15TH ANNUAL YOUNG ALUMNI AWARDS
DANIEL TRUJILLO
Daniel Trujillo earned his master’s degree a decade ago, but he hasn’t stopped learning.
In fact, when Trujillo is traveling around New Mexico to meet with clients, he turns his car into a mobile university with podcasts and audiobooks like “Principle: Life and Work” by investor and entrepreneur Ray Dalio or “Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t” by Simon Sinek. He also enjoys listening to The Great Courses, essentially college-level classes.
“I just have a growth mindset,” Trujillo said.
That mindset spurred Trujillo to earn a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management in 2007, and then a master’s in accounting one year later.
“It’s just so flattering that it’s hard to verbalize how proud I am,” he said of receiving one of two Young Alumni Awards.
Trujillo joined Albuquerque accounting firm Kubiak Melton & Associates in 2009 to help grow the company’s audit practice and is now a partner. He also has become a certified government financial manager to better serve local government clients and earned his fraud examiner
certification as part of his commitment to decreasing waste, fraud and abuse.
“Given the environment in New Mexico, we’re not dealing with publicly traded companies. Really, our landscape is more governmental,” Trujillo said, adding that he works mainly with governments, school districts, tribal organizations and nonprofits.
Right out of college, Trujillo joined Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central New Mexico and then spent every Saturday for the next two years with his 7-year-old little brother, an experience he said was great. After the boy’s family moved away, Trujillo moved on to other volunteer opportunities.
He figured that, as a CPA, he might be able to add value to nonprofit boards. He served on the board of a Bernalillo charter school and now is the treasurer for the UNM Alumni Association board. He also sits on the board of the New Mexico Society of CPAs and on the city of Albuquerque’s Accountability Government Oversight Committee.
“Giving back is really big to me,” he said, adding that he also talks to accounting classes at UNM and mentors students through a partnership with the New Mexico Society of CPAs and the Beta Alpha Psi honor society. “I’ve always been active in making sure I’m engaged with UNM.”
In his spare time, Trujillo enjoys traveling, playing golf and spending time with his family.