Feature Article

09-21-07

World Class
Fifty-Five of the Most Influential Foreign-Born Atlantans
by Amanda K. Brown, Steve Fennessy, Tiago Moura, Phakisha Peterson, Betsy Riley, Chandra R. Thomas, Kimberly Turner, Elizabeth Westby
Atlanta Magazine
October 2007

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Yelena Epova's first job when she and her husband came to Atlanta from St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1990 was working as a cashier at Cub Foods. Despite having earned an engineering degree in Leningrad, she had never touched a computer. But by attending night courses at Georgia State, she soon parlayed her love of math into a more practical accounting degree. Upon graduation she achieved the highest score on the CPA exam in Georgia and one of the top 100 scores in the United States.

Now a partner in Habif, Arogeti & Wynne's Tax Group, she has founded GlobalEXECWomen, an Atlanta-based group for women working in international companies. Quoted by media on topics from the euro to export incentives and consulted by countries from Canada to Denmark, Epova is a recognized expert on international tax issues. She is also an active volunteer at the Marcus Jewish Community Center.

Epova says she has found Atlanta to be very accepting of immigrants. "I have never felt foreign," she notes. "People were very interested in my background ... Atlanta is getting to be much more cosmopolitan. But I hate the traffic and the hot summers."

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