Page 55 - BusinessWest October 28, 2024

>>
Reale
Continued from page W27
Brothers, and asked if the firm needed any tax-season help. It did, and she came on board with the intention of making this a very temporary assignment and finding something else to do for a career.
Instead, she saw women in management roles, became inspired, and stuck around, passed the CPA exam, and plowed ahead.
“I knew no one was going to outwork me, and I was just going to do it,” said Reale, who eventually became the second woman to become a partner at the firm (her colleague, Kris Houghton, was the first).
As a partner and CPA, she works hard on behalf of her clients, but also on behalf of those she works with, setting an example and also acting as a mentor — to young people in general, but especially women.
“What I’m trying to encourage is for this next generation of women to be strong and financially independent, and to succeed. The glass ceiling’s already been broken; why not go for the moon?”
she said, adding that most of her mentorship activity is informal, and she works hard to make herself accessible, with some colleagues calling her at 10 p.m. or later.
She Gives of Herself
There is no managing partner at MBK; the six partners essentially split up the workload. Reale’s areas of emphasis include IT and administration.
But, as noted earlier, she’s also in charge of bringing some fun to the firm’s 80 or so employees. That’s
a broad assignment that includes everything from activities around various holidays to celebrations when
“
those tax-filing deadlines have passed, to random pranks and other efforts to coax smiles and relieve all that stress.
It’s an assignment she takes ... well, seriously.
But in addition to her work with clients and her ‘work’ to supply fun, she is also very involved in the community — and in many different capacities.
She has sat on different nonprofit boards in the
past and remains involved with the board at the Advertising Club of Western Massachusetts. She has also been involved at various levels with Habitat for Humanity, Trees of Hope Supporting Ronald McDonald House, Unify Against Bullying, and Dress for Success.
Meanwhile, the firm supports several different nonprofits and individual programs, with initiatives revolving on a monthly basis, and Reale makes a point
of stepping up for each one.
Such as with those kids’ pajamas she started buying,
with an emphasis on starting.
“I’m at 60, but I could be at 100 soon. This is fun; I
enjoy this,” she said, adding that she does most of this kind of giving — including the purchase of pairs of Air Jordans for two teen boys in a family the firm adopted last holiday season — on a low-profile basis. (Since the firm went ‘casual’ at the height of COVID, she often wears Jordans herself; she says it gives her some street cred with the younger employees in the office.)
Overall, Reale is a giving person with an incredibly strong work ethic ... and a great sense of humor, a blend of traits exemplified by her donation of a kidney to her husband 18 years ago, and the ultimate timing of that donation.
“I was tested and passed all the testing in late 2005, during the beginning of tax season,” she recalled. “I was cleared to be a donor in March of 2006, and they had an opening, but I told him I had to wait until the end of tax season. I said, ‘you waited like eight years ... what’s a few more weeks?’”
All this explains why Reale is a Woman of Impact and why D’Agostino, who knew her father well, says he would undoubtedly be very proud of all she has accomplished and the manner in which she has, indeed, become a role model to so many. BW
I was cleared to be a donor in
March of 2006, and they had an opening, but I told him I had to wait until the end of tax season. I said, ‘you waited like eight years ...”what’s a few more weeks?’
Women of Women of IMPACT
IMPACTA PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWEST A PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWEST
BusinessWest
Women of Women of IMPACT
2024 W33
IMPACT A PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWEST A PROGRAM OF BUSINESSWEST
WOMEN
Impact