Accounting Today Top 100 People
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SPECIAL REPORT Who they are p. 56 What they’re watching p. 69 Sponsored by: The challenges they see p. 60 Who they think is influential p. 70 055_ACTSep13 1 8/21/2013 5:34:44 PM 56 A Supplement to Accounting Today Top 100 People The Top 100 People: Annuals and perennials ‘LET A HUNDRED FLOWERS BLOOM.’ except to note one other way that our Top 100 People is like Beyond these confines, the accounting profession is, as We don’t often quote Chairman Mao in Accounting To- a garden: Each year, we are forced to make choices between we noted, burgeoning — busting out all over, you might say, day, but on this one occasion, we thought it might be ap- the annuals that should be added anew each year, and the breeding a vast variety of new blossoms, sending up green propriate, in releasing our annual list of the Top 100 Most perennials that can return every 12 months. shoots in fields previously unexplored. Influential People in Accounting, to note the vast variety The profession has many hardy perennials — think of the This profusion is one of the great strengths of the pro- and chaotic profusion of the profession. Nisbergs, the Koltins, the Melancons — but it also generates fession — that it can move in so many directions at once, If the T100 were a garden, it would be no monotonous whole crops of new annuals each year, and our list must explore so many different avenues, and even hold so many monoculture of rigidly organized beds filled with identical make room for them, much as the profession does. The sharply differing opinions (and then resolve them without lackluster flowers. Instead, it would be a lush bank of wild- crucial difference, of course, is that outside of this report, succumbing to any sort of Maoist purge). flowers, a tropical rainforest’s worth of different blooms, dif- perennials and annuals work side by side to grow the pro- It is the strength that produced this year’s Top 100 People, ferent focuses and different schools of thought. The mem- fession; it’s only in these pages that they compete for one the varied mix of annuals and perennials who are shap- bers of our list routinely overspill their beds, breaking into of 100 plots. Not being on the list is no blight on the bloom; ing the profession now and in the future — preparing the new fields and colonizing new territories. it’s merely an indicator of the arbitrarily small size of this ground for a new set of annuals to come along. We won’t push the horticultural metaphor much further, particular show garden. — The Editors Joe Adams Foundation; Northern Virginia Relay for Life. Guide for CPAs; The Power of Optimism … Board PCC, responsible not just for improving pri- Education: Georgetown University Law Center, member, Anchor Bank, Anchor Bank Holding; chair, vate company reporting, but for proving that Managing partner 1975, JD … Michigan State University, 1972, BA. Compensation Committee, Anchor Bank ... AICPA ... the council can be a viable solution to the and CEO, McGladrey Personal: Born 1950, Imst, Austria … Married to Past board member, Minnesota Chapter, AAM ... Past With McGladrey’s part- Nancy … Three children. board member, Minnesota Opera; Chantrey Wood decades-old issue of making GAAP work for ners and staff revitalized Blog/Twitter: http://connect.nsacct.org/NSABlog/ Homeowners Association. all kinds of companies, not just large publicly @NSAtax Education: Indiana University, Ph.D ... DePaul Uni- by their unification after traded ones. versity, MBA; BA. Career Highlights: Assurance & risk management a decade apart, Adams is Personal: Born 1946, Chicago … Married to Emily partner, PwC, 1998-2011 (retired) … Partner, Coo- leading his Top Five Firm forward with a fo- August Aquila Haliziw … One daughter. pers & Lybrand, 1982-1998; joined, 1972. cus on innovation and a commitment to the President and CEO, Twitter: @aquilaadvisors Other Affiliations: Chair, Private Company Council, middle market. Aquila Global 2012-present … Chair, National Association of State Career Highlights: Managing partner and chief ex- Advisors Erik Boards of Accountancy, 2009-2010 … Chair, Texas ecutive officer, McGladrey LLP, 2011-present; leader, With a growing roster of Asgeirsson Public Finance Authority, 2011-present ... Board of Directors, Atkinson Candy Co., 2012-present … Blue Great Lakes Region, 2008-2011; executive managing clients abroad, Aquila CEO, CPA2Biz director, Great Lakes Economic Unit, 1998-2008; au- Ribbon