Rosie O'Brien

Principal, Freed Maxick ABL Services

Biography:

Rosie is a principal for Freed Maxick ABL Services. She joined the firm in 1995 and has over thirty years of experience in the ABL industry. She is responsible for staff supervision, quality control and developing and maintaining lender relationships.

Rosie has extensive experience in performing due diligence exams, including pre-loan surveys, collateral monitoring and fraud investigations across various industries.  Prior to joining Freed Maxick, she was a collateral examiner at a national lender.

Rosie attended St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York and received a bachelor of science in accounting.

What advice would you offer to women just starting out in the industry?

I have been in the industry for over thirty years and have enjoyed watching it grow and change. When I first started my career at Freed Maxick in 1995, I always felt encouraged and empowered by my fellow colleagues which is extremely important. Even though the ABL industry tends to be male-dominated, I felt supported. It tends to mirror the accounting industry, and especially when you add in the travel, often women have to make a choice between their career and their family. The advice I would offer to women just starting out is this – work with and for people that support you, and whom you can learn from. It’s so important to feel comfortable in the workplace so that you can be successful in your career, but also keeping the lines of communication open so that you can have flexibility to maintain a personal life. On the auditing side, which is my focus, the travel can be hard sometimes so I would recommend having a support system in place.

Be strong and courageous, stand up for yourself, and always put 110% into the work you do every day – if you can do those things for yourself, you can do anything in this industry.

How do you balance work/personal time?

In my position I travel about two weeks a month on average, every month. And I love it. Of course not every week is perfect, but for example I was just recently in California for work and got to spend some time in Napa Valley. What works for me in creating a work/life balance is that I’m able to tie my travel into opportunities to visit family and friends, and doing things I want to do. If I didn’t have that, I’m not sure I would have been able to keep up with the heavy traveling aspect of the job. My family is all over the country so it makes it doable and fun, and I truly make the best of it. For me personally I don’t want to just travel, work, and then sit in the hotel room – so I make a point to use the time to sightsee and explore, which is why this is the perfect job for me. I get the best of both worlds – to do what I love the most (see the world), and work simultaneously.

When I’m home in Buffalo is when I take the opportunity to decompress and get things done in my personal life. What helps me be productive when I’m in town is being as organized as possible – I am always thinking ahead so that I can plan accordingly. For example, when I know my travel schedule I will coordinate all my personal appointments, or maintenance appointments for my house, ahead of time. That way I’m essentially just executing things that I’ve already planned so it’s not stressful. Then I’m excited to get back to that two weeks of travel and hitting the road again.

There’s a great big world out there, I want to keep seeing it!