AAFCPAs Announces 2023 Employee Awards

AAFCPAs is pleased to announce its 2023 employee award recipients including Charles Courtney, John Casassa, Ryan Wolff, Pauline Legor, and Ana Rodriguez.

Charles Courtney, The 2023 Kindness Award

Charles Courtney is the proud recipient of AAFCPAs’ 2023 peer-nominated Kindness Award. The Michael Oliveira Kindness Award is presented in memorial to a remarkable colleague and outstanding young man who was a positive inspiration to everyone around him. The annual recipient exemplifies Michael’s traits of unconditional care and concern for others and selfless kindness.

Here’s what colleagues said about Charles:

• Connects immediately with new staff and clients and shows that he cares about personal lives and not just the work.
• He lights up a room as soon as he walks in.
• He builds relationships.
• Consistent in showing his care and concern for others.

John Casassa, CPA, MBA, MST, The 2023 Emerging Leader Award

John Casassa is the proud recipient of the 2023 Emerging Leader Award, presented annually to an AAFCPAs team member who has demonstrated remarkable accomplishments at the firm. This person has demonstrated leadership qualities in areas of client service, technical competency, communication, strategic thinking, recruitment, developing others, inclusion, and/or innovation.

Here’s what colleagues said about John:

• He doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to communicating, client service, and technical competency.
• He always has the answer!
• He gives back significantly to his community in leadership roles.
• He is an all-around team player—leading others to be better.

Ryan Wolff, MBA, The 2023 Innovation Award

Ryan Wolff is the proud recipient of the 2023 Innovation Award. The Innovation Award is given to an AAFCPAs’ team member who has been proactive in identifying opportunities for efficiency and automation and has taken the lead in at least one project in their practice area or department to improve processes or workflows.

Here’s what colleagues said about Ryan:

• Extremely innovative around the use of technology.
• Helps the firm in various initiatives involving innovation.
• Great attitude! Always ready for a new project and integral to our automation improvements.
• Good at communicating value.

Pauline Legor, CPA, MBA, The 2023 Growth Mindset Award

Pauline Legor is the proud recipient of the Growth Mindset Award. The Growth Mindset Award is given to a team member who seeks collaborators, embraces challenges, and proactively seeks opportunities to learn, grow, and improve. This person demonstrates a commitment to supporting the firm’s strategic pillars of people, culture, and profitable growth. This person is also an innovator and risk taker.

Here’s what colleagues said about Pauline:

• She is very collaborative and does a tremendous job in our niche.
• Enhances efficiency and educates others within the niche on changes.
• She is a great resource.
• She has been instrumental in improving stats thru innovation.

Ana Rodriguez, MBA, The 2023 DEIB Award

Ana Rodriguez is the proud recipient of the 2023 DEIB Award. The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Award is presented to a team member who desires to build a work environment that exemplifies DEIB through their own actions, education of others, and communication of what DEIB means to AAFCPAs. As a leader and representative who champions the ideologies of DEIB in our firm, this individual not only advances these tenants amongst their peers but also shows our clients the commitment AAFCPAs has to this very important initiative.

Here’s what colleagues said about Ana:

• A great representative of ideologies of DEIB at AAFCPAs.
• Has a positive attitude and a clear passion for this work.
• Great ideas when it comes to being more inclusive.
• Proactively engages in conversations that educate and illuminate key issues.

Please join us in congratulating our colleagues!

As we recognize those who have shown inclusion, kindness, leadership, innovation, and a growth mindset, we want to emphasize our dedication to our special and authentic people-focused culture. Our employees are crucial to our success, so we provide them with the resources they need to reach their full potential. These awards celebrate traits that embody and strengthen our culture. We highly value the unique strengths and contributions of each team member, believing that when our team members are happy, our clients are happy too.