Brad Hunkler

About

Brad Hunkler ‘94 grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. Miami University was his first choice for college; he loved the campus environment and was further convinced by older friends who were attending Miami and a few visits there for ‘Little Sibs’ activities. Brad started out as a business major and selected accountancy “mostly as a placeholder....[but] the truth is that I really enjoyed my accounting classes and the logic of accounting really resonated with me.”

Brad describes his career journey as “pretty traditional”—after graduating with an accountancy degree, he went to work at EY in Cincinnati. “EY provided me with a great start to my career, instilling in me critical skills in time management, communication, and hard work, and I made many lifelong friends there as well.” He specialized pretty quickly while at E&Y in life insurance and parlayed that experience into a great opportunity to lead the accounting department at Western & Southern Financial Group, where he has been since 2000 and is currently chief financial officer. In 2014, he participated in the 8-week advanced management program at Harvard Business School (HBS) for experienced executives. “I credit my career progression to the lessons I have learned along the journey from Miami, EY, HBS and Western & Southern. Despite a fairly limited number of employers, this diversity of education and experiences prepared me for the advancement opportunities I enjoyed in my career.”