Podcast: Looking back ... and ahead
Our guest needs no introduction, really. You know who Barry Melancon is — longtime president and CEO of the American Institute of CPAs who has announced that, after nearly 30 years at the helm of the AICPA, he will be retiring on Dec. 31, 2024.
You knew it had to happen sometime, and yet it’s still a bit jarring to think about. If there is a face of the profession, it’s probably Barry’s. For some of us — even some of us long-timers in the profession — Barry is the only AICPA CEO we’ve known.
So change is afoot. But really, we’re no strangers to change, are we? And Barry has led CPAs through some of the most groundbreaking changes our profession has ever seen. Just think about what’s happened in the past three decades. Under his watch, we’ve seen the computerization of the CPA exam; the creation of the Center for Audit Quality and CPA.com, which is the AICPA’s technology arm; the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, in response to the Enron and Worldcom debacles; the great recession of 2008; the AICPA’s partnership with CIMA and the creation of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants; the COVID-19 pandemic; and wave after wave of groundbreaking change in the areas of technology, demographics, and legislation and regulation, each one of which has left its mark on the profession.
Barry has been through it all, guiding the profession’s responses at every turn.
Barry has been a guest here a few times before, and I wanted one last chance to speak with him before he walks out the door, so he and I sat down recently and talked the state of the profession today and how things have changed over the past 30 years, what the future looks like for the profession, his advice for both CPAs and future CPAs, and what’s next for him. And spoiler alert — he’s not just gonna be kicking back at the beach or on the golf course. You can probably expect Barry to be Barry. And of course, for those who know him, that’s probably not much of a surprise.
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Great talk here this week — maybe our final talk here — with one of our profession’s true visionaries and thought leaders. Here’s my conversation with outgoing AICPA President and CEO Barry Melancon.
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