Susan Curley has had four decades of experience navigating the tax waters. Her advice for others: “Trust yourself, reboot if necessary, and forge ahead.”
Now the international tax director at Ingram Industries for nearly twenty years, Curley reflects on her professional journey and her involvement with TEI and offers a glimpse into her life beyond work.
The Road to Ingram
“When I was a teenager, I worked as a bookkeeper for a shoe store,” Curley says. “That experience spurred my interest in accounting and led me to Michigan State University for my bachelor’s degree. However, when I graduated in the early 1980s, residing near family in the Detroit area, the economy was unstable, the auto industry collapsed, unemployment in Michigan peaked at 15.5%, and large accounting firms were not hiring.”
She did land a job at a small accounting firm, where she had her first exposure to tax. “Yet, like others in my situation who really wanted to jumpstart their careers, I eventually decided to leave Michigan and enrolled in graduate school at the University of Tennessee,” she says. There she earned her master’s degree and upon graduation received offers from six out of what were then the Big Eight accounting firms. What a difference graduation timing and location made. “I went to KPMG in Nashville,” she says. “It was a small city then, but it felt like home.”
However, once she had a child, Curley found that public accounting at that time didn’t offer any work-life balance. “So I found I needed to resign,” she says, “but the managing partner of KPMG must have seen something in me, and he helped me find a job as the tax manager with a local company in Nashville.”
Curley notes that the job was good, but after a series of mergers and acquisitions, the company eventually defaulted in the mid-1990s. She then accepted a job with Nortel Networks in Nashville, a subsidiary of Bell Canada. “At Nortel, I found my interest in international tax,” she says.
In 2000, Curley moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, for her husband’s work, but “Nortel allowed me to work remotely,” she says.
Then, the tech bubble burst—and so did the company. “I’ve seen a lot of things—the greed, unethical positions taken [that] people now read about in textbooks, but I’ve actually lived it,” she says. “I joke and say, I think they had laid off about 70,000 people, and I was about the 50,000th that got laid off.”
After intensive research and exploration—with the help of TEI employment guides and other resources—Curley moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and spent three years with Yum! Brands. “It was a good job but with limited job openings in the international tax area, which I craved being a part of, not to mention my deep desire to get back to Nashville. So time to reboot again,” she says.
Curley found out, through TEI and a former coworker at Nortel, that Ingram, a company mainly split among marine transportation, book supply and distribution, and digital services, was hiring and expanding its work in international tax. “I got myself back to Nashville, back to international tax, to fascinating and fulfilling work, and with a company that cares about their staff and the community,” she says.
The Impact of TEI
Curley, currently a member of TEI’s Nashville Chapter, says that TEI was instrumental to her successful career journey. “I joined TEI in 2000. I attended meetings, continued networking, and used the resources they offered in exploring job opportunities and interviews,” she says. “TEI people recognize and help each other.”
The vice president of tax at Ingram suggested she join the Institute’s US International Tax Committee when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) was enacted. She notes that the experience was intimidating, especially because, although she is a CPA, she doesn’t have a law degree. Yet, on the suggestion of the committee’s chair, she volunteered to moderate a panel. “I realized that this was how I was going to learn about the ins and outs of the TCJA,” she says.
Eventually, she was among those tasked with writing a comment letter regarding the legislation. Through research and persistence, she was instrumental in creating recommendations that the US Treasury Department accepted—a very satisfying outcome, she says. In 2024, Curley became chair of the committee, a position she holds today.
She advises the next generation of tax professionals to get involved—and stay involved—with TEI. She also notes a current shortage of career people who want to work in tax. “Companies are always looking for talent,” she says. “Familiarize yourself with all of the technology and automation available. Attend TEI conferences. Take classes. Keep yourself going.”
Life Beyond Tax
Curley has four grandchildren under age three. “I love to play with all of them but also give them one-on-one time. They and I thrive on that,” she says. She also enjoys traveling with her husband and working out. “I joined a CrossFit group a number of years ago,” she says. “We still have a community of members my age that they call the ‘legends’ because we’re on the older side. We’ve toned down our workouts a bit, but it helps to keep me grounded.”
Regarding her life and experiences, Curley says she still tries to follow the lyrics from the song “My Wish” by Rascal Flatts: “If one door opens to another door closed, I hope you keep on walkin’ till you find the window.”
