Every day is different for Cathy Riedl-Farrey, who is the director of Financial Services at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, depending on the requests coming in from campus or university leaders. “A day never goes by where I don’t use Excel. I’m constantly in Excel with using numbers and working on numbers,” she said.
Riedl-Farrey, an alumna of UW-Platteville, said her interest with fiscal resources began when she was a student-worker on campus. Her auditing experience led her back to her alma mater where she has worked for the past 20 years.
Outside of campus Riedl-Farrey and her husband enjoy attending their three children’s school and sporting events. She also enjoys playing golf.
You are an alumna of UW-Platteville, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. Since graduating in 1994, why did you want to come back and work at your alma mater?
I enjoyed working as a student in auxiliary accounting and auditing higher education institutions at the CPA firm where I worked. I always enjoyed the campus environment when I was a student; it felt like home and everyone was here for the students. The welcoming environment is one of the biggest reasons that I came back.
You have served in different roles at UW-Platteville, including as an internal auditor and business services director. How did those experiences help you transition to your current position of director of Financial Services?
Those experiences helped me understand the university’s fiscal operations. In my internal audit role, I got to learn about the entire university’s finances by auditing them.
In my next role in business services, I was really in the budgeting world where I was forecasting and budgeting for the activities. It was a very smooth transition to the controller role because I have gotten to see the university from a different perspective.
What’s the most challenging and rewarding part of overseeing campus fiscal resources?
The most rewarding part of my job is helping others achieve their objectives.
The most challenging is explaining the many fiscal policies and procedures to faculty and staff who feel the policies are hindering their work. Most policies are to help ensure we are good stewards of the university resources.
What is one of your proudest moments from your time on campus?
Being on the team that helped build after the tornado. It’s been about five years now. We all had a common goal and the synergy of the group was amazing. We were
laser-focused, we had to get the university up and running by the fall term. It was also interesting working with the forensic accounting firm as part of the insurance claim process. It showed me another avenue of accounting and that was an interesting aspect.
What is one thing you wish more people knew about the financial services department?
We are here to help you meet your objectives. We welcome questions and enjoy being part of initiatives from the start where we can provide guidance on how to make it happen. When we get brought in later in the process sometimes, it’s been down a path too far and then we have to back up and do something different. If we are in the start of the initiative, we enjoy that, and we are here to help.
To nominate someone for the Pioneer Spotlight, contact pr@uwplatt.edu.