All Paths Led to Banking for This CPA

BY KATHLEEN HOFFELDER, NJCPA SENIOR CONTENT EDITOR

With three banking jobs under his belt, most would say Jose M. Borbon, CPA, CRC, exudes the necessary quiet professionalism and confidence needed for a banking career. But that wasn’t always the case. When he arrived in the U.S. from the Dominican Republic at the age of 10 with his parents and older sister, Meliza, he faced many challenges.

The first was learning English. Jose participated in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. “I didn’t get held back because I tested well in math,” he recalls. “Back then, there weren’t many Spanishspeaking students at Hawthorne Elementary School. In ESL, it was just me and one other immigrant, so I was fortunate to receive one-on-one instruction from the ESL teacher to begin my English lessons.”

Jose also had to adjust to American culture, his new neighborhood in Hawthorne and later Paterson. He navigated extended school hours, new teachers and new classmates after moving during the middle of fourth grade. With Jose’s mother being a teacher in the Dominican Republic and then a bilingual elementary school teacher in the U.S., “education was always stressed and prioritized,” he says. “I am the first out of my immediate and extended family who has graduated college in the U.S.,” he adds.

School Influence

When it came time for high school, Jose made the prudent decision to apply to Passaic County Technical Institute (PCTI), later renamed Passaic County TechnicalVocational Schools. He credits PCTI with sparking his interest in accounting. At PCTI, Linda Murphy, a retired CPA and full-time teacher, encouraged students to pursue an accounting degree and ultimately become CPAs. PCTI’s Academy of Finance (AOF) program offered accounting classes in both the tenth and eleventh grades, along with a required paid work-based job training experience in the twelfth grade. “The program provided an excellent foundation, thanks to the extensive time spent teaching accounting fundamentals

From consumer loan manager at Columbia Bank to SBA portfolio/servicing manager at Kearny Bank and now vice president and audit manager at Northfield Bank, Jose’s career in banking has been a focused journey. Crediting his success in commercial banking with earning his CPA, Jose says, “Being a CPA has allowed me to qualify for and obtain positions I wouldn’t have secured otherwise. The credential and the value it holds in the business world have opened many doors for me. Because I wanted to maintain my CPA license, it has led to a wealth of opportunities.” He adds, “Success comes in many forms. A CPA license gives you career mobility that many other professions don’t offer.”

Giving Back

Assisting the younger generation and the Hispanic and minority communities is important to Jose, who sees himself in many of the students he encounters on school visits. He is regularly involved in financial literacy programs at the middle school level and the NJCPA’s career awareness presentations to high school and colleges, and he participates in Rutger’s accounting advisory department meetings. Last May, he also took part in a career session at Barringer High School in Newark in conjunction with the NJCPA, the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) and EVERFI. “I am motivated to do this because when I was in school, I never saw anyone who represented me. And, if you don’t see yourself in a position, you may think it’s not possible.”