MEMBER PROFILE
He felt that the year with DeCosimo scratched the itch for a large firm and decided that a smaller firm was a better fit for him. He left DeCosimo in August of 2015, with a list of clients, to join Brand Blackwell & Co. The firm served the local community and offered more opportunities for moving up the career ladder. Ironically, DeCosimo closed their Huntsville office a month later.
information to share with the office. There were technical updates in the morning of the four-day program and soft skills development in the afternoon. It opened his eyes for what accounting could do or be. There were young professionals who were already partners at firms. Some organizations did not function as traditional public accounting firms at all. They concentrated on IT and accounting systems.
In November 2015 he received a call from a DeCosimo client and saw business development potential. He met with them and he was astonished when they asked him to come on board as their CFO. He was gratified by their offer, but wrestled with it for 10 days.
“I saw name badges with ‘Leadership Academy grad’ on them and started asking questions of a panel member. He encouraged me to pursue it. He said it was a good investment for a younger professional, that it was prestigious and had re-sparked his own drive. I went back to my room to call Tom Albright and thank him for sending me to EDGE. It took me about another year and a half to apply to Leadership Academy after learning more about it.”
“I’d only been with the new firm for three and a half months. It was going well there. I also didn’t want to get a reputation as a job-hopper, with just a year at DeCosimo and now barely four months at Brand Blackwell. I consulted with Tom Albright about what it would mean for me to leave public accounting and go into industry. I gained some peace about the decision to join this very exciting company and handed off my clients to a trusted colleague.”
He thought he knew what to expect, but Leadership Academy still offered surprises. “It was a room full of the superstars of the accounting profession. Men and women who were visionary, who were shaping the future and sharing what they saw. There was no shyness and awkwardness, everyone jumped in and participated from the start. Lots of collaboration on projects, along with a willingness to be open in a very honest way. Barry Melancon, Tom Hood [CPA and Maryland Association of CPAs executive], Tim Christen [past AICPA chair] and other top leaders were really available and willing to sit and chat for an hour.”
In his short time in the profession Duncan has seen some issues rise to the top. “When I first came into public accounting, the concept of going paperless was revolutionary. In the past you had to wade through piles of paper to find a client’s files. Now a tax return or work papers are a dozen clicks away. In the offices of the future there won’t be a server or other hardware to move, you’ll load up your backpack and you’re done! It will result in workforce flexibility – working on different schedules at all levels of an organization. In the past, the mid-level and lower-level staff worked in the office and partners were out having face time with clients. Now the CEO or managing partner can maximize productivity by creating flexible schedules and having confidence in their staff to get the work done. I learned from personal experience how a flexible schedule can pay off. My wife is a contracts specialist for Boeing in Huntsville and goes into work at 6:00 am. I went in at the same time and found that the two hours before the phones starting ringing were super productive for me.”
One of the distinguishing traits of all these leaders was their enthusiasm for the profession at a 25 or 30-year point in their careers. Duncan even gained a new appreciation for the Alabama Society by talking to industry leaders and decided that he would return to Huntsville and volunteer for the ASCPA. “I’m excited about the future of the profession. I think there are some big challenges facing us, whether we’re in public or corporate accounting. I don’t think an audit will look the same in 10 or 15 years. Technology will re-align how the accountant fits into the landscape and will lead to a merger of IT and accounting. What will we, as professionals, need to do to remain a necessary part of our organizations? We’ll see. I certainly want to be part of that discussion.”
Duncan learned about the AICPA Leadership Academy through another young CPA program, EDGE Conference in New Orleans in 2013. Hall Albright was open to his going and trusted that he would bring back good
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