EILEEN Walsh O’Shea is the partner in charge of audit learning and development, and the partner in charge of NYO insurance practice, for KPMG LLP in New York. KPMG provides audit, tax and advisory services, delivering a globally consistent set of multidisciplinary financial and accounting capabilities based on deep industry knowledge.

Walsh O’Shea has been with KPMG for over 30 years. She was the first woman audit partner in the firm’s New York office. She is responsible for training the firm’s 9,000 audit professionals, development of the audit technical curriculum and client training opportunities. A native of the Bronx, Walsh O’Shea earned a bachelor’s in accounting, cum laude, from Fordham University. She is a CPA in New York and New Jersey.

Walsh O’Shea’s mother hailed from Kilmihill, Co. Clare. Her father came from Castlebar, Co. Mayo. She has traveled extensively in Ireland several times, and has supported the American Ireland Fund, Irish humanitarian group Concern, and various St. Patrick’s events through KPMG.

Walsh O’Shea and her sister were Irish stepdancers growing up. “We learned every Irish song by heart, with a particular emphasis on ‘The Darling Girl from Clare,’ and ‘Take Me Home to Mayo,’” she recalls.

“On Sundays our parents would take us to the Pilgrim Hall in the Bronx, which was an Irish ancestry meeting hall, where we would meet other Irish families and dance, sing and tell Irish stories all afternoon.

“Growing up in the Bronx, which was an Irish enclave in the 1960s and 1970s, I attended Mt. St. Ursula. Many of my classmates, who are still life-long friends, were also first generation Irish, so the shamrock culture was happily imbedded both at home and in school.

“To this day, I am proud to wear the moniker of ‘BIC’ (Bronx Irish Catholic). These years were some of the best of my life.”

Walsh O’Shea and her husband, Dan O’Shea, have three children, Megan, Katie and Danny. They march in the St.Patrick’s Day Parade in New York every year.

Return to Women of Influence