From Jamaican track star to CPA: A firm leader’s unlikely career path

Growing up, Durran Dunn, CPA, had drive and discipline, but he didn’t have any aspiration of using those qualities to become a CPA. He didn’t even know what a CPA was.

Dunn, now a partner in Bennett Thrasher’s Risk Advisory Services practice, based in greater Atlanta, overcame “whiplash” in the form of two moves – from Jamaica to New York, from New York to Mississippi – and now mentors students on the merits of the profession.

In addition to sharing strategies for success, Dunn spoke about the high-profile-yet-anonymous role he had at a Major League Baseball stadium. He was a social media and YouTube sensation, even though his identity was hidden by a full bodysuit.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

• Dunn’s introduction to the accounting profession.
• The cultural whiplash he experienced, twice, upon leaving his native Jamaica.
• The running role Dunn performed for about seven years at a Major League Baseball stadium.
• Dunn’s path from not knowing what a CPA was to becoming a firm partner.
• Details of Dunn’s service on the AICPA’s Board of Examiners.
• Why he is passionate about volunteering and mentoring young accounting candidates.
• His emphasis on discipline – a message he shares with student groups.

Play the episode below or read the edited transcript:

— To comment on this episode or to suggest an idea for another episode, contact Neil Amato at Neil.Amato@aicpa-cima.com.

Transcript

Amato: If you’re a baseball fan, specifically a fan of the Atlanta Braves, you’ve likely seen Durran Dunn in highlight reels. Don’t worry if that name doesn’t ring a bell. He’s the anonymous human highlight reel. He’s also a CPA and firm partner, and he’s our guest on today’s episode of the Journal of Accountancy podcast. Durran Dunn, welcome to the JofA podcast.

Durran Dunn: Neil, thank you so much. I’m honored to be here.

Amato: We’re glad to have you. I mentioned at the top of the show your tie to the Atlanta Braves. We’re going to talk some about that in a bit, but we’re also going to talk about your time, your career as a CPA, so I first want you to tell me, when did you first have the idea, “I want to be a CPA”?

Dunn: It’s an interesting question that might be actually pretty shocking to most. First of all, I did not know what a CPA was or that it exists, or that the profession exists, until I was a senior in college, so I did not have the privilege of knowing about the profession or learning anything about it, really. I just majored in it. It was when I became a senior, I got introduced to the firms, and then I started my career at KPMG, and in that first year was when the notion really settled in, in terms of becoming a certified public accountant. And that was my introduction.

Amato: That senior year at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Dunn: Yeah, Southern Miss.

Amato: You didn’t grow up in Mississippi. You didn’t grow up in the United States. You grew up in Jamaica. Tell me something about that journey from Jamaica to the U.S. to college and then a little bit more about your career.

Dunn: Absolutely. I was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, went to a high school by the name of Jamaica College, JC. It was an all-boys school. A lot of high schools in Jamaica are either all-male or all-female. I ran track all my years there, so I competed in the boys athletic championships. I was a really good student as well.

My mom moved to the United States. I was probably around 10 years old when she moved here, which is pretty common for most foreigners, moving here and just helping out back at home, sending back resources. Then I eventually finished high school and then made my transition to the United States, and I was whiplashed the first time by moving to New York and just getting a culture shock.

After being raised in Jamaica, coming to New York and the United States, being introduced to snow and cold for the very first time, running indoors for the first time, so very different. Then after maybe four or five NCAA-allowed trips, I decided to go to the University of Southern Mississippi.

I did not visit that school, which is another interesting point. All the schools that I visited, I did not go, but one of the reasons that I chose the University of Southern Mississippi was that that was the only school really that gave me both an academic and athletic scholarship. For me, that was meaningful to get really my college tuition – room and board, books, everything – fully covered between both the academic and athletic scholarship.

Then I was whiplashed a second time by going to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Now I’m in New York, beginning to get acculturated and then get a complete change of pace in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which was nice and which is warm. One of the reasons why I also chose down South was to get away from the snow. That’s what took me to Southern Miss all the way from Jamaica and now I reside in Atlanta, Georgia.

Amato: You compete at Southern Miss while also taking, I think, a heavy course load. Tell me what you competed in intercollegiately.

Dunn: Yes. I was crazy. I declared accounting from the get-go of entering college, and I was doing 21 hours a semester. I was a sprinter, so 100 meters, 200 meters, 4×100 [relay], 4×400 [relay]. Four by four was a stretch assignment for me back then, but that was a mandatory piece of what most sprinters had to do at the end of a track meet is run [the 4×400 relay].

I did 21 hours. I declared accounting as my major from Day 1, never changed. In fact, I didn’t know you could change your major until I was finished with college. I had some colleagues who were still back in school, and I was like, “Why are you still here?” “I changed my major two or three times.” I was like, that is a thing I did not know. I did accounting, I never changed my major, and the rest is history.

Amato: You parlay that running ability into a role where you’re anonymous but also famous at the same time. Tell me how many years again you did this and also explain the role. You were The Freeze at Atlanta Braves games.

