Off the Clock: Darla Saux, Stone Oil controller
January 11th, 2010
(Photo by Tracie Morris Schaffer)
Age: 49
Family: husband, Connie; stepdaughter, Corrie
Education: bachelor’s degree in accounting, University of New Orleans
Hometown: Gretna
Accounting wasn’t Darla Saux’s original plan. She was studying petroleum engineering at Louisiana Tech University and admittedly partied a little too much.
After coming back to the New Orleans area, she decided engineering wasn’t what she wanted to do and stumbled across a bookkeeping job.
“Numbers sing to me,” Saux said. “I tell people that all the time. I understand them.”
After graduating from the University of New Orleans, she held an accounting job at Bourgeois Bennett from 1993 to 2001 before moving to Adams and Reese as manager of financial accounting. She took on her current role as controller of Stone Oil in November and is the president of the Society of Louisiana Certified Public Accountants’ New Orleans chapter.
What’s your favorite number?
Five. No reason. That’s just the number I go to first whenever I need to name files.
Do you do your own taxes?
Yes. I’ve always done my own. I have my tax returns going back to 1978 from summer jobs because I’m a pack rat.
Do you rely heavily on a calculator?
Yes. I can’t do any numbers in my head.
Was math your favorite subject in school?
Not actually. English was. Math was never my favorite subject. I was just good at it.
Is it coincidence that your last name is Saux (pronounced “socks”) and you work in an industry regulated by the SOX Act (Sarbanes-Oxley)?
Purely coincidental.
Could you see yourself do anything else?
Sometimes I fantasize about teaching, but I just can’t imagine getting up for 6 a.m. I like it when you see the light bulbs go off. I enjoy drawing and painting, so if I were independently wealthy, I could see myself painting for my own pleasure, which is kind of contradictory to numbers people, that creativeness, but there’s some of that in me.
So do you identify with the conservative perception most people have of accountants?
Actually I am fiscally conservative, but socially moderate. Are you talking about the green visors and pocket protectors? I think a lot of us are. It’s a good perception of the accounting side of us.
Are you one of them?
Yes. Then there’s the off the clock, that’s not the way I am. I’m much more relaxed and have a sense of humor. I’m not as conservative. It’s kind of your day job versus night job.•
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