Leaving Her Comfort Zone 

A high school trip to China at age 16 gave Halsey Stultz a broader approach to life, fostering a mindset in which she would years later leave a major accounting firm job to join the Kraken despite knowing nothing about hockey.

The Oregon native, having spent her formative years in the tiny Washington town of Carnation, population 2,176, had taken the trip to China as part of a leadership program for students worldwide. That “very cool experience” prodded Stultz to further reach beyond immediate surroundings, including her studying abroad for a college semester in Scotland, and later her big move to an NHL team.

“I was really scared, to be honest,” Stultz, 27, a Kraken senior accounting manager, said of the initial China trip. “Because I was just 16 and I hadn’t really traveled outside of the country. So, it was really the first time in my life that I’ve ever felt like an outsider -- which I think is something everybody should feel at least once in their lives.

“I really think that people need to at least put themselves out there and get out of their comfort zone.”

That she did during her junior year at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business in January 2018 when she signed up for a semester at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and had a front row seat to tumult from Great Britain’s “Brexit” decision to leave the European Union. Years later, she’d push that comfort zone yet again by leaving a six-year career at the Ernst & Young Accounting firm to join the Kraken.

“When I accepted the job, I honestly felt like I was taking somebody else’s dream job,” Stultz said. “Because I’ve never followed hockey. I’ve never wanted to work in sports. And I know there are about a million other people that do.

“And you know, where am I going to fit in all that with co-workers who probably all live, sleep and breathe hockey?”

She’d forwarded the job posting to friends in an accounting chat group figuring one of them would jump at it. When none did, Stultz applied and is now thrilled.

She’d long desired to feel more part of a team.

“Honestly, it’s been amazing,” she said. “I’d always felt that I liked sports even though I wouldn’t call myself a ‘sports’ fan. I call myself a ‘team’ fan. So, if I have someone to root for, that’s what makes sports so much fun. And now, I feel like I have the best reason ever to root for a team.”

The Kraken are profiling Stultz and other employees as part of Women In Hockey Night, pres. by PitchBook, taking place during Friday’s home game against Utah HC. It’s part of Kraken Common Thread – the team’s commitment to diversity and inclusivity through a series of themed game events and yearlong community initiatives aimed at growing the game of hockey.

PitchBook and the Kraken are celebrating outstanding female leaders from five Seattle companies that are team partners and PitchBook clients. These honorees, recognized for their impact, will be featured in a campaign celebrating their achievements and hosted on the PitchBook Suite Level during Friday’s game.

Stultz’s new Kraken job revived some inner fire she’d felt on prior study trips abroad.

Her decision to study a semester in Scotland had been rooted in a longstanding curiosity about British history, piqued by her mother having the Scottish maiden name McCullough and her father being from Irish ancestry. She’d also grown up watching numerous BBC television shows with Scottish characters.

But upon arrival at the University of Edinburgh amid heated “Brexit” and Scottish independence debates, Stultz admits she was rather green on local culture and political intricacies.

“I was in a History of the British Isles class and the discussion topic was whether Scotland should try to become independent of the UK,” she said. “And I remember being so embarrassed because my teaching assistant asked me for my American viewpoint on it.

“And I was very ignorant. I had no idea about the topic or its economic impacts so I just said ‘Well, yeah I don’t see why they shouldn’t. It’s a beautiful country here.’

“But that’s why I was there – to learn more. And now I have a different viewpoint.”

Immersing herself in a foreign country – which she found “humbling” despite language commonality – also gave Stultz a different worldview of the United States.

Stultz marveled at being able to walk down Scottish streets “unchanged in the last 600 years” and experiencing people living in close proximity to a tightly packed European continent where knowing the goings-on of neighboring countries is a must.

“The people in general had a very different mindset of their place in the world,” she said. “In America, we’re very concerned about ourselves. We’re the center of our own universe at times, whereas over there you’re rubbing elbows with all your neighbors. There’s no way to not be concerned about what your neighbor, or your country’s neighbor, is up to.”

That was especially true getting to live through the “Brexit” debate ahead of the Dec. 31, 2020 transition date.

“I feel like when Brexit came along, it had a lot of the mentality, or mindset of an American,” she said. “Kind of like, ‘We can support our own’ and ‘We don't really need to be a part of anything larger.’ But then going to school with a lot of other Europeans, hearing their side of it and being able to see it all firsthand was really interesting.”

And in today’s politically charged landscape, she wouldn’t mind seeing more Americans broaden their scope.

“I think that right now in America, we have a lot of different opinions about how life should be,” she said. “And I think everyone is very valid in their opinion. But it’s hard for me to get behind an opinion when you haven’t experienced anything different. Even if you come back and haven’t changed your mind about anything, that’s perfectly fine. That’s all a part of the journey.”

That said, Stultz gained a “new appreciation for” her home country while abroad and is loving life here. She’s getting married in October to her fiancée, Nate Sewell, who she met at Ernst & Young and began dating three years ago.

And she’s crazy about her hockey job. She attended her first ever Kraken game during the preseason, then took her father to the season opener against St. Louis and loved the “electric” atmosphere.

“I like feeling a part of something that’s bigger than me,” Stultz said. “When I went into accounting, I felt I probably wasn’t going to have the most exciting career path – and that’s fine because I love accounting and really excel at it some days.

“But I knew if I was lucky enough to find a job that let me do accounting and be excited about my day to day, then I knew that’s when I would hit the lottery. And that’s what it feels like here.”