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It’s Time For a Shake Up in AICPA Leadership

You may not know this but AICPA leadership consists mostly of the same old white guys; a complaint you hear often, not something I made up just now. I don't personally have any issues with those old white guys and actually like some of them but it's worth noting that AICPA leadership could use a shake up. I'm not saying a coup, I'm saying it would be nice to see some new faces up in there.

Here are a few helpful replacement suggestions based on a completely biased analysis Caleb and I cooked up. When Greg Anton's term is up in October of this year, maybe one of these will step up and gun for an AICPA leadership position.

Tom Hood This one is obvious. Maryland would miss him dearly (but they'll live, the MACPA is a strong organization that has thrived under Tom's leadership but has learned enough from him at this point to survive without him) but Washington could really use Tom Hood heading up the AICPA. A cheerleader for legislative action who knows everyone, Tom already has the connections and suave necessary to advance the AICPA's goals, whatever those might be. MACPA members frequently particpate in unique events like an annual new CPA swearing in and legislative action day in Annapolis, so it's only logical that he could also influence the AICPA's 370,000 members into actively participating in their profession.

Jason Blumer We're pretty sure he's too young to make a run for an AICPA leadership position and likely too enthralled with everything else he's doing to care but Blumer would be an awesome draw for the younger crowd. The problem now is that young CPAs – generally speaking – don't give a shit about whatever is going on at the leadership level. This goes for what a bunch of guys in suits do in Washington and for most of what FASB is doing. Oh wait, that's a bunch of guys in suits too. Blumer would bring new ideas and a completely unique way of thinking to what has traditionally been a formal industry, at least at that level. Maybe that's exactly what the AICPA needs.

Tom Selling Tom has the audacity to tell it like it is writing "The FASB's own Investors Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC) wrote a strongly-worded letter to the Financial Accounting Foundation decrying that current events have eroded the FASB's independence. … That's because the FASB has never acted in an indepdent [sic] manner. When pressed, it folds like a cheap suit." That kind of attitude might be a welcome change in gridlocked Washington. Perhaps Selling wouldn't draw in an enthusiastic younger membership like Hood or Blumer could but at least AICPA members would know they have a strong – albeit unnecessarily skeptical – voice representing their interests. I'm not sure if that would be a good thing in the long run but it would be really fun to watch.

Susan S. Coffey It has nothing to do with our crush on her (well, it does a little). Susan is already a Senior Vice President but that's not enough, we want to see a woman at the very top. Maybe Barry Melancon would be willing to empty out his office to prove once and for all that the glass ceiling is a myth perpetuated by family women who want to take 12 weeks off a year to pop out a kid (ouch). Susan climbed her way from PwC to her position in Public Practice & Global Alliances for the AICPA so why stop there?

Who else do you think might make a good AICPA leader?