Frank McGorman, MBA 82, Retired Forensic Accountant, FBI

Although Frank McGorman appreciated his first job at a Big Four accounting firm, he didn’t see a future as a public accountant. But he eventually found his niche: managing the forensic accounting department at the FBI’s San Francisco field office. “In 95% of cases, there’s a financial piece because people are in crime to make money, or they need money to accomplish their objective,” McGorman says. 

The most publicized case his team worked on was the Theranos investigation, but he says the most significant of his career involved national security: a Chinese American citizen who attempted to steal DuPont trade secrets through a Chinese-funded company. He and his colleagues were found guilty of economic espionage.  

McGorman’s career was anything but linear. After two years in public auditing, he enrolled at Haas and used his MBA to secure finance and product marketing roles in Silicon Valley for the next two decades, mostly at Hewlett Packard. 

His career was successful, but eventually, McGorman sought work that offered deeper satisfaction—leading him, surprisingly, back to accounting. 

While joining the FBI meant taking a significant pay cut, he considers it the best job of his career. “I felt like we were really making a difference,” he says. “If people aren’t held accountable, then there aren’t consequences for cheating, and eventually, society would devolve into chaos. I like to think we play a significant role in making sure that doesn’t happen.” 

McGorman retired in 2023 after 13 years at the FBI, but not because he was burned out. “You can’t work forever,” he says.