I grew up surrounded by the natural beauty of North Carolina. My mom is from the coast, and my dad was raised in the mountains, so my childhood was filled with trips all over the state to see family and friends. We hiked the mountains, ran on the beach, and explored the piedmont forests. My family was also big on educational trips to zoos, museums, and aquariums, so I had ample opportunities to learn about the world and the animals I love so much.
Having battled some health issues, I never take strength or the ability to exercise for granted. I love to walk and take every opportunity to do so. I have a pair of huskies that happily wear me out when I take them out, and when I have reached my limits, they give me this look that says, “Wimp!” Somehow, it gives me the energy to go just a little farther.
When I need inspiration, I look out the window. There’s always something out there to remind me that the world is bigger than me- bigger than my problems or the challenges I face today. Every day I just try to be the good person my husband and my dogs believe me to be.
Mary Duffy is a Project Administrator in the Durham Alta/Greenways office. She has worked in a wide variety of positions and work environments. From sales to accounting to administration, each role has brought its own lessons, challenges, and rewards. She uses all of her past experiences every day in her role here at Alta.
Work History
Fish World
Mary is one of a small group of hobbyists that own Fish World, a non-profit fish and aquarium store in Raleigh, NC. The goal of the venture is to spread the hobby through reduced prices, flexible payment options, education, and volunteerism.
Premier Properties of the Triangle
Mary was the only administrator for a small, flat-fee realty firm based in Wake Forest, NC.
CRS Marble & Granite
In this role, Mary wore many hats. CRS is a growing company, but at the time, it employed less than 20 people. The day-to-day tasks ranged from collecting on aged accounts to giving facility tours to general office administration. She also worked on many marketing projects, including the creation and distribution of mass email campaigns.
IBM
Mary started at IBM in sales, living in Dallas, TX, and covering clients primarily based in California and Nevada. She worked with Virgin Mega to keep their retail systems running smoothly through some very stressful holidays, turning a critical situation into a services engagement and a customer reference. She also made in-roads in several casinos that had given up on IBM as a vendor.
After sales, she moved to the Accounting Center of Excellence to manage contracts covering software vendor royalties. Here, she worked on a team that was simultaneously reduced in size while given a larger scope of work to accomplish. After a successful year of process reengineering, the work was off-shored to the Philippines.
Mary then moved to a general accounting role covering several services divisions. While the accounting work was challenging, the most important thing she accomplished in this position was to unite global teams and build an understanding between people of very different cultures who needed to work together. Thanks to those efforts, the entire process became smoother each month.
