{"id":7261,"date":"2019-06-12T09:39:38","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T13:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=7261"},"modified":"2023-02-15T10:49:20","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T15:49:20","slug":"michiel-soeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2019\/06\/12\/michiel-soeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Michiel Soeting – MBA Graduate Expands Georgia Southern\u2019s Influence and Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Years before heading a global auditing practice for consulting powerhouse KPMG, Michiel Soeting (\u201984) was a teen in the Netherlands, fascinated by American culture, particularly basketball. However, pursuing an MBA in the United States seemed out of reach until he was awarded a Georgia Rotary Club scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a great opportunity. If you\u2019re from a relatively small country to be able to study in the United States and to get to know a different culture broadens your horizons,\u201d Soeting said. \u201cIf I step back, those were very formative years. If you\u2019re young and you\u2019re in a different environment, clearly it has quite an impact on you going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His 30-Year Career at KPMG <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Soeting started working for KPMG in 1987. Since then he has handled audit, tax and advisory services for some of the largest energy and natural resources companies in the world. They include Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, PetroChina and BHP Billiton. As the former global head of KPMG\u2019S energy and natural resource practice, he led 18,000 people in 100 different countries. Now, after three decades in business, the University alumnus said he still appreciates what he learned at Georgia Southern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt set me up for an international career,\u201d\nhe noted. \u201cTalking about my time at Georgia Southern always has been a nice\nicebreaker when meeting people while on business in the U.S. For example, they\ndon\u2019t expect a Dutchman to talk about college football.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While attending Georgia Southern, the Rotary Scholar played pickup basketball games in Hanner Fieldhouse, tailgated at football games and even participated in deer hunting. He lived with a family in Register, Georgia, and through them became a fan of Southern cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWow! Let\u2019s start with fried chicken,\u201d he said excitedly.\n\u201cI love any casserole. I love grits. If I travel with my family\nin the U.S., they know I must have grits for breakfast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soeting is still close to the son of the\ncouple he stayed with in Register. Last\nsummer, he attended the wedding of\nhis friend\u2019s daughter, and he\nvisited the Statesboro Campus on a deserted Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI could see that the school has grown with so many new and better facilities,\u201d he said. \u201cI have traveled a lot all over the world but I think it\u2019s good for students to realize the wonderful environment they are in at Georgia Southern.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A Flourishing International Career <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Soeting currently lives in the United Kingdom where he is the global lead partner for the Australian-based BHP Billiton audit. The company is a leader in the petroleum, metals and mining sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a regular commute into Melbourne and\nHouston,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel privileged to work in different cities and discover\nthem. You can ask me about good restaurants in Houston anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometime, the audit profession is considered\na less-than-thrilling line of work, but Soeting said it is a fast-learning\ntrack for accounting and finance majors to understand the inner workings of a\nvariety of businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good for students to understand beyond the numbers,\u201d the business graduate said. \u201cYou need to understand why companies are making a profit and why they are making a loss\u2026 For example, if we need to audit the valuation of an asset or the valuation of stocks, we need to inspect, we need to be on the ground. And if those stocks or if that plant is in the middle of the jungle of Thailand, you have to get there. I have had my share of helicopter rides, private jets and company jets just to get to the middle of nowhere. You\u2019re in the real world and that is what makes the profession very appealing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his 30 years at KPMG, the University\nalumnus has visited many fascinating places and learned valuable lessons but he\nhas never forgotten his Georgia Southern experience or the lasting friendships\nhe made in Statesboro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI still have people I may not see quite\noften but if I would contact them, we would immediately get in touch and it\nwould be like we met each other for the last time only yesterday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soeting, who credits his Georgia Southern\neducation for helping pave the way for his hugely successful international\ncareer, is married to his wife, Anne Mieke, and they have two children, Sophie\nand Claire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Sandra Bennett<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Years before heading a global auditing practice for consulting powerhouse KPMG, Michiel Soeting (\u201984) was a teen in the Netherlands, fascinated by American culture, particularly basketball. However, pursuing an MBA in the United States seemed out of reach until he was awarded a Georgia Rotary Club scholarship. \u201cIt was a great opportunity. If you\u2019re from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":7263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-7261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-spring-2019"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}