Ability to adapt quickly, stomach for risk-taking help financial exec thrive

Like a movie action hero, Andrea Baroncelli drew on her inner strengths when she had a near brush with disaster.

The disaster was the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But for a mistake in scheduling, her husband, Jeffrey Hodgin, would have been on the airliner that terrorists flew into the Pentagon, killing all aboard.

The incident caused Baroncelli to think about what was important to her -- her daughter, Gigi, and her husband. Her boss and her friends thought she was crazy, but she and her family moved from Leesburg, Va., to Las Vegas. Neither she nor her husband had jobs in Las Vegas, but she trusted that their skills would help them find work.

Baroncelli had already relied on skills to help her make transitions. She started her career in finance, first as an accountant for insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield and then as finance director for a Washington, D.C., nonprofit. She later switched to sales, working as an account manager for Washington Gas Energy Services.

Baroncelli's networking skills helped her land softly in the desert; a book-club connection with Maul Capital Management's principal helped land her a job.

Question: What brought you to Las Vegas? You said you were a sales executive selling gas and electricity to commercial and industrial customers for you at the time.

Answer: When energy prices climbed so high, it was just no fun for me. I thought it was time for a fresh face for them.

Question: What triggered the move?

Answer: My husband was (supposed to take a flight on) one of those planes heading for Los Angeles that was crashed by terrorists. It went into the Pentagon.

Question: You said he scheduled the flight a day early by mistake?

Answer: It became a comedy during the day: "I'm going. I'm not going." He ended up saying "I am going to go ahead on Monday."

When he got back, I said to him: "Thank God, you're home. We're moving."

He said: "Where are we going?"

I said: "I have no idea, but if you had gotten on that plane, you would have died."

That was a big strain on my life. One of our neighbors was on that plane. (The woman next door) was a widow with three children, and I still had my husband the next day. We were living in Leesburg, Va.

Question: Neither one of you had a job out here?

Answer: We had skills.

Question: How did you developed those skills? You said you received a bachelor of science degree in accounting from the University of Maryland.

Answer: I was always really good at math. I started working as an accountant when I graduated from college. I was first a junior accountant for Blue Cross Blue Shield in Washington, D.C. Then, I was promoted to be senior accountant for one of their subsidiaries.

Those were fun times because that's when (personal) computers were brought on the market.

It became fun to see how fast you could do your job. I got my job down to two days from five days a week, because you could automate with a spreadsheet. I can still do a mean 10-key (adding machine) by touch. Then, I went on to be director of finance for a not-for-profit organization in Washington, D.C., the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science.

Question: What came next?

Answer: I reinvented myself. The utility industry was being deregulated. So I marketed natural gas and electricity in the mid-Atlantic. I worked for Washington Gas Energy Services.

Question: Did you think you were ready for sales work?

Answer: I didn't even sell ZIP code directories and the pancake meals when I was asked to (during elementary school). I made my mother pay for them. Yet, I built up to selling $100 million of energy (yearly).

Question: You were selling to end users?

Answer: I worked on the commercial-industrial side. I set up the contracts with them to buy the electric (power). It was my role to make sure that they got excellent pricing and that we were also covered. In that business, one bad deal ruins the year. It was lots of spreadsheets, lots of analytical work.

You were looking at very small margins of profit. It was a very interesting market to work in until prices got too high. Then, it became like the grim reaper. Electric and oil prices were going up, up, up.

The kind of deals that my clientele were used to getting were nonexistent. The prices were awful. The fun factor had left.

After Sept. 11, we decided we were ready for a change.

When I walked away from the energy industry, the president of the company I worked for thought I was absolutely crazy. He just was shaking his head. I was a little gold mine for them, and they were shocked that I was willing to walk away.

I shook my head back and said: "I'm sorry. I'm going." We just had that moment where we both stared at each other, and we both shrugged, and I walked away.

People who are stuck in that one place where they are scared to get out the bog, they are not going to experience life. Plant me in any major city, and I will have an interesting life.

Question: How did you prepare for the move?

Answer: We found a great voice coach for my daughter. We found the best school (Meadows School), drew a circle around it and told the real estate agent to find a house within a couple of miles of it.

Question: How did you end up at Maul Capital Management as client services director?

Answer: Margaret (Maul, the owner) and I coincidentally are in the same book club.

Question: So you just started talking about business, and the next thing you knew she was saying I could use someone like you at Maul Capital.

Answer: That's exactly what ended up happening. I took the basic series 65 exam to become a registered investment adviser.

Question: What did Margaret want you to do?

Answer: Several things. Using my CPA skills for financial planning for existing clients. And also, business development for expanding Maul Capital's business advisory services.

I developed LifeSync, a 401(k) advisory services for (small to midsize) corporations.

We can create a program for the company to help their employees by having professional 401(k) management. We can work with the company's existing plans and develop what are called asset allocation models designed for their employees to maximize their plan. This is something new.

These things are now becoming available for employers out of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which took legal liability away from the employer to make sure they won't get sued if they (provided investment advice through a third-party). There's a tremendous need in the country for these services.

Question: What is the secret of your success?

Answer: Being able to change and adapt as we all grow older and to keep business interesting for ourselves and not just sit back and let life happen. To change your career as you change as a person.

Question: How has the move worked for your husband and daughter?

Answer: He's an information technology consultant at Harrah's. She is now 18. She is at the music conservatory studying classical music and opera at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.

Question: What do music professionals say about her education?

Answer: They say, "You'll ruin her career. She needs to start working. You're missing all the money she can make now as a teenager."

We have read things relative to likes of Britney Spears. (We wanted Gigi) to be a well-educated popular singer. We wanted her to have the best of both worlds where she was well-educated and had a chance to grow up on her own time frame.

We want her to sell albums but not because of her personal life.

Contact reporter John G. Edwards at jedwards@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0420.