Two days into retirement after nearly four decades at Deloitte, David Cordova (BA ‘86) isn’t talking about career milestones or professional accolades.

Instead, he’s talking about his immediate focus: managing his son’s baseball team.

Helping others grow has always been one of Cordova’s favorite parts of the job. Even if it’s coaching Little League, he’s always found himself drawn to opportunities to help others succeed.

Today, Cordova is creating opportunities for the next generation of Foster students through an endowed scholarship he established with his wife, Michelle Coe, to support undergraduate students pursuing careers in Tax. 

Ask him why he has remained involved with the Foster School of Business for so many years, and his answer comes without hesitation.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

The people who invested in him

Cordova jokes that becoming an accountant was almost inevitable.

Growing up in Seattle, his father ran a family-owned drugstore in the Georgetown neighborhood for 47 years, where Cordova and his siblings spent countless hours working.

“We all worked at the store and encountered tons of numbers,” he says. “Accounting felt like the natural thing to do.”

As a multi-generational Husky, attending the University of Washington felt equally natural.

Then the next question became what to do with an accounting degree once you’ve earned one.

One of Cordova’s biggest influences for solving that riddle was legendary tax professor Bill Resler.

“Bill’s classes were demanding and tough,” Cordova says. “When he saw that you were interested and putting in effort, he could be a tremendous motivator and friend.”

Resler expected excellence from his students, but he also took a genuine interest in helping them succeed. Decades later, Cordova still describes him as one of the most influential figures in his life.

“He’s one of the most important people when I think of, ‘Why am I here?‘”

Outside the classroom, the University of Washington gave him something equally memorable.

As a trumpet player in the Husky Marching Band, Cordova stood on the field during the Huskies’ 1985 Orange Bowl victory over Oklahoma. He laughs that he can still remember nearly every football game the team won and lost during his college years, especially the Apple Cups. 

Investing in Seattle

After earning a BA in Accounting from the University of Washington Business School (before it was named the Michael G. Foster School of Business), Cordova headed to San Francisco to begin his career at Deloitte.

Like many young professionals, he wanted to explore somewhere new before potentially returning home.

“I kept doing a good job, and they kept giving me more responsibility,” he says. “Deloitte felt like a place that was right for me.”

When he moved back to Seattle in the early 1990s to be closer to family, however, he wasn’t sure whether the city could offer the kind of career he envisioned.

It’s hard to imagine now, but Seattle looked very different then. The city was better known for its grunge music scene than for global corporations. Amazon and Expedia didn’t exist yet, and while Microsoft and Starbucks were rapidly growing, Seattle had not yet become the business and technology hub it’s recognized as today. 

Looking back, he’s struck by how much has changed.

“If you look at Seattle today, it’s clearly a respected city from a professional standpoint, with big, complex corporations and a robust investment sector fueling entrepreneurship,” he says. “But when I moved back here, I wasn’t sure whether I’d find a good career here.”

Over the next three decades, Cordova watched Seattle emerge as one of the country’s leading business centers.

Today, he believes students can build successful careers without leaving the Pacific Northwest, and he believes the University of Washington has helped fuel that transformation. 

“You can start your career right here in Seattle and get exposure to superior professional growth opportunities,” he says.

Throughout his career, Cordova has been a leader of Deloitte’s investment activity in the Foster School of Business tax program and advocated for Seattle as a place where young professionals could build long-term careers.  

Asked what legacy he hopes to leave behind, he glosses over his business accomplishments and contributions.

“The legacy of how to do the job, with integrity,” he says. “And that Seattle matters.”

Paying forward what others gave him

One of the first people Cordova called after returning to Seattle was Resler.

He was hoping his former professor might reconnect him with the local accounting community. Instead, Resler asked him to teach an international tax course.

Up for the challenge, Cordova accepted the invitation to teach in the Master of Tax program for one summer. That eventually turned into nine summers in the classroom teaching international tax.

“Getting to be in the classroom and getting to know the students is the best part,” he says. “You build a lot of relationships and memories.”

At his office send-off lunch, Deloitte’s local tax leader shared a story from when he was a student in Cordova’s summer tax course and was about to start at Deloitte the following September. 

After completing one of Cordova’s exams, he became convinced he hadn’t performed well and worried it could impact his reputation.

Recognizing his concern, Cordova reached out to reassure him that he had done well on the exam and encouraged him not to worry.

While Cordova mentions he had long forgotten this, it clearly made an impact on this future leader.

“It’s the employees I helped mentor to be successful,” Cordova reflects, “the clients I helped become successful.”

Building opportunities for Foster students

Years after Resler invested in him as a student, Cordova found himself doing the same for others.

“With a school like this in a city like this, we need to have a pipeline of great students,” he says. “That partnership is essential.”

For Cordova and Coe, the scholarship is another way to help students discover a career that has brought so much fulfillment.

“It’s a responsibility we have to build that sustainability,” he says. “To help provide for students in their pursuit of careers in tax and accounting.”

Over the past nine years, Cordova and Coe’s scholarship has helped 15 students pursue careers in tax and accounting. For Cordova, that impact is what giving back has always been about.

Retirement hasn’t changed much for Cordova. He’s still leading strategy meetings, even if the setting has shifted from the office to the baseball field. Cordova admits he didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as he has.

“I didn’t realize how rewarding and fun the experience would be coaching kids who love what they’re doing and to celebrate their successes and development,” he says. Then he pauses before making the connection.

“If I can do the same for the Foster community, have a positive influence on people, that’s what matters most.”

After all, “it’s the right thing to do.”