After a 17-year career in the Albanian army and teaching as an Instructor in the Military Academy in Albania, my family and I came to start a new life here in the United States in the middle of 1999. My accounting career started in 2000 when I attended classes at the DPT Business School in Philadelphia, PA, and continued for almost seven years working as bursar in this institution, at the same time, attending college at Temple University. When I graduated from Temple University at the end of 2006, with a 3.9 GPA and summa cum laude honors, it was clear to me that accounting would become my future profession. After graduating from Temple, I got a job working at one of the “big four” companies, Ernst & Young, in their tax department, but after a short period of time I realized that public accounting was not what I wanted in a permanent career.

That was the moment when an opportunity appeared. In February of 2007, I applied to an ad for an accounting position at Tastyfrutti International, Inc., formerly Unifrutti of America, Inc. During the interview process with Controller Mr. David Watkins, and especially with the CEO, Mr. Andreas Economou, I realized that Tastyfrutti had high internal standards and goals, something I also personally strove for. These company benchmarks provided a high level of quality services to their customers. Not only on products sold, but especially to quickly respond to customer needs and inquiries, as well as to vendors and exporters. Because of the complex nature of accounting in the fruit industry, every day was like being back in school, learning new rationale for accounting with this very multifaceted industry. Needless to say, my coworkers in the Tastyfrutti accounting department helped me to grow and learn in a difficult and challenging arena.

What impressed me most about the company I now worked for was that from the onset almost all my colleagues were long-time employees with the corporation. This instilled in me a desire to work for a business where everyone worked tirelessly to accomplish their tasks, but at the same time care for, and support each other with any work-related problems. This was a business where the employees in the accounting department had to accomplish a high level of accounting work that is reviewed by the CEO on a daily basis—this is why attention to detail is so important.

Since then, the Tastyfrutti corporate culture has helped me to integrate quickly and efficiently into the business, to be quick, but also precise and accurate. I feel like I’ve grown up in this business. I have responded to management needs by problem-solving issues, amassed accounting data and reports in a very busy environment and provided accurate information to assist in the business functions of the company. My work and services were truly appreciated and I was rewarded for my hard work and dedication by being promoted to Senior Account Manager in 2013. It increased my responsibilities and requirements of dedication and knowledge to have a more careful and detailed approach towards completing our goals and objectives.

Tastyfrutti is a team that gives me motivation to work hard and learn new concepts and ideas. There will always be new obstacles to overcome and new situations to solve. The challenges of today’s business environments are becoming more complex—they require more knowledge and problem-solving skills. Working together, we use our collaborative knowledge and experience to accomplish work objectives and goals. I am honored to be a part of the Tastyfrutti family.