When Amy Aronin joined Century West Engineering as Corporate Controller in 2025, she stepped into a role that combined her two favorite things: solving puzzles and helping teams succeed.
Based in Century West’s Lake Oswego office, Amy brings nearly 20 years of experience in accounting, audit, and finance leadership. Her career has included public accounting, manufacturing, heavy equipment, and now engineering. However, her approach has remained consistent: understand the business, build strong teams, and find ways to make things better.
“I love solving puzzles,” Amy says. “This was one big puzzle for sure.”
Originally from New York, Amy jokes that accounting was not exactly a lifelong dream. “Like most people who didn’t have real passions for anything, I was actually pushed into it by my parents,” she jokes. But early in her career, while working in internal audit, she discovered she genuinely enjoyed understanding how businesses operate and identifying opportunities for improvement.
“It became really interesting to me how people ran their businesses,” she says. “I just wanted to get involved and help.”
That mindset has shaped her first year at Century West.
As Corporate Controller, Amy oversees Century West’s accounting operations, financial reporting, and process improvement initiatives. In simple terms, she says her responsibility is “making sure the financials are complete, accurate, and timely,” allowing company leaders to make informed business decisions. One major focus during her first year has been modernizing systems and streamlining workflows, including reducing paper-based processes and improving reporting timelines.
“When I got here, the close took like 30 days,” Amy says. “We’re able to close in about 11 days today.”
Other improvements, including faster direct-deposit reimbursements and updated financial tracking systems, have helped create smoother processes across the company. But for Amy, the work is not just about systems and spreadsheets. It is also about people.
“A lot of my time goes into mentoring and developing teams,” she says. “You’re not doing your job well as a leader if you’re not giving people the right tools to succeed.”
This belief shapes the way she approaches her team and the culture she hopes to build within the department. Amy credits much of the accounting team’s success to the pride they take in their work and the level of care they bring to it every day.
“You can’t really teach people how to care,” she says. “Every single person on my team really cares about what they’re doing and wants to put good work out there.”
Amy’s leadership style, paired with her humor and candid communication style, has made her a familiar voice around Century West. She believes humor helps create an environment where people feel comfortable learning and growing.
“It’s a lot of self-deprecation humor,” she says. “When people see that you can be human and make mistakes and joke about it, it creates a safe place to learn.”
Outside of work, Amy spends time with her wife and two children exploring new hobbies, traveling, and introducing the kids to new experiences, from ice skating to attempted drum lessons.
Amy also remains loyal to her New York roots, especially when it comes to food. While she praises Portland’s food scene and recommends local favorites like Ken’s Artisan Pizza and Apizza Scholls, she admits Oregon still falls short in one area.
“The bagels are a little rougher,” she says. “So I get them shipped from New York City.”
Yes, really.
According to Amy, partially baked bagels arrive regularly from the East Coast and are stored in a dedicated garage freezer. “Half my paycheck goes into shipping bagels,” she jokes.
Looking ahead, Amy is excited about Century West’s future and the company’s continued growth.
“With all of the initiatives and investments we’re making into our people, processes, and systems, it’s all upward and good news from here,” she says. “I’m excited to be on a winning team.”
Amy also hopes the impact she leaves behind goes beyond process improvements.
“I’d like to leave a footprint here,” she says. “I want people to say this person came in, really cared about the organization, and you can see it in the work and the output.”