Loading
Accountants, by nature, normally like to remain behind the scenes.
That's why number crunchers worldwide cringed when PricewaterhouseCoopers auditors messed up with the envelopes for Best Picture at the 2017 Academy Awards. The gaffe caused the firm days of unwanted publicity.
Sarasota accounting executive Craig Steinhoff was thinking about the Academy Awards mishap recently, when he was asked to audit the 61st annual Miss University of Florida Scholarship Pageant.
“I didn't want to have a Warren Beatty or Steve Harvey fiasco!” jokes Steinhoff, principal-in-charge in the Sarasota office of HBK CPAs & Consultants, in a blog post on the firm's website. A 2016 Business Observer 40 under 40 winner, Steinhoff was referring to this year's Oscar's blunder, as well as Harvey's announcement of the wrong Miss Universe in 2016.
Florida Blue Key, a student-run honor and service organization at the University of Florida affiliated with Miss America, has organized the pageant since 1956. This year's pageant, according to the HBK blog post, was held in February at the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on the UF campus. That's where 13 students competed for the title of “Miss UF.”
Steinhoff was one of two auditors responsible for tallying the scores of a panel of judges. Jenai Ferguson, a sophomore finance major, was named Miss UF and she moves on to compete in the statewide Miss Florida pageant. Steinhoff, who moved to the region in 2014 from Ohio, says he hopes to audit similar events again — despite the high-stakes pressure. “The entire process was fun,” he says in the blog post, “although it was a bit more stressful than I had imagined.”
Your free article limit has been reached this month.
Subscribe now for unlimited digital access to our award-winning business news.
Join thousands of executives who rely on us for insights spanning Tampa Bay to Naples.
