St. John’s Foundation Helped Executive Build a Career of Constant Learning

“St. John’s allowed me the best access to work full time while going to school because I was effectively paying my own way,” he recalled. While at St. John’s, Mr. Steiner received scholarship support, managed a local pharmacy, and tutored high school students in mathematics, a subject in which he was highly proficient.  

“Since I was good at math, I decided to study accounting because if you were a certified public accountant, you could do accounting as well as anything in the realm of business, like marketing, finance, or economics,” he explained.

At St. John’s, Mr. Steiner emphasized that he benefited greatly from his liberal arts education. “I remember being terrified doing my three-to-five-minute speech during my public speaking class. Little did I know how important public speaking would be in my career.” Today, he is unfazed when he speaks before audiences of more than 1,000 people.  

Beyond that course, Mr. Steiner stressed that the broader formation he received at St. John’s, which included business law, philosophy, theology, and liberal arts courses, helped prepare him for leadership beyond technical accounting. “I learned a lot of fundamental principles at St. John’s.”

Mr. Steiner credited St. John’s for offering career fairs that featured many top-tier accounting firms. “Like any good accounting student, I applied to all in the ‘Big Six,’” he said. He received offers from five of them. Ultimately, he chose PwC, and it was a beautiful fit.

Beginning his career as an auditor, Mr. Steiner observed that his St. John’s education was just as viable in the industry as that of other institutions that enjoy more prestige. “I ended up in the same place as my colleagues who went to bigger names. St. John’s could go toe-to-toe with these places—and I am proof of that.”

Mr. Steiner steadily advanced through the organization and has been in his current role as Chief Financial Officer of the Advisory business for 16 years. “It has been an extremely exciting opportunity for me at PwC because I’ve been able to apply not only my financial and accounting background, but also my strategic experience, to help grow a once-small business into what is now a significant consultancy in the United States.”

Mr. Steiner cites his 2016 promotion to partner at PwC as his proudest professional accomplishment. For someone who began his career as a new associate at a Big Four accounting firm, the milestone carried deep meaning, but he did not view it as the end of his career. “It was not necessarily the capstone,” he said. “It was the beginning of yet another journey.”

Personally, he is most proud of encouraging his wife and two children to pursue and complete their own educational goals. His own experience at St. John’s, he stressed, helped transform him from a high school graduate into the professional he would become, and he has seen education have a similar impact on his family—broadening their perspectives, strengthening their confidence, and helping them move toward work they find meaningful.

When asked what he would say to a student on the precipice of their career journey, he observed, “Learning doesn’t stop when you graduate,” Mr. Steiner said. “Learning is a career-long experience and a lifelong experience.”