Shirley Kwan, Founder and Principal

Shirley's colorful career spans boundaries and diverse experiences.  A global, energetic and collaborative trailblazer, Shirley “makes things happen” by harnessing talent and leading dream teams to execute on key initiatives and company objectives. At Intuit (makers of flagship TurboTax, QuickBooks and Quicken), she established a strong Internal Audit Department to conduct operational audits, and a Quality Assurance Improvement Program per professional standards set by the Institute of Internal Auditors.  As Director of Internal Audit Services at Jefferson Wells, Shirley liaised with her Bay Area accelerated-filer clients, their auditors and Audit Committee to get certified in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley Act, on-time and within budget.

Her enthusiastic courage and disciplined flexibility served her well in the arena of business development and joint venture integration.  At RAE Systems (a leading global provider of rapidly deployable sensor networks that enable customers to identify real-time safety and security threats), she led the acquisition of a Beijing company.  As Hewlett Packard's Business Development Manager, she was heavily involved with joint venture integration challenges in India (HCL) and Brazil (Edisa).   

Shirley held a variety of finance positions at Hewlett-Packard (HP).  She lived and worked abroad for 9 years in Hong Kong, France and Singapore as Director of Internal Audit, Controller for HP’s $3 Billion Personal Computers business operation in Europe, and as Asia Pacific Project Manager to establish a cross-border Accounting Processing Hub, respectively.

A Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Shirley obtained her MBA from Emory University and a BA in Economics from Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Georgia.   Her passion lies in “connecting-the-dots” and people.  Shirley’s linguistic capability complements her love of travel and interacting with people from diverse cultures.  Her interest in musical and poetic expressions is manifested in her inspirational career mentoring website, her poetic blog journal and her volunteer activities in recruitment and mentor role as an alum representative for her alma mater and Bay Area non-profit organizations.