MELODY FENIKS, CPA, CGMA
Founder, Managing Director
Melody knew she wanted to be an accountant the day she discovered the magic of the bank rec in third grade. She was curious about the gap between writing a check and the bank’s removal of funds, so a student teacher shared how the bank rec works. She knew accounting was her calling, set her sights on the profession, and pursued her passion with zeal. Melody got her first accounting job in high school at a small company in accounts receivables and assisted with the manual bookkeeping process. She graduated from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) and passed the CPA exam in her early 20s. She has always valued the small-business perspective, working first for a small firm in Anchorage before returning to Fairbanks in 1996. She worked for another small firm in Fairbanks before starting a new firm at age 30 which became Feniks & Company in 2014.
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Melody believes public accounting is the heart of the accounting profession. She believes knowledge shared is power, and seeks to empower her clients by sharing her knowledge and expertise as an integral part of client service. Accounting as a Healing Art is her way of making the practice of accounting analogous to the practice of family medicine.
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Melody serves on the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) Women’s Initiatives Executive Committee, and recently completed service on the Board of Directors for the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants which included serving as a Council member for the AICPA. She served on the AICPA’s Private Company Practice Section (PCPS) Executive Committee for five years, and also served on the AICPA Nominations Committee. Through her work with PCPS she taught Trusted Client Advisor Workshops, and helped form and currently chairs the Small Firm Women’s Networking Group. She was honored with the AICPA American Women’s Society of Certified Public Accountants’ (AWSCPA) 2016 Woman of the Year Award. She served her State Society in many roles, notably as past president of the Alaska Society of CPAs, Chair of the Ethics Committee, and Liaison to the Alaska Board of Public Accountancy on behalf of the Alaska Society. The Society recognized her service with its Distinguished Service Award and its Public Service Award. Melody also served as a Trustee for the University of Alaska Foundation for six years and chaired the Foundation’s Finance and Audit Committee for four years. She supports various philanthropic and social justice organizations, and serves on local non-profit boards from time to time.
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Away from work, Melody may be found traveling, reading, learning ballroom dance, and sewing. She learned needlecraft at the age of five, and still practices (recently winning a blue ribbon at the State Fair for a huck woven tea towel). She also likes cooking, notably desserts, particularly pie. She enjoys gardening, adoring Kinsale (her English Labrador, who is also the Chief Executive Fun Coordinator (CEFC) for Feniks & Company), and flying copilot in a co-owned Cessna 172.
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So much of what people experience with finance – individuals and small business owners – has an emotional element. Finances can carry emotional stress, sometimes people carry hidden experiences of historic trauma, lots of fear and uncertainty, things hidden even from themselves until confronted with a financial situation. Many clients, in learning how to understand their financial situation, also experience a kind of healing by learning how to understand themselves and their emotional connection, and learn ways to heal the stress, fear, and emotional triggers. This empowers them to be more in charge of their financial lives. This is at the heart of what it means to practice accounting as a healing art.”