Dunn: Yes, I was in an entertainment role as a sprinter for about seven years or so. It’s really all about the fans. It was an honor to represent that organization, [promotion sponsor] RaceTrac as well. I enjoyed it. It allowed me to continue doing something that I enjoyed doing, which is just really running. Enjoyed, again, just really giving fans the experience in terms of being entertained while at the game or if they’re watching on any type of social media or TV.

It was a wonderful experience and one that, again, just so honored to have been a part of a really great organization and really RaceTrac as well and representing their brand, representing what The Freeze and the mystery of it is and giving that particular contestant or those particular contestants over those years a fun and memorable experience for most of them.

Amato: Just to fill in a few gaps before we get into your CPA service and career. [As] The Freeze, you wore a suit where your whole body was covered. No one saw who you were, and it was a between-innings promotion, and I guess a fan pulled from the stands was running against you on the outfield warning track, and they got a head start, and the whole goal of the promotion was to see if they could beat The Freeze. One, is that correct? Two, how big of a head start did they get?

Dunn: That’s exactly the concept. Look, it’s all in good fun. You’ve explained the concept just right. It’s, can you beat The Freeze? It’s a fun concept, and I’m sure folks, if they aren’t familiar with it, will probably go and find it. But that’s exactly the concept in terms of how you’ve laid it out.

Amato: Today, you’re a partner in Bennett Thrasher’s Risk Advisory Services practice. Tell me some about that role and why it appeals to you.

Dunn: Well, why it appeals to me and why I’m actually in the role, it’s multifaceted. As a partner and leader in this firm, like many of the partners, I wear several hats.

Leadership role in terms of just the firm itself, strategy and specifically, I’m in the role, what we call our Risk Advisory Services. Everything internal controls, internal audit compliance, some ESG readiness, SOC readiness, Sarbanes-Oxley readiness. Basically, problem-solving and being a great business adviser and problem solution-oriented person for clients and prospects and all that.

I spent half of my career in consulting and the other half in operational roles. When you combine that, in my opinion, it just really brings together a pragmatic way of solving for business challenges, and so I enjoy doing that. That’s really my role here.

There’s also the role in terms of serving people. I’m responsible for developing others, being a mentor, and developing talent for future partners of the firm and certainly representing the firm in terms of the firm’s business development, the firm profile and branding, wearing all those hats. But at the end of the day, the biggest one of all is just being able to partner with clients to help them solve their business challenges and help them reach their strategic goals.

Amato: Tell me some also about what you do with the AICPA’s Board of Examiners.

Dunn: Yeah, I can’t tell you too much there because that’s touched on the exam, but I’ve been serving on the Board of Examiners for maybe around three years now, and obviously everything that we look at and talk about and discuss is around the exam in terms of each different part, pass rates. There’s a number of different things that we look at around the Board of Examiners.

I’ve had the privilege of serving the AICPA, volunteering in that perspective, but also working with a number of different partners across different firms and organizations and certainly at the AICPA as well. At the end of the day, trying to get making sure the exam is fair, it’s equitable, making sure that we understand pass rates, failure rates. There are a number of other things that we look at around that exam, but that’s the role I play from the Board of Examiners perspective.

Amato: That’s great. We just had a recap of the first year of the changed CPA Exam, I’ll link to that episode in the show notes.

Dunn: We talked about that as well.

Amato: Yeah. You mentioned being passionate about the profession, volunteering, mentoring, all that stuff. But why specifically is it important to you?

Dunn: You know, accounting – I’ve shared this with others before – I believe the profession found me. I was not educated around the profession. I never knew anyone around the profession, and I had one teacher in high school that said, “Hey, you’re pretty good at accounting. You are [good] in other classes, but I think you’re really good at accounting. Let’s see if we can have you take advanced classes ahead of where you are in your grade.”

I did, and I excelled. So, I merely chose accounting when they gave me the list of what am I going to major in. Accounting, it’s A, it’s up top, it’s “Ac,” accounting. I was like, I’m checking it. That’s one of the first things I noticed and I checked the box there.

I believe the profession really saved my life. It gave me an opportunity to live out what I could not even imagine. When I was at high school in Jamaica, the goal was just for me to graduate high school, and that was it. There was no forethought of even college. So getting the opportunity to go to university, to go to the University of Southern Mississippi on full scholarships and walk out starting my career in public accounting at the time at KPMG, and I’ve had the opportunity to work at some really great organizations, I’ve just learned so much and the profession of giving me so much. And that’s why I’m so passionate about it and why I give back so much to it.

The other thing, too, is, if you think about it – well, two other things, if you think about CPAs today, one of the other things that drives me is how do we get more diversity in the profession. Obviously, there’s a lot of conversation around the path to becoming a certified public accountant, and I think we begin to solve from that.

