Seeing the future: 4 CPA leaders look ahead to 2025

·29 min·2 clips

Tom Hood reveals the top five trends finance leaders are prioritizing for 2025, with a surprising new number one.

The episode is a wrap-up of the Future of Finance Summit held in San Diego in December 2024. Host Neil Amato conducts separate interviews with four attendees. First, Tom Hood, Executive Vice President at AICPA and CIMA, summarizes the summit's success, noting increased attendance to 165 and a strong sense of community. He shares poll results from attendees ranking their top issues for 2025: new skills/upskilling, Gen AI, accelerated digital transformation, maintaining culture in hybrid work, and innovation/growth strategies. Next, Kimberly Ellison-Taylor discusses recurring themes from the summit, connecting them to a 2017 Journal of Accountancy issue on culture and retention she guest-edited. She emphasizes the 'perfect storm' of pandemic, economic uncertainty, and fast-paced technology creating talent concerns. She details a local Maryland apprenticeship initiative that is gaining traction with high school students and employers. Then, Becca Shane, CFO of Blue Marlin Partners, shares her takeaways as a first-time summit attendee. She highlights the importance of positivity, flexibility, and the concept of 'feed forward' over feedback. She discusses her small finance team and cautious use of Gen AI due to data privacy concerns. Finally, Okorie Ramsey, former AICPA Chair, explains his personal motto 'to live a life that matters,' derived from a leadership exercise. He talks about his extensive travel to promote the profession to students and the importance of the talent pipeline. He reiterates the summit's focus on people, digital transformation, and catering to multiple generations in the workforce. The episode concludes with a holiday hiatus announcement.

As heard by us

A calm, practical look at how finance leaders are thinking about what comes next.

From the Future of Finance Summit in San Diego, this episode frames what comes next as a practical planning question for finance leaders, educators, consultants, government staff, and nonprofit teams.

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Hear how accounting leaders are thinking about what comes next, from the floor of the Future of Finance Summit.

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