Sunday, January 24, 2021
By: Russ SavageRead about club member and board member Mary Goldsmith.
My name is Mary Goldsmith, a FL native who hails from Jacksonville, FL originally. My Christian faith and family are of utmost importance to me, and even during the pandemic I have sought to prioritize those areas, albeit virtually.
I relocated to DC 8 years ago, and with the exception of this past year have loved every moment of it. Having started my career in the FL Legislative process, the nation’s capital is a natural fit for me. As many of you know, I gleaned my insider knowledge of the political process working in the FL House & Senate and parlayed that experience into business development and government relations roles with two private sector companies – first Atkins a large global engineering firm and the last 9 years RSM, a global accounting/consulting firm.
My current role in Washington entails leading our federal sector team. To that end, my focus is on growth and retention of clients across the federal portfolio, specifically in the civilian agencies where we can leverage our experience in financial services, telecom and real estate into government. I also spend time on the Hill ensuring that the public policy outputs from our Congressional leaders are both beneficial to our firm and to our clients. On a daily basis, I leverage relationships with covered officials, career federal employees, lawmakers and personal and committee staff to bring in new federal business.
The appropriations process is one of the more complex, and often less than transparent processes on Capitol Hill, and my goal is to ensure good programs are funded that ideally correlate back to consulting services we can implement for our federal clients. Working with clients and prospective clients each day to help them meet their strategic goals and ensuring their success in key business areas like risk management, cyber security, technology, program management, data analytics, machine learning and of course audit related work, is a real pleasure. I very much miss the in person connectivity and long for the day when our virtual reality is a thing of the past.
Philanthropic and civic responsibilities have always been of tremendous importance to me as well. To that end, I serve on several boards and committees in the DC area, including the Federal Real Property Association, The Theater Lab, Exchequer club, Leadership Arlington and our own Rotary Board. I attend Grace Presbyterian near my condo downtown.
Global travel has always been a favorite past time, which I hope to resume this summer. I particularly enjoy visiting Italy and indulging on their fabulous pesto pasta and Brunello. Wine consumption both here and abroad are always at the top of my list. I am conversant in Spanish from my post collegiate year spent in South and Central America, but do need some practice. As such, I welcome conversation with my fellow Spanish speakers. I also enjoy playing tennis, running, yoga, pilates and any outdoor activity. My new best friend is Finley - Fin for short. He is a mini-labradoodle who I acquired during the early days of the pandemic. He will be one year old on the 30th of this month and just finished a two week intense training boot camp, which has left me with the daunting responsibility of being a strict mom, as opposed to just settling for cuddles in between my back to back zoom calls each day.
Finally, my interest in Rotary began in FL where I was one of the youngest and only female executives in our club at the time. I really appreciate the collective Rotary family that emphasizes service over self. The ability to engage with multiple NFP’s and contribute both time and resources has always been appealing. As such, I have particularly enjoyed both my CSG and fellowship roles in this club and hope to reconvene with all of you in person very soon. God bless!Read More