Panel on Private Company Accounting Stan- brings an international It’s certainly natural for dit partner, 1987; joined, 1979. dards, 2010 … Past chair, Texas State Board of Public Other Affiliations: American Institute of CPAs … Il- perspective to what it takes to properly man- the head of the AICPA’s Accountancy … AICPA Governing Council, 2003- linois CPA Society … Center for Audit Quality, Major age a modern accounting practice. Web portal to be inter- 2006 … Past chair, Make-a-Wish Foundation of the Firms Group. Career Highlights: President, Aquila Global Ad- ested in promoting tech- Texas Gulf Coast … President, Accounting Advisory Council, Texas A&M University. Education: DePaul University, MBA Operations visors LLC, 1995-present … Director of practice nology, but he’s been taking it to new levels Management; BA Accounting. management consulting, The Growth Partnership, Education: Texas A&M University, 1972, BBA Acctg. recently with an intensified crusade to turn Personal: Born 1955, Chicago … Married to Cheryl 2003-2005 … Vice president of mergers and acqui- Personal: Born 1950, Richmond, Texas … Married to … Five children, four grandchildren. sitions, American Express Tax & Business Services, accountants into “Digital CPAs.” Donnelle … Two children, four grandsons. 1996-2003; vice president of field management, Career Highlights: CEO, CPA2Biz, 2002-present; John Ams 1994-1996 … Senior vice president, Practice Devel- vice president of professional services, 2000-2002 … Ron Baker opment Institute, 1987-1994 … Partner, Friedman, To sales director, Business Services Division, AT&T, Founder, Executive vice 1990-2000. Eisenstein, Raemer & Schwartz CPAs 1983-1994 … VeraSage Institute president, NSA Adjunct professor of marketing, DePaul University Other Affiliations: Board member, CPA2Biz … Digi- Baker may be gratified The 30,000 or so members Graduate School of Business, 1980-1994 … Group talNow Advisory Group … National Peace Corps As- sociation … Former Peace Corps volunteer in Tan- that accountants are be- of the National Society of director of marketing, Coopers & Lybrand (Chicago Group), 1979-1983. zania. ginning to take up his Accountants rely on Ams Education: Stern School of Business, New York Uni- Other Affiliations: Founding board member and message about the need versity, MBA … George Washington University, BS to keep them up to date Hall of Fame member, Association for Account- Electrical Engineering. to do away from the billable hour, but he’s on the latest developments in tax — and to ing Marketing … Founder and editor, Partner to Personal: Born 1968, Falmouth, Mass. … Married to not finished: He thinks the profession has a help fight their corner inside the Beltway. Partner, 1995-2000 … Founder and editor, Partner Claudia … Two daughters. Career Highlights: Executive vice president, Na- Advantage, 2003-2006 … Author, CPA Firm Merger lot more work to do to make sure it maintains Twitter: @erikasgeirsson tional Society of Accountants, 2001-present … Senior Strategies That Work; CPAs That Sell; Breaking the its relevance. vice president of financial affairs, Interstate Natural Paradigm: New Approaches to Pricing Accounting Career Highlights: Founder, VeraSage Institute, Gas Association, 1984-2001 … Director of federal tax Services; Client at the Core: Marketing and Managing Billy Atkinson 1998-present ... Instructor, California CPA Education programs, National Association of Realtors, 1979- Today’s Professional Services Firm; Compensation as Chairman, Private Foundation, 1995-present ... Partner, Baker & Bar- 1983 … Attorney, National Office, IRS, 1975-1979. a Strategic Asset; Performance Is Everything; Leader- Company Council nett CPAs, 1987-2003 ... Senior accountant, KPMG, Other Affiliations: Internal Revenue Service Advi- ship at Its Strongest: What Successful Managing Part- This retired PwC partner 1984-1987. sory Council … American Society of Association Ex- ners Do; How to Engage Partners in the Firm’s Future Other Affiliations: California Society of CPAs ... ecutives … American Bar Association … D.C. Bar As- ... Contributing author, The Marketing Advantage; stepped into the limelight American Institute of CPAs’ Group of 100 ... Profes- sociation … Phi Beta Kappa … Past or present board How to Hire a Marketing Director and Make it Work; last year when he became sional Pricing Society ... Author, Implementing Value member, Cherian Investments; NSA Scholarship Bull’s Eye! 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