Then the other piece of it is the profession as a whole. So, agnostic of race or gender and all that, we’ve seen a decline in students majoring in the profession. So if we can find ways – which for me, I like to get to high schools as well because I believe it needs to start there – we can get people excited about the profession, knowledgeable about the profession, aware of the profession. Because I’ve gone to high schools personally, I literally walk into high schools and students don’t know about a profession or they misunderstand the profession and think that all you do, you’re behind the desk in a tie and you’re doing taxes all day, not understanding how broad the profession is and how many different verticals there are.

Look, I’m just on a mission to educate as many students as possible, to give them an opportunity, hopefully, be able to support them having an opportunity to enter the profession and to continue to pay it forward. This is just the way I choose to do it. One of the main reasons that I’m just so passionate about the profession.

Amato: That’s great. Appreciate that and your passion for the profession. Tell me this. How do you apply the principles that helped you succeed as an athlete and student – taking that heavy course load, competing intercollegiately – how do you apply those principles to being a top-notch CPA?

Dunn: So, sports in my specific situation, track was my primary sport. I eventually gave in and played a year of football, which I ended up loving. I wish I had played it earlier. But the attributes of preparing for a competition, being at the competition, executing in the competition, what to do after the competition, all of that in terms of readiness, all correlates to what we do in business.

For me, in terms of discipline, I’m so disciplined in terms of I’m going to get it done. I’m probably not going to be the most talented. I’m probably not going to be the most smart, but you can’t outwork me. I’m going to get it done, that discipline. That’s one of the key attributes that from an athletic perspective pays the same dividends out in terms of what I do from a CPA perspective.

Executing is another one. A lot of times, you know, you can prepare all you want, but it’s another thing to actually execute. Being able to, if you want to call it highpressure situation, being able to say, OK, I know I’m ready and I’m prepared, which by the way, that’s where my confidence comes from. It’s all “the deposits,” and I do air quotes here, but all the deposits that I’ve made in terms of training and preparation is the same thing that I carry over into my profession.

In fact, it’s no different in school. It’s how I prepared for tests, it’s how I showed up in the exams and really being focused. Which is another piece is having the ability to be focused on the end goal that I’m actually after. A lot of times people say, hey, I can multitask and I believe that to some degree. But I believe if you want optimal benefits, optimal reward, you have to be focused in the moment.

If I’m training, I’m training. If I’m competing, I’m competing. We’re in this conversation. I’m in this conversation. A lot of times people are, especially in a virtual world, they’re so distracted by the phone or something else that’s happening and what people don’t realize is that oftentimes you lose out or diminish yourself from providing the optimal value by not being fully engaged and fully focused in that moment. It’s the very same thing that I take over in the business. A lot of people, I believe, know a lot of these things, but having the discipline and fortitude to be able to execute on this is, I believe, what’s kind of set me apart from others.

Amato: When you go to talk to kids in high schools, do you tell them that you were The Freeze?

Dunn: No. I just show up as Durran, and they tend to do research sometimes, but show up as Durran and try to really get the message across.

Amato: I think that’s interesting. I think I could see it going both ways, not judging you at all. It’s just a curiosity. What is your advice to budding accountants or current ones about pursuing excellence in multiple aspects of life? You’re a husband, father, firm leader, profession volunteer, still are, as far as I know, a fast runner. Tell me about pursuing excellence in all those areas.

Dunn: Yeah. I’m going back to discipline. If you have discipline in whatever you’re going to take on, that would be my biggest thing is that if you’re going to say, I’m going to take on a challenge, I want to meet a certain goal. I want to get a certain GPA, I want to go to a certain school. I want to do well at whatever that sport is that you’re doing, being disciplined and having the mental fortitude to be able to execute on everything that it will take for you to achieve that is so critical.

I shared earlier – look, I don’t think I’m that unique. It’s easier now to look at where things are and then look back in hindsight, but I can tell you if you think about how powerful your imagination is, and when I was younger, I didn’t have the fortitude – I couldn’t even imagine what my future would look like.

But the one thing that I was good at is just simply being disciplined of taking one step at a time and putting in the work. We live in a day and age where instant gratification seems to be really thematic and all around us, and a lot of people forget how to make deposits or make investments, meaningful investments in terms of honing a skill, developing their skillset, or improving on their talent.

There’s probably three things that I would share. One in addition to discipline, being able to communicate. Communicating, it spans between the sports, it spans into the work environment. Problem solving is a big one. I think that’s one of my superpowers is if you can figure out how to solve problems, sometimes with little data, sometimes not knowing all the players, but knowing how to go figure that out and go solve problems, that will take you a very long way.

Then lastly, learning, just continuous learning, learning all the time. Be a student of whatever it is that you’re doing. Don’t ever believe that you know at all. I still learn today. I still learn today athletically, still learn today even as a partner.

It’s just being – and maybe that’s what it is. I am a student to every single thing that I touch and as much as I might be looked at as a subject matter expert, I am still learning. Finding ways to channel that continuously, I believe, oftentimes will put folks on the path to success in whatever it is that they decide to take on.

Amato: I think that lesson “I am still learning” really stands out to me. Durran Dunn, thanks for being on the JofA podcast.

Dunn: Thank you, Neil. I appreciate it. Thanks for the time.