounts across solutions, client relationship management, project staffing, liaison with US practices and expertise, recruiting and training
(Management Consulting industry)
1993 — 2001 (8 years )
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Banking industry)
April 1998 — July 1999 (1 year 4 months)
Led the successful achievement of Year 2000 readiness for Latin America operations. Team consisted of over 200 virtual members throughout the regional and 40 direct reports in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Responsibilities included management and communication of initiatives and achievements for the region in the following areas:
-Application assessment, remediation to compliance, testing, certification and prevention of regression
-Enterprise-wide testing process to insure full compliance of key application flows
-Implementation of compliant global and replacement applications and initiation of projects to upgrade and replace hardware and infrastructure to achieve overall branch architecture compliance
-Implementation of client, vendor and external readiness assessment and monitoring programs including response to regulatory audits and reporting requirements
-Implementation of risk assessment and scenario planning process for branch level contingency planning
(Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Transportation/Trucking/Railroad industry)
July 1992 — September 1993 (1 year 3 months)
(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)
1988 — 1992 (4 years )
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Banking industry)
June 1984 — July 1988 (4 years 2 months)
Bachelor of Science , Accounting and Economics , 1980 — 1984
Vice President to the ISACA Chicago Chapter Board of Directors
Member IIA Chicago Chapter, De Paul University Advisory Board for the College of Computing and Digital Media, Advisory Board for the Latin American Studies Program at the University of Chicago, River North Dog Owners, GSB Alumni Roundtables