President’s Memo: New Beginnings 

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You may have noticed that the title of this Memo, “New Beginnings,” continues use of last year’s Annual Meeting theme in New York City. At the time of our meeting, in early November, impending changes and transitions were discussed through the lens of looking to the future. Now, most of the discussed elements of the new beginnings; changes in executive positions, implementation of CPA Evolution, and the search process for a new president and chief executive officer of NASBA, are well underway. Others, such as the use of artificial intelligence to enhance NASBA’s capabilities and efficiencies are on the drawing board.  

I recently met with the CEO Selection Advisory Committee (SAC) to make a few opening remarks before they began their meeting. I raised the historic significance of finding, vetting and selecting a new president and CEO. In the past 30 years of NASBA’s history, there have been two CEOs. Prior to David Costello, there was a volunteer president and a hired executive director. In the time that David and I have served in this role, there have been five presidents of the United States, and the world has changed substantially. The next CEO will oversee uses of technology that are now in infancy or do not yet exist and will witness and grapple with changes of a profession impacted by demographics, costs and expectations. Hopefully, they will not have to deal with a worldwide pandemic or other unforeseen disruptors, but they will need to be confident and prepared to do so. 

I have purposely maintained an arm’s length separation from the selection process, and I have been impressed by the quality and seriousness of the SAC. By the time most readers will have read this Memo, the Committee will have reduced the interested pool of candidates from nearly 170 to a few formidable choices to present to the NASBA Board of Directors at its April meeting. From my vantage point, I believe that our Boards of Accountancy should be pleased and confident in the process. 

While I have complete faith in our great team, our IT developers, and the transactional relationship with our examination partners, I, and several others, kept our fingers crossed with the first CPA Evolution examination processes launched in early January. Having been prepared to deal with anomalies, the launch occurred without a hitch. When a multi-year, multi-million dollar, thousand+ man hours project launches so successfully, it is not accidental. We should all be appreciative to the staff of NASBA, AICPA and Prometric (the NAP group), state board staff, and the volunteer governance committees and working groups that made the huge endeavor successful.   

When discussing “new beginnings,” the progress in dealing with the pipeline challenge is gaining momentum. In my last Memo titled “You Are Not Listening” and during my state of NASBA address at the Annual Meeting, I discussed the importance of maintaining good relationships. I am pleased that over the past few months there has been a marked improvement and what seems to be an earnest desire to come to consensus on potential remedies and actions. Both the AICPA and NASBA have designated task forces to work on pipeline solutions and the two groups are well mixed and working transparently and cooperatively. The consistent mandate is that any solution(s) must sustain substantial equivalency and mobility to be viable.   

Over the past couple of years, I have often written and spoken about the information technology (IT) projects we have undertaken. With the completion of the Gateway system re-write (the critical engine behind the administration of the CPA Examination worldwide) and the elimination of technical debt throughout all our systems, we have the capacity to consider and prioritize the next major projects necessary to keep NASBA operations and processes current with advances in technology. The uses and capability of artificial intelligence (AI) seems to advance exponentially. We hope to leverage those capabilities to improve the efficiency and timeliness of candidate and other stakeholder interactions.   

One of our highest priorities is to enhance our data analysis and reporting capability. Having the ability to better understand candidate behavior will provide tools that can be integrated into our pipeline initiatives to keep candidates in the pipeline through licensure. Other reports may provide colleges and universities with better measurement of their graduates’ performance in a reliable format. We have been meeting with various stakeholder groups to ascertain their desires and needs so that they can be considered during planning and development. Truly a new beginning of our technological capability.   

Finally, and somewhat reluctantly, I will write a little about myself. It occurred to me that this will be the second to last President’s Memo that I will write. For nearly 13 years, I have discussed a myriad of topics, challenges and opportunities on these pages. The Memo has provided me a soapbox of sort, and I have always tried to use it appropriately, but occasionally I have proverbially led with my chin. When I write the next, and my final version, my successor will have been chosen and a few months later, they will be taking over this role. I can only hope that they will enjoy and embrace the opportunity. More to come about my “new beginnings!” 

Semper ad meliora (Always toward better things). 

— Ken L. Bishop 
President & CEO