Brid Mortamais is a Chartered Accountant, and Real Estate Advisor in Connecticut and New York. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, Brid went to Paris to study for a semester at the Universite de Paris, Sorbonne. She moved to London to work with Goldman Sachs, and later back to Paris with Goldman Sachs, where she met her French husband. She spent several years working in Paris. She then moved to KPMG. She and her family later moved to the USA. In December 2011, Brid acquired JW Tumbles, a kid’s gym in New York. After she sold this business in 2016, she decided to get her real estate license. We were delighted to catch up with her recently to learn more about her journey.
Did you choose to become a Chartered Accountant or did it choose you?
Becoming a Chartered Accountant was, to me, the obvious next step after my BA in Accounting and Finance at DCU.
Your career has changed over time, from accountancy to managing your own business to now real estate. You have also lived and worked in several cities. Can you describe how (or if) Chartered Accountancy has enabled or helped these reinventions throughout your career pathway?
Being a Chartered Accountant certainly enabled my career all along the way. I find this particularly true as I have worked overseas most of my career and the Chartered Accountancy qualification is globally recognised. This was true when I arrived in London, when I changed jobs in Paris and also when I moved to the US. My connections with other Chartered Accountants facilitated those moves.
How do you introduce yourself? Do you still identify as a Chartered Accountant?
I introduce myself as a Real Estate Advisor as this is my primary role, but I quickly include my financial background and in particular my Chartered Accountancy qualification. In my market, close to New York City, where many of my clients work in the finance sector, or are successful entrepreneurs, dealing with a realtor who is comfortable with the numbers in a high value real estate transaction is very reassuring. We speak the same language!
As a member living overseas, do you feel your membership and connections with other global members has been helpful in establishing you in the various roles and cities you have experienced?
I have worked with many Chartered Accountants over the years, some Irish, some from elsewhere. I would say that the membership and connections are certainly helpful, but it is up to each member to prove their worth. And the CA network is always a great social network as well!
Looking back to your training and career path, what advice would the you of today give to the you back at the start of that path?
Be open to all the possibilities of the qualification - it is a great starting point for a career, but it is up to me to define that career trajectory.
And finally, if you weren't a Chartered Accountant, what do you think you might have been?
I was always interested in languages and marketing but chose to study finance in university. However, I have wound both of these into my career, first living and working in France and now marketing high end properties and dealing with international clients in Greenwich, CT. I think I have finally ended up where I am meant to be - but who knows what's next!
View Bríd's LinkedIn profile here
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