Kay retired from Ernst & Young (EY) in June 2019 where she held several leadership roles over her 36-year career. EY is a global organization, operating in over 150 countries, with over $31 billion in revenues globally and $14.5 billion in the Americas. Most recently at EY, Kay served as a Vice Chair of the EY Americas Board, a member of the of the EY Global Practice Group (the senior leaders of each of the global business units) and as the Managing Partner of the West Region with P&L responsibilities for all services delivered to clients in the region. Kay assumed responsibility for the West Region (one of 10 regions in the Americas) at the beginning of the 2008 recession and immediately led the combination of two culturally diverse geographic operating units. Under her leadership, the West Region doubled to exceed $2.3 billion and enjoys a leading market share in IPOs and serving Unicorns, Russell 3000 companies as well as Fortune 500 companies.

Kay joined the boards of Coherent, Inc. in May 2019, Silicon Valley Bank/SVB Financial Group in September 2019 and Main Street Capital Corporation in January 2020. She serves on the audit committee of each company.

During her career at EY, Kay served clients ranging in size from early-stage venture backed to Fortune 500 companies across industries including software, semiconductor, defense, transportation, consumer products and healthcare. She has served as the senior advisory partner for Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Fortive, HPE, HPI, Netflix, Oracle, Paccar, SNAP, University of Southern California and Platinum Equity. In this role she served as the EY Board level client relationship partner with primary responsibility for partner rotations as well as providing executive sponsorship and a strategic resource for client management and the EY engagement team on significant issues. This has given her unique perspectives on the development and impact of disruptive business models.

At EY, Kay was frequently asked to serve or lead executive level committees on market strategies to achieve leadership in serving companies across a variety of industries, maturity and size; enterprise risk and innovation of EYs service offerings to leverage new and innovative technologies. In 2002 she led the pursuit and ultimate acquisition of key clients, executives and staff of Arthur Anderson's Houston Office assurance practice, the largest EY asset acquisition (acquisition of individual clients and talent) at the time.

Prior to West Region Managing Partner, Kay held a number of senior leadership roles within EY, including Chief Operating Officer for the Assurance and Advisory businesses in the Americas (2005-2008), Managing Partner for the Assurance and Advisory Practices in the Gulf Coast Region (Central/South Texas and Louisiana – 2001-2005) and the Managing Partner for the Austin, Texas office (1998-2001). During this time period, Kay served as the coordinating partner for BMC Software, Silicon Labs, Trilogy Software and Continental Airlines.

Kay received a Bachelor of Accounting degree, cum laude, from Texas Tech University in 1980. She is the 2013 Texas Tech School of Accounting Distinguished Alumni and served as a board member and member of the finance and retirement committee for KQED (Northern California public television/radio) prior to her retirement.