Sheri Sullivan, who serves as Partner and the Global Payroll Operate Leader for Ernst & Young LLP in Buffalo, New York, was chosen as PayrollOrg’s Global Vision Award recipient.
Sullivan received the award on 17 May, during the 41st Annual Payroll Congress General Session.
“I am humbled and honored to receive such an award. The American Payroll Association and the Global Payroll Management Institute have been the premier organizations for global payroll leaders for the past 20 years and are highly respected and revered institutions [now PayrollOrg]. To be chosen to receive the 2023 Global Vision Award is an extreme honor,” she said. “Dan [Maddux] is an amazing leader and the vision he has had in establishing and running these organizations has been visionary. The fact that he continues to transform the organization to meet the growing and changing needs of the payroll professional industry and that regardless of where one is in their career, [PayrollOrg] has facilitated learning, networking, development, thought leadership, and next technology opportunities is inspiring."
Sullivan has more than 20 years of experience in global payroll, working closely with companies worldwide to provide innovative global solutions in payroll strategy.
Throughout her career, she has been instrumental in the growth and expansion of global payroll. She has applied the principles of building a better working world and establishing cutting-edge global payroll solutions.
Sullivan has worked with organizations in more than 150 countries to provide client solutions and implement global payroll and HR strategies that help organizations drive operational efficiencies and effectiveness in their global HR and payroll services.
“When I ‘stumbled’ into the payroll world, thanks to my mentor, Tom Golisano, I had no idea how I would fall in love with this most critical, extremely complex, ever-changing back-office function touching every company and every employee in all countries around the world,” Sullivan said. “After spending time with clients and payroll teams and learning about the day-to-day challenges and heroics it takes to get employees paid accurately and timely, I knew I wanted to be part of moving the industry and solutions forward.”
Sullivan has also been a contributor to PayrollOrg’s Global Payroll e-magazine. In July 2021, Sullivan was among a group of global payroll experts who shared their insights into a post-pandemic global payroll landscape during the Payroll Solutions Showcase. The panelists tackled several issues that included the growth of the gig economy, the use of technology, and the growing reliance on artificial intelligence in payroll, and redefining the day-to-day of working smarter, not harder.
In her role with Ernst & Young LLP, Sullivan is regarded as a goal-focused out-of-the-box thinker who routinely goes above and beyond to achieve positive and impactful results.
In March, Ernst & Young announced it collaboration with Microsoft to develop EY Intelligent Payroll Chatbot as part of the Next Generation Payroll Platform, indicating that, “the future of one-touch payroll is right around the corner.”
Sullivan said being recognized by PayrollOrg with the 2023 Global Vision Award is a high honor that she feels speaks to her body of work over the course of her career.
“I hope it says that I have, and am, making a difference in innovating, pushing and paving the way to the future of operations for the new generational flexible employee (doing more than just payroll), and that I am successfully mapping out and executing what the next gen payroll process, technology, and career looks like to exceed not only client and practitioner expectations today but tomorrow,” she said. “It is my goal that in the next two to three years, the world of payroll is transformed through leverage of new AI technologies with our incredibly talented payroll teams at the center moving to One Touch, delighted employee and stakeholder experienced visible payroll where data is proactively leveraged to help the organization make critical decisions.”