By Jonathan S. Reiskin, Associate News Editor
This story appears in the Dec. 12 print edition of Transport Topics.
American Trucking Associations has named Karla Hulett, a tax expert, accountant and business and technology consultant, as its new chief financial officer.
Hulett succeeds David Barefoot, who retired from ATA, Arlington, Va., in January. In taking the job with ATA on Dec. 5, she returned to working for ATA President Bill Graves, who appointed her secretary of the Kansas Department of Revenue in 1998, when he was the state’s governor.
Hulett, who also will carry the title senior vice president, will be in charge of ATA’s $30 million annual budget, as well as accounting, information technology systems and ATA’s conventions and meetings.
Her immediate previous job was director of business development for tax and revenue industry in the Washington, D.C., office of consulting firm Accenture LLC.
“I’ll be looking at how ATA operates administratively and financially, and looking for efficiencies and ways to add value for members,” Hulett said in an interview in her new office.
“I’ll be talking to the other senior vice presidents and vice presidents to see what we do and how we do that. I’ll look for redundancies to eliminate and efficiencies that can be added, and to see if there are any common denominators for improving management,” she said.
“I’m incredibly pleased that we’ve been able to bring someone with Karla’s extensive experience on-board to ATA. As we navigate this economic recovery, I can think of no one better suited to keep ATA’s fiscal house in order through these challenging times,” said Graves in a Dec. 6 statement announcing Hulett’s appointment.
Hulett’s career started in 1980. Upon graduating from the University of Kansas with an accounting degree, she went to work for the Revenue Department in Kansas, staying for 20 years, the last two as cabinet secretary.
In 2000, Hulett went to Computer Sciences Corp., in Landover, Md., directing CSC’s business modernization project for the Internal Revenue Service.
In 2002, Hulett moved to the Washington office of Microsoft Corp. for a four-year run directing the company’s consulting with state and local governments about information technology for sales tax administration.
In 2006, she moved to Accenture.
Hulett said she kept in touch with Graves sporadically and called him earlier this year to seek his advice. Several months later she was offered the job at ATA.
Hulett lives in Fairfax, Va., and has two grown children, a daughter and a son, who also live in the state.
