Laurie Ann Kaufmann is the executive vice president and chief financial officer at the First Security Bank of Nevada, where she has been responsible for overseeing the bank’s financial records since 2014. Ms. Kaufmann began her career in finance in 1982, when she completed a Bachelor of Science in accounting at Millikin University. A lifelong pianist, she had initially planned to major in music but realized after her first music theory class that she felt outpaced by many of the other students and decided to change her major to accounting. Naturally analytical and a strong mathematics student, Ms. Kaufmann found accounting to be a perfect fit and enjoyed the challenge of managing and balancing complex sets of data.
She made the transition into financial management in 1993 when she was named first vice president of ABN AMRO, where she would remain until 2006. Ms. Kaufmann added regulatory responsibilities to her role when she joined Western Alliance Bancorporation as vice president and financial reporting manager later that year. In 2014, she became senior vice president controller of First Security Bank of Nevada, rising to her current position in 2018. In addition to overseeing all financial records, Ms. Kaufmann is responsible for managing the bank’s assets and liabilities, supervising all IT functions, and sits on the ALCO committee.
Ms. Kaufmann’s diverse financial background and attention to detail have lent her an unusual perspective and strong advantage in managing the demands of her position. She credits much of her success to understanding the bank’s data on a complex level and being able to respond accordingly, adding that she understands the client side of the business better than the business development team. Ms. Kaufmann is currently working toward retirement and hoping to build a team of savvy and competent executives that she trusts to manage the transition smoothly.
