Not only is Peter Cordua a part of one of the biggest accounting firms in the country, but he’s also a semi-professional winemaker.
“I enjoy making wine. I’m in a group with 15 gentlemen and we make homemade wine and I’m very proud of it because I sit at a desk, so for me to be involved in something with manual labor, and the camaraderie of the gentlemen, and producing wine from grapes, is just an awesome experience for me,” Cordua said.
While he enjoys his job at HBK (one of the 50th largest accounting firms in the country, no less), he says that being a part of his Mountainview Wine Club is a very cathartic hobby for him.
“We’re a real serious outfit, we have 15 gentlemen in our club. We have a broker whom we buy the grapes through. We buy them out of California, and they get shipped across the country,” he said. “We crush them, nine days later we press it, then it goes into stainless steel for six months, American oak for a year, then we bottle and cork it…We’ve actually won a couple of wine-tasting awards in South Jersey for our wine”
While making wine is a fun conversation piece and a tasty hobby, Cordua’s day job working at HBK is what pays the bills, and mainly what made him become a part of the JerseyMan family. Cordua is one of the JerseyMan Chairman’s club members and he also serves as the Chairman of the JerseyMan advisory board.
Peter Cordua
“The Duneks as a family have done such a great service to the community and to this area here to really help businesses grow, foster relationship-building, and have just been a positive influence for everyone,” Cordua said.
Cordua said that his involvement in JerseyMan stems from his desire to have a constructive impact on everyone around him.
“To be able to make a positive contribution to anyone’s life: personal, business, even in the non-profit/philanthropy world, just to make a positive influence and to be a man for others… just helping people grow and meet their goals”
“I believe in relationship building, not networking. Relationship building. So I can pass on from one person to another, and hopefully be the catalyst to a new relationship that is successful for everyone,” he said.
Cordua stated that his role with HBK is enjoyable for him because he gets to help everyone around him within his field and within his own workforce.
“My responsibilities are to establish relationships, to grow them, and to mentor our younger team members who are just entering the field or who are new to our firm so that I can help them proceed in their careers,” Cordua said “I do enjoy using history, not just to produce something currently, like a tax return or a financial statement, but I like to use history to make history with clients. So, the consultation side to our clients is really important to me. It’s allowing me to help them reach their goals and that is really why I love what I do,” he said.
Overall, Cordua strives to be a resource to everyone around him, and he extends his hand to everyone in the JerseyMan family who might need it.
“We’re here to be a resource for everyone in Jerseyman, in any capacity.”
