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  • Maryland approves new ethics CPE requirement
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• November / December

Leading by example

With remarkable frequency, MACPA volunteers become leaders in the profession. Here are but a few.

By Bill Sheridan
Statement editor

It has happened too often to be coincidental.

• Wes Johnson, a long-time MACPA member who chaired the association's Board of Directors in 1991-92, has been named vice chair of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. He will chair NASBA in 2006-07.
• Tom Lantz, the MACPA's chair in 2000-01 and recipient of the association's Public Service Award in 2004, is serving a three-year term on the AICPA's Professional Ethics Executive Committee. He is one of two MACPA members currently serving on the PEEC; longtime MACPA member Walter Kunz is the other.
• Tom Foard, secretary / treasurer of this year's MACPA Board of Directors, is a member of a national consortium that is studying the possible impact of the Enhanced Business Reporting model on private companies.
• Jacob Cohen, MACPA chair in 1995-96, now serves as chair of Maryland's State Board of Public Accountancy.

They are among the latest in a growing list of MACPA members who have assumed statewide or national leadership positions within the profession — and who attribute their success in part to the hands-on leadership training as MACPA volunteers.

"It taught me how to be a leader," Johnson said. "(Working with NASBA) requires an in-depth understanding of how the profession works, and immeasurably the experience I gained with the MACPA gave that to me."

Personal, professional growth

"Leadership is action, not position."
— Donald H. McGannon

Johnson got a taste for volunteerism in the early 1970s as a young CPA in New Mexico, so when he moved to Maryland in 1975, he immediately joined the MACPA and got to work. He served on numerous MACPA committees before joining the Board of Directors Committee and working his way up to chair in 1991.

Turns out that was just the beginning. Using the skills he honed at the MACPA level, Johnson joined the State Board of Public Accountancy in 1995; two years later he was named chair, a position he held until 2000. That experience led directly to his NASBA appointment.

Volunteering with the MACPA "helped me keep up with what was going on in the profession," said Johnson, 67, a retired partner with KPMG. "Working with people, helping them achieve their goals and learn how beneficial it is to contribute to the profession — it was a great way to develop leadership skills."

It also furthered his career. Aside from honing his leadership skills, Johnson benefited from the political experience he gained as a member of the MACPA's State Legislation, Federal Legislation and Legislative Strategy committees so much so that he was assigned to represent KPMG on The Accountants Coalition, a Washington D.C.-based task force that works with the AICPA and individual state CPA societies on legislative and regulatory issues.

"It's a building-block experience," he said. "Working with the leadership at the MACPA is an excellent way for one to succeed."

'Like a classroom MBA course'

"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."
— John F. Kennedy

Tom Lantz didn't have a big firm's backing when he was appointed to the PEEC in October 2003, but he had something just as valuable. As an MACPA volunteer, he earned a working, hands-on education in which he studied the profession's issues and learned how to lead.

"It was almost like a classroom MBA course," said Lantz, a managing partner at HeimLantz Business & Tax Service. "It was a tremendous amount of education, and we were dealing with very intelligent, dedicated, committed people. That was a huge plus for me personally, and my firm has benefited from that as well."

Lantz has taken what he's learned at the MACPA level and applied it to the PEEC, a 20-member panel that is one of the profession's highest-profile executive committees. He has served on a number of key PEEC task forces, including the group that put forth new requirements for CPAs who outsource their work. The rules, which took effect July 1, state that AICPA members must inform their clients that the firm will use a third-party service provider when providing professional services, and that AICPA members are responsible for all work performed by the service provider.

How does a practitioner with a small Fort Washington firm find himself molding ethics requirements for the entire profession?

"I think it's because of my involvement with the MACPA," Lantz said. "Going up the leadership ladder, attending (AICPA) Council meetings and regional meetings all of those things were key factors. If it had not been for my MACPA involvement, I probably would not be (involved in the PEEC)."

'Part of being a professional'

"No organization is stronger than the quality of its leadership, or ever extends its constituency far beyond the degree to which its leadership is representative."
— Edgar Powell

The poster boy for CPA volunteerism, though, might be Barry Melancon. Like Johnson and Lantz, the AICPA's president and CEO got his start at the local level — as a volunteer with the Society of Louisiana CPAs.

It began with not-so-subtle hints from two of the partners at Bergeron & Company, CPAs, the small Louisiana firm where he worked at the time. The day he passed the CPA, Melancon got a visit his managing partner, who told him, "Congratulations — now get out your checkbook and make a contribution to Louisiana's CPA political action committee." Later than same day, the firm's tax partner asked Melancon to succeed him on one of the state society's key committees.

"Literally, the day I passed the exam those two things happened," Melancon said. "There was a culture that permeated our firm that said, 'If our profession is to be successful, we have to be a part of that success.' That's part of being a professional, and it had a big impact on me."

So big that he moved quickly up the society's leadership ladder and eventually became executive director. He held that post from 1988 to 1995, when he joined the AICPA.

During a recent speaking engagement, Melancon was introduced as an advocate for small firms when he speaks to the Big Four, and an advocate for the Big Four when he speaks to small firms. He called it one of the biggest compliments he has received and a perfect reason to volunteer.

"By becoming involved in the profession, you interact with people from all these different backgrounds, and you find out that they think about things in much the same way as you do and share similar concerns," he said. "They may have different frames of reference, but you come to understand that they are really good people, and that the profession is filled with these really good people. It gives you a sense of pride and confidence in our profession."