Consultant Spotlight: Jennifer McKay

Congratulations to Jennifer McKay, one of our new 2023 Consultant Club members. With 20+ years of experience in finance and accounting, this Excel expert has been a valuable member of CCN over the past four years, and we can’t wait to celebrate with her in Las Vegas!

A Career Built in Austin

Jennifer started her career at Cadence Design Systems in Austin. After that, she moved to Spansion, an AMD joint venture semiconductor company, where her experience in finance and accounting really took off.

She moved through several other positions in technology and manufacturing before landing at ATMI. Along the way, she met Andy Cox — though their paths wouldn’t cross again for several years.

A Sabbatical Leads to Consulting

After ATMI was acquired, Jennifer was given a fantastic severance package and decided to take a sabbatical. During that time, she spent time with family and friends, caught up on house/yard projects, and went on a Disney World vacation. She even contemplated a career change but ultimately decided to return to accounting.

“When I returned to work again, I was refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to get back down to business… but realized I didn’t want to work full-time anymore. I wanted more flexibility in my schedule. That’s when I called up Andy about a year after he started CCN.”

Jennifer joined CCN on a project that was only supposed to last 4-6 weeks. Four years later, she’s still with the same client and loves it.

“I love CCN. I have nothing but great things to say. I’m never leaving…not until I retire!”

Excel Guru and Efficiency Expert

Jennifer’s passion for efficiency and organization is evident in her work. She loves finding ways to optimize processes to reduce the time needed to complete them, especially with Excel. She’s known as an “Excel guru” by almost anyone who has worked with her.

“I love it when I can take something that used to take days or hours and streamline it to be more efficient – typically with Excel… can working in Excel be exhilarating? Well, I certainly dig it!”

Achieving Work-Life Balance

When she’s not working, Jennifer loves spending time with her family and friends. She’s a big animal lover and enjoys working outdoors, gardening, landscaping, and doing house projects: “I definitely rely on sunshine and fresh air to help keep me in a good mood!”

Jennifer also loves puzzles (jigsaw puzzles, sudokus, and more) and figures, and that plays a role in why she finds so much enjoyment in this line of work.

Celebrating Success

Jennifer has been to Vegas twice, but neither trip was anything to write home about. She says, “This trip will be a totally different experience!”

“I’m bringing one of my oldest friends as my plus one. We already know we’re going to a show, we’re getting a spa treatment, we might go dancing… She loves cooking shows and stuff like that, so we made a reservation at a restaurant with a famous chef she likes. It’s going to be so much fun!”