Chris Terhark may have inherited her love of numbers from her family. Her father was a math teacher, and her uncle an accountant.

After some exposure to the field in high school and attending the accounting program at University of Northern Iowa, she determined she was most interested in public accounting, where she would work with a variety of clients and have an emphasis on building relationships. 

Terhark, 56, launched her now more than 30-year career with Deloitte’s Des Moines office straight out of college working in the audit and assurance practice. She served as the office’s audit and assurance leader for the last five years before her promotion to Des Moines marketplace leader in December 2025, succeeding Rick Tiwald, who retired.

She said the people at Deloitte drew her to start her career with the professional services firm, but more than that, it was the feeling she got from them — the feeling of collaboration and investment in each other.

Terhark’s mother was also a teacher, and with two educators for parents, they instilled in her values of lifelong learning and the importance of investing in others and the community.

“I think about that lifelong learning a lot because … coming out of college and accounting, you didn’t necessarily have that as a focus of launching your career, but that’s been so tremendous,” she said. “Standards and regulations evolve in our arena, in audit, in tax, in our clients’ financial reporting, so we’re keeping on those things, which leads to new challenges all the time.”

The Business Record recently caught up with Terhark to talk about her new role.

This Q&A has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity and length

What have you been focused on in the first few months as you get settled into the role?

In my role I’m responsible for our business developments, our client service strategy as well as how we’re going to make an impact in the community. So, really working with my local leadership team to determine what are our short-term and long-term goals? We’ve experienced some great growth in the insurance sector over the last several years, so it’s really building on that growth that we’ve had and determining how to take that to the next level, as well as across additional industries. I think as I look at the lens in this role, I think about clients, our people and community, so the lens I try to use to evaluate would be ‘Is this a good decision for our clients and strategic partners, for our people and how we can show up in the community?’ and just trying to take that lens and apply it to all the different opportunities that come at us.

Tell me about Deloitte’s overall presence in the Des Moines market.

We are the largest Big Four professional services firm in Iowa, the U.S., and globally, so we have that privilege of being part of this global organization being able to bring to bear all the resources we have to our clients and our people locally. As far as our client focus, we span a number of industries, so financial services, including insurance and banking, energy, manufacturing and higher education. So a good breadth that I think we can offer a lot to our people too in terms of varied experience throughout their careers. We also provide services to over 90% of the Fortune 500 companies globally.

Where have you seen some of the biggest changes in the Des Moines market during your career?

Some of the bigger changes from when I started would be banking. The banking industry, thinking about the ’90s, went through some consolidation with a lot of mergers and acquisitions so that industry contracted a bit from an audit and tax lens, but then we see the expansion in other industries in terms of insurance companies, manufacturing, the service industry. The other thing I’ve seen change more in our office is just how we bring our multi-disciplinary model, as we call it, bringing audit, tax, and consulting to bear. So, the fact we have all of those services look at clients and potential clients and think about how cross-functionally we best bring value to them.

Was there a moment in your career where you knew you were interested in this role and leadership?

That reminds me, just reflecting on my early career, I think I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of wonderful mentors. People that invested in me, helped provide opportunities for me and really believed in me. And sometimes along that career path, there’s times we don’t believe in ourselves. That led to that office audit and insurance leader role, which I think gave me really great foundational experience for this role. 

Rick [Tiwald] was one of those terrific mentors that I had the privilege to work with. Going back a couple years, [there] was really a moment, as he and I worked closely together because he also led our tax practice in addition to the office, talking about his long-term future, retirement plans and the light bulb came on that, you know, I really think the steps I’ve been through with serving clients, working on things from a talent perspective within our office, so not just focused on clients but focused on our people, focused on volunteering in the community, I think, have set me up well to be well-rounded. That’s what I always tell our younger people, ‘You can be good at one thing, but we really want to make you into a well-rounded professional person.’ Rick had the confidence in me as I shared with him that I thought that would be a nice next step and I was fortunate to really shadow him over the last couple years, which made the transition into this role that much easier.

What are some of the skills that you think helped you become well-rounded as a professional and prepare for this role?

I think one thing I really try to do is just show up every day and give my best. That might look different on different days, but that’s foundational to what I believe in. And then just having the tenacity to oversee challenges, overcome those. I think building teams is critically important, and we’re better together, so building those teams of different skill sets that we can each leverage one another to best serve our clients, to best offer our people those development opportunities would be another one, and then I think the other piece is one of the things that brings me the greatest joy is seeing others succeed. So the fact that you can bring someone in as a new hire, and you can see them grow and develop and ultimately succeed to that partner [or] managing director level.

What are some of the biggest needs you hear about from clients?

I think one that’s probably been foundational throughout my career is just a trusted business adviser. Clients continue to want to work with people they trust. We value relationships and being in that trusted business adviser role. What we’re hearing is clients talk about in this post-COVID era [is] the co-location model. We have a wonderful apprenticeship model at Deloitte, and under that apprenticeship model, where we do a lot of mentoring and development. Having that co-location aspect just amplifies the learning, and I talk to clients a lot that maybe aren’t co-locating as much, that have been slower to come back from COVID, about things that we have done and how that looks. 

What other changes are you seeing clients continue to deal with post-COVID?

I think the pace of change has definitely accelerated, certainly over my 30-year career, that’s been dramatic. But I think that’s something that I would point to just how quickly things continue to move. Of course, the other item we hear a lot from clients is around technology, and specifically AI. The way we like to look at that at Deloitte is it’s really human-powered and AI-powered, so you need the human insight and judgment to take the purpose and really set the plan for how any technology will be used. Then once you’ve tried that, determine how you’re going to scale that, but we think that that human element on both the front end, as well as the back end on interpreting results and being very thoughtful, is important. So a lot of my clients were talking to boards and audit committees about technology governance, including AI, and just how you need to have an oversight or governance structure around that to make sure that you’re doing things at the right pace.

You mentioned leveraging growth in the insurance industry. What are some of the opportunities for growth in that industry specifically?

I think in addition to some of the audit and tax clients we have, and I’ve heard a lot talk about it, [there’s] a lot of focus on technology, including AI, but not solely. And so, how do we bring the resources we have to bear in our technology consulting and make sure that people are aware and know we are ready to serve them in that way?

What is your leadership style?

I do view it as a servant leader mindset and that I would give credit to my parents as well as the mentors I had early in my career. That’s how they showed up. That’s how they led, so I really try to have that be the way I live. Showing up every day and giving my best. I try to identify and develop individuals’ strengths, and then once those are identified try to give them opportunities that will leverage those strengths so they can realize that potential, and then that feedback loop of celebrating that success at the end. 

You said you picked up on Deloitte’s culture when you were deciding where to work out of college. How do you want to support the culture that has been established while also bringing your own leadership style to it?

I do think over the years it’s been something that I’ve really tried to have people choose Deloitte, not just for the people, but that feeling I had of how you feel when you’re here — that you feel recognized. You feel supported. And you feel rewarded. And that you can show up as yourself. I think that’s another really important point from my perspective, and I think we have that culture where people have been able to do that. So, really continuing that, that we recognize and appreciate everyone’s unique skill set that they bring.

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At a glance

Hometown: Marengo, Ill.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in accounting from University of Northern Iowa

Family: Husband Brian, and two adult daughters, Emily and Grace

Community involvement: Serves on the United Way of Central Iowa board of directors and as chair of the Finance/Audit Committee; the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s Operation Downtown board of directors; and Iowa College Foundation board of governors. She was also Deloitte’s inaugural representative selected to serve a term on the Financial Accounting Standards Board nonprofit advisory committee in 2021. 

Contact: cterhark@deloitte.com