Accounting as a Science
Oregon native Pete Dillon gravitated toward science rather than business early on, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Macalester College in Minnesota. After a yearlong role as a chemist for 3M, he came to California to earn his graduate degree in atmospheric chemistry from UC Berkeley.
“Chemistry is a beautiful science,” he says. “From theory to experiment, it’s rigorous, internally consistent and highly explanatory.”
During graduate school, though, connections with Berkeley Haas business school students through the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative (BERC) helped Pete realize his long-term interests were broader than what a career in academia or government labs would likely satisfy.
He went into environmental consulting with ERM, where much of his work centered on air-quality permitting and compliance assurance for downstream oil and gas clients. It also included permitting and strategy for mining, aluminum smelting, sulfuric acid manufacturing and an array of other clients.
Two experiences during this time influenced Pete’s initial trajectory toward financial accounting.
“I was assigned to Chevron’s headquarters in San Ramon, where I owned quarterly internal reporting of energy-intensity index metrics,” Pete explains. “Because my numbers rolled up to exec- and board-level internal reporting, my client sat within corporate accounting. I recall admiring the rigor, discipline and operational excellence I saw from my colleagues in that environment.
“I began to see that while physics and chemistry explain much of the physical world, economics, finance and financial accounting explain much of the human world.”
Meanwhile, outside of the job, he also had an unusual influence on what was to be his next career move: the story of an oil tycoon.
“In 2010, I read Titan—Ron Chernow's biography of John D. Rockefeller—given that most of my work was with oil refinery clients,” he tells me.
“Rockefeller trained as an accountant. That was the first time I’d ever considered accounting as a discipline or career, given that I’d gone to a liberal arts school. I came away with vivid anecdotes of Rockefeller structuring loans with his father, negotiating terms around bus fare paid by a colleague and walking the production floor looking for marginal cost savings.
“At the time, Standard Oil distributed fuel to customers via cans. A technician was putting the bottom on each can using 40 drops of solder. Rockefeller suggested he try 38 drops. This had led to leaks. But at 39 drops, the cans held and Rockefeller had lowered costs by 2.5 percent.”
Rockefeller’s story combined with Pete being impressed by the Haas students he’d worked with and looking to tackle problems more diverse than environmental compliance, Pete went back to campus—this time to pursue an M.B.A. at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
“The M.B.A. aligned with and advanced the strategy I’d pursued since 2007: prioritize learning, optionality, long-term value to market and things I’m genuinely interested in—from people to industries to problems.”
Accounting and a Science Tie-In
“Accountants use professional skepticism,” Pete says. “Scientists interrogate hypotheses. Both use well-designed tests to develop bodies of evidence for the purpose of substantiating claims and updating the world’s fact set. Doing well in both disciplines requires thinking that’s independent, that’s evidence-based and that understands the details under inspection to be part of a whole.”
With an M.B.A. in finance and strategy, Pete joined Aperia Technologies, progressing from business development to business operations then to finance. He also found a mentor who would influence his career in finance and broaden his options.
“I credit my then-boss Richard Long, a seasoned Silicon Valley CFO and former accountant with opening my eyes to the crucial and powerful role that accounting plays in building and operating great organizations,” he relates.
“Aperia allowed me to complete my pivot into the finance function—for which the remit is as broad and important as ‘lead us in building this into the most valuable company it can possibly be,’” Pete relates.
“A portion of this remit is revenue. In business development, I led in structuring and executing our commercial partnership with Michelin. Another is internal operational excellence. So, in business operations, I owned objectives and key results (OKRs) and a host of special projects for the CEO and leadership team. Finally, in finance, I worked under Richard, where we owned all such organizational interests, crafting the best risk-adjusted path to make it the most valuable company it could possibly be.”
Push to Further Education With Our Certificate
In 2020, Pete decided it was time to further his education with our Certificate Program in Accounting.
He says of the timing: “Richard opened my eyes to what best-in-class financial accounting and operations looked like. In order to drive more value for companies, I knew I needed to close gaps in my understanding and experience related to various general ledger (GL) transactions, the control environment, clean audits and more. My investment in learning through UC Berkeley Extension carried a very high prospective ROI given prospects to lead finance; to work closely with controllers and accounting teams; and to build strong, long-term relationships with capital partners.”
Having already earned two degrees from UC Berkeley, choosing our program was an easy decision. “From experience, I know there are few better places to study than Berkeley. Go Bears!”
Courses Relevant to Work and Life
“During my studies at UC Berkeley Extension, I wanted to maximize two things: learning relative to work and marketability of my experience. So I immediately knew I wanted to go for the accounting certificate,” Pete explains.
“The electives I chose were useful to me at work (Cost Accounting), in personal life (Income Taxes and Personal Financial Planning) and in generally demystifying the world (Taxation for Corporations and Other Flow-Through Entities). Greg Crofton was an effective and committed instructor. I value his contributions to my learning about tax.”
But the most valuable course to his burgeoning career? “Intermediate Accounting, hands-down,” he answers.
“This is the nuts and bolts of accounting in practice for someone like me who isn’t going into public audit or leading transaction advisory services. Before doing the certificate, I was frustrated that I didn’t understand every transaction in the general ledger. I wanted to be able to take opening balances and a GL dump and create financial models that are complete and high impact. The intermediate accounting course made this happen.”
Entrenched in Accounting
By the time Pete completed our certificate in 2021, he was a financial planning and analysis manager for Color, a health care technology company.
Responsible for the company’s finance business partnership from planning, forecasting and variance analysis to new business development, Pete says that “Color marked a continuation of my growth in the finance function.
“I used my coursework to inform how I collaborated with our senior technical accountant, legal team and commercial teams. For instance, to ensure 606 compliance and accurate revenue recognition for prepaid COVID testing services, we evolved our contracting slightly. I used what I learned in the Certificate Program in Accounting to flow the implications for deferred revenue balances through our forward-looking planning model.”
Despite the move to the financial side of business, the love of science has never left him. Pete’s next role was finance director at KETOS, which he describes as “a fully integrated water quality and monitoring solution for multiple end markets”—another science-based company.
This was followed by a stint as a senior manager in strategic finance for Luminary Cloud—“an early stage tech startup focused on innovations in high-performance computing for enterprise R&D teams”—where he continued to use the accounting know-how he gained in our certificate program.
“During my time with Luminary, I led touchpoints and monthly close cycles with our outside accountants from Frank, Rimerman,” he says. “I also owned the planning tool, which housed all of our forecasting for cash flow and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) financials. My accounting skills were essential in helping me do this.”
Not immune to the recent fluctuations in the tech job market, Pete has returned to consulting for his services as a founder of his new business, Flash Advisory, and as a senior finance manager for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“At Gates, I lead financial planning and analysis (FP&A) partnership to the Immunization team within the Global Development division,” he relates.
“I am responsible for reviewing investment narratives and budgets both at the time of initial grant application and via subsequent progress reports. My understanding gained from the accounting certificate allows me to understand the detail and totality of these inputs and reflect back to both my internal business partners and the grantee the most important finance-related things. The goal is to support our grantee and vendor partners in maximizing the impact of the investment.”
In addition to these work endeavors, Pete sees himself continuing to grow in the accounting field. Earning the certificate has enhanced—and advanced—his career.
“I believe the accounting certificate delivered on both of my objectives: to learn and effectively market myself as a finance professional,” he says.
“Having passed the CPA Exam’s BEC and AUD exam sections, I plan to pass two more this year and earn my CPA license. I believe this will allow me to work effectively with controllers, finance and accounting teams, exec teams, cross-functional teams and providers of capital, among others, to lead organizations to financial and operational success.”
