INTHEBLACK February 2023 - Magazine - Page 28
AT A GLANCE
Dionie Lippis ASA originally
intended to study drama, and
at one point wanted to pursue
an acting career.
To her surprise, while studying
at the University of Tasmania,
Lippis discovered her passion
for accounting.
SEIZE THE
MOMENT
Tasmania-based Dionie Lippis ASA’s flair for
communication and willingness to lean into
a challenge help her to thrive.
Story Beth Wallace
Photography Matthew Scott
28 INTHEBLACK February 2023
Lippis attributes her success to
her willingness to embrace a
challenge, and she is excited by
accounting's evolving landscape.
A theatrical background might not
seem the obvious pathway to an accounting
career, but for Dionie Lippis ASA, it has
been a fruitful pairing.
Growing up in Launceston, Tasmania,
Lippis was a shy and reserved child who
emerged from her shell through drama –
even setting her sights, at one point, on a
professional acting career.
“I actually had no intention of going into
accounting,” she says. “But then I enrolled
in accounting in college, for whatever
reason, and loved it. I suppose I’ve taken
my confidence and skills from drama and
brought them into accounting.”
Although Lippis’s family was initially
unconvinced by her career choice – worrying
that she’d be “stuck behind a desk all day,
plugging numbers into a spreadsheet” – they
soon warmed to the idea. “They understand
that the industry is changing,” she says. “It’s
very much a client-facing role, which is what
I was excited about.”
COMMUNICATE WITH IMPACT
Lippis was 19 when she took her first
junior accounting job with Preece Martin
Accountants and Business Advisers in
Launceston. She remained with the firm for
nine months, while studying a bachelor’s
degree in economics and accounting and
diploma of languages at the University of
Tasmania, before moving to Taiwan for
a three-month language study exchange.
Having studied Mandarin Chinese at
university, she’d jumped at the chance to live
overseas, explaining, “It broadened my mind
in terms of learning how to phrase things
differently and understand that people could
be coming from different perspectives.”