Chris Harze
Vice President, Internal Audit
Walnut Creek, California
"When I joined the AAA family, I was excited to discover that my diverse experience, culture, and heritage was not only embraced as an asset, it has been celebrated."
My parents immigrated to Canada from the island of Jamaica in the 1970s in order to build a better life for themselves. My mother, who was a payroll clerk in her home country, worked in Toronto cleaning hotel rooms for several years when she first arrived. My father left his bookkeeper position in Montego Bay to become a roadside trailer mechanic on the snowy highways of Ontario. While working, they were also going to night-school to obtain their accounting certifications. My mother earned her Certified General Accountant (CGA) designation 3 months before I was born.
I am the third of my parent’s three boys. During my elementary school years, my siblings and I spent our summers in Kingston, Jamaica in a home with my grandparents, three aunts, two uncles, great-grandaunt and great-grandmother (“Gran-gran”). During these summers, I was taught the fables of Anansi, played bare-foot soccer with members of the Marley family, and learnt to bake Jamaican patties in our bakery. I also learned how fortunate I was to have parents that sacrificed so much in order to live in a country where my siblings and I could be educated, safe from corruption, and be celebrated for our cultural differences.
I emigrated from Canada to the United States in 2005 with my wife and began growing our family in a city 25 miles away from Atlanta, Georgia – the birthplace of Martin Luther King. While living there, I gained an understanding of the diversity tensions felt by many southerners which increased my empathy for generations of Americans. I earned my MBA at Emory University in Georgia, then soon moved my family to California where my appreciation for diversity has continued to grow. When I joined the AAA family, I was excited to discover that my diverse experience, culture, and heritage was not only embraced as an asset, it has been celebrated.
Chris's AAA Timeline
2018: Vice President, Internal Audit
2017: Accounting Director