Let your human side shine

The gig: As director of human resources for Ernst & Young’s Pacific Southwest area, Wolfe works to attract new talent and to motivate employees at the professional services firm, which employs 130,000 people worldwide. Wolfe, who is based in Los Angeles, says her role is to help build “a good work environment where everybody is able to maximize their potential.”

Education: Bachelor’s and master’s in music, CalArts; master’s in organizational development, Pepperdine University.

Personal: Married, with 8-year-old twins.

History: Born in Shanghai, Wolfe immigrated to the United States when she was 17. She spent her first year in Missouri studying music and learning English.

Biggest culture shock: “In China, everybody shares, everything is family-style. It was very awkward for me to eat my food and not offer it up to somebody.”

Noteworthy: A former concert pianist, Wolfe, 44, has performed around the world and in every U.S. state except Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont.

First job: Teaching piano for $10 an hour when she was a student at CalArts.

Making the leap: Wolfe, who traveled at least six months every year as a performer, worried that the hectic lifestyle of a concert pianist “was not particularly conducive to what I wanted ultimately, which was to have a family.” She also wanted to branch out of the music world. “I didn’t really explore anything else as I was growing up,” she says. “I am the curious type, and I always wondered ‘What if? What else?’ ” Wolfe, who says she doesn’t miss performing, rarely plays anymore but helps her children with their piano lessons.

Along the path: After enrolling in a paralegal program at the University of West Los Angeles, Wolfe joined Ernst & Young in 1990 as a paralegal. A few years later, she transferred to the human resources department, where she held different roles before becoming director in 2001.

First splurge: “My kids -- they’re expensive!”

Best motivational tool: “One of the key things is to really show people that you care about them, not only as a professional but also as a person. That goes really far.”

Number of times you wanted to quit: Once -- and she did, leaving Ernst & Young to join a start-up technology consulting firm in Boston during the dot-com boom.

Daydream job: Splitting her time between her job and working as a kindergarten teacher.

Advice: “Really surround yourself with good people -- people who give you positive energy, people who care about you as a person. The rest of it will come.”

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andrea.chang@latimes.com