Thomson Reuters professionals Swati Garodia, Calvin Leong, and Kara Peterson have been named CPA Practice Advisor magazine’s 20 Under 40 Influencers. This honor is awarded to young leaders helping to advance the tax and accounting profession in productivity, efficiency and profitability, and building thriving practices.
“We are fortunate to be surrounded by so many young professionals who are sharing their ideas, skills, and enthusiasm with the goal of making the accounting profession a better place. Change is occurring rapidly in our profession and this year’s award winners are embracing and welcoming the changes,” said Editor-in-Chief Gail Perry, CPA. “They are strong, dedicated, spirited leaders and we are proud to recognize these professionals as the 2019 ’40 Under 40 in the Accounting Profession’ and the ’20 Under 40 Top Influencers.’ ”
Swati Garodia is the Global Head of Products for the Tax & Accounting Professionals segment. Since joining Thomson Reuters in 2008, she has held several positions including one as a member of the Business Strategy team. During this period, she also worked with the Legal business unit, based in London, UK. Most recently, she led Global Practical Law – the fastest growing product line within the Thomson Reuters portfolio. Currently, Garodia and her team create and deliver customer-led innovation through flagship brands such as Checkpoint, Checkpoint EDGE, UltraTax CS, CS Professional Suite and Onvio. These research and workflow products enable over 100,000 customers and millions of users to work more efficiently and effectively and create meaningful connections with their clients. She is actively changing the product design culture and development methodologies within Thomson Reuters to become even more customer-focused by gathering early market feedback and testing and co-developing with customers along the way, to ensure maximum productivity gains for the profession.
As the Innovation Manager for the Tax & Accounting Professionals segment, Calvin Leong has built his career on training, implementing and developing software for tax and accounting firms. In addition, to retrieving data via Application Programming Interfaces (API’s) he transforms and manipulates data to create additional data points which can be very useful for reporting and integration purposes. Leong has worked with many firms to use data analytics which help firms make data driven decisions. He has done this by developing and leading client-focused workshops to include the client perspective when developing new products. Other than working on innovation products, Leong also is a regular speaker at various events including Thomson Reuters Synergy Conference, Lunch and Learns, firm visits and firm technology broadcasts. Topics include product demonstrations and newer technologies such as AI, Blockchain and API usage.
Through Kara Peterson’s time at Thomson Reuters, she has helped to transform the editorial team. She is a CPA with over 15 years of accounting and auditing experience. As a senior editor for Thomson Reuters signature US GAAP products: Catalyst and GAAP Reporter, she has played a major role in the launch and creation of both products. These products reach thousands of customers and generate over $7.5 million in revenue for Thomson Reuters each year. Peterson is a subject matter expert for accounting, with visibility in the profession. In addition to working on Catalyst: US GAAP and GAAP Reporter, she has also written special reports for Thomson Reuters on hot accounting topics and contributed to Thomson Reuters Accounting and Compliance Alert.
To view the full list of winners, click here.
