EY's new Seattle office leader talks recruiting, clients and favorite hangouts

Christian Tinder remembers his first day at EY almost 25 years ago.

"This is kind of old school. They sent us down the street to take headshots," Tinder said. "I remember the admin at the time, the reception person, saying that my name sounded like I should be more of a magician than an accountant."

On Monday, Tinder took over as the Seattle office managing partner for the London-based accounting and consulting giant. He replaced Tim Tasker, who led the office for seven years and has spent 34 total years at EY.

Tinder is now overseeing the local strategy for EY, which has more than 950 Seattle-based employees.

The Business Journal spoke with Tinder about his career, recruiting and his favorite places to take clients.

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You've been at the same company for almost 25 years, which is a rarity nowadays. What has made you stay?

What attracted me first was the opportunity to have a really diverse career and see a lot of different clients, work on a number of different projects, and I've had all of that. ... I've been in that consulting role, bouncing around different types of consulting my whole career, but working largely in the tech sector, and especially in cloud computing.

What's it like replacing Tim Tasker?

I actually met Tim when I was in my first year at EY. He's been a bit of a mentor to me my whole career. So I've got big shoes to fill.

How is the firm approaching recruiting to find people like you 25 years ago?

I don't know if I would hire myself. People are pretty advanced nowadays. When you look at folks' resumes, they're certainly advanced from that standpoint. We have this focus on early careers within EY, and that goes down to our recruiting and expands to our experienced-hire recruiting as well. A lot of it is trying to be present on campuses both locally and across the U.S. and looking for that right talent. ... EY just announced a $1 billion investment in early careers from a CPA and accounting standpoint. A lot of that goes toward how we create a larger accounting pipeline.

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What about more experienced hires?

Maybe someone has a significant other who's coming into town for some of the other large companies in town, and folks are looking for a career change. Or maybe they were already at a different Big Four (accounting firm), or another company, and they were coming into the market. ... We scour and turn over every stone.

How has the Seattle market changed during your time here?

Early on in my career, when cloud just started to pop, I think the joke was always it's a fitting place because you're in Seattle and we're talking about the cloud. It's been super interesting to watch it continue to evolve. We've been fortunate. We're in a space where many of the biggest players in that cloud computing environment are right here in our own backyard.

Where is your favorite place to take clients in the area?

I really like down in South Lake Union on a nice sunny day, late August or early September, where you can see the sea planes landing and taking off. ... Daniel's Broiler down there in South Lake Union is a good spot. You can sit on the patio.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.