Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jeanette LeVie, CFE, looks back on 30 years with the ACFE

Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jeanette LeVie, CFE, almost didn’t work for the ACFE. In 1992, LeVie interviewed to be the assistant to founder and Chairman Dr. Joseph T. Wells, CFE,  but someone else got the job. However, as luck would have it, the person initially hired only lasted three weeks, and the ACFE called LeVie back for another shot.

“The day I received the phone call asking me to come back for a second interview, I had a job offer on the table that I fully intended to accept, and I was tired of interviewing,” she says. “But for some reason, I made a split-second decision to return for another round.” 

LeVie remembers sitting across from Dr. Wells in his office, telling him she had a good offer from the Austin Association of Engineers. According to LeVie, Dr. Wells quipped that she’d be “bored working for a bunch of engineers” and pitched the position at the then-fledgling anti-fraud organization as an opportunity to learn the company from the bottom up and help him grow a business.

So, LeVie accepted the position, and the job that almost didn’t happen transformed into a 30-year career at the ACFE — an anniversary she celebrated in January. Along the way, LeVie, who was named chief operating officer in 2016, has been a sort of Jill-of-all-trades, helping to build the foundations that have made the ACFE the leading anti-fraud training and education organization.

LeVie with ACFE Events Director Leslie Simpson, CFE, and John Walsh, TV host and keynote speaker of ACFE's 22nd Annual Global Fraud Conference in San Diego, California.

Those projects included a stint as the video librarian in the shipping department, sending out copies of training VHS tapes to members; scouting for proctors to oversee the CFE Exam when it was a written exam; editing course materials; and becoming a liaison to the ACFE Board of Regents. She also collaborated with Dr. Wells to establish the higher education program, the Law Enforcement and Government Alliance program, and the European Council on Economic Fraud and converted the written CFE Exam to the online version CFEs know today. One project — revising and updating the many iterations of the Fraud Examiners Manual — even inspired LeVie’s Halloween costume one year: Fraud Examiners Manual, Version No. 999.

“She started by managing one person: herself. Over the years she learned how to do almost everything. Now, as chief operating officer, over a hundred people are under her authority. They both like and respect Jeanette. But even more than that she’s just the best,” says Dr. Wells.

LeVie with Stacy Keach, narrator of CNBC's "American Greed," at the 24th Annual Global Fraud Conference in Las Vegas.

But a three-decades-long stretch at any organization entails more than projects and personal accomplishments; she has also had a front-row seat to watch how the ACFE has changed over the years. Among those changes, LeVie says the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly consequential for the ACFE. “It changed the entire psychology of the workplace and forced the ACFE and every other business to innovate and create new ways to serve,” she says.

The ACFE’s embrace of virtual technology at the outset of the pandemic has been a “silver lining,” according to LeVie. “The ACFE had numerous virtual trainings, but in 2020 we had to move everything to virtual, and in doing so, we discovered a large member and customer base that had been underserved because they never would have attended an in-person training due to the time and expense of travel,” says LeVie.

I hope the ACFE will continue to spread across the globe but still retain the personal-service level we built our reputation on.

Besides technological advances and pandemics, LeVie says the changing demographics of the anti-fraud field has transformed the ACFE.

“When I started in 1992, our industry was comprised of mostly middle-aged men. I have nothing against middle-aged men — I’m married to one — but we are better the more diverse our membership is because we all learn from each other’s different experiences and worldviews.”

As LeVie rounds the 30-year mark, she considers what might be in store for the future. “I hope the ACFE will continue to spread across the globe but still retain the personal-service level we built our reputation on. We want our members to feel like they are part of the ACFE family, which means they can be as active or inactive as they choose, but when they need us, we will be there.” 

The ACFE celebrates LeVie's 30th anniversary.