Last week in San Diego, a group of 165 finance leaders convened for the fourth Future of Finance Summit. This JofA podcast episode is a compilation of takeaways from the event and a look at key areas of focus for leaders in 2025. It is the first of several Future of Finance recordings.

The speakers for this episode are:

n Tom Hood, CPA/CITP, CGMA, AICPA & CIMA's executive vice president–Business Growth & Engagement

n Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, CPA, CGMA, the CEO of KET Solutions and former AICPA chair

n Becca Shane, CPA, CGMA, the CFO of Blue Marlin Ventures

n Okorie Ramsey, CPA, CGMA, vice president–Sarbanes Oxley at Kaiser Permanente and former AICPA and Association of International Certified Professional Accountants chair

What you’ll learn from this episode:

· More about Tom Hood's summation that the event "leveled up."

· The top priorities of finance leaders, based on polling last week at the Future of Finance Summit.

· Why Kimberly Ellison-Taylor says she’s looking forward to “clarity” in 2025.

· Why the phrase “feed forward” and an emphasis on positivity resonated with CFO Becca Shane.

· Okorie Ramsey's focus on the talent pipeline and relevance.

· His explanation of the profession’s need to “tell a better story.”

It’s no secret anymore: Barry Melancon, CPA, CGMA, is retiring as CEO of AICPA & CIMA. He was first named CEO of the AICPA nearly 30 years ago, and he leaves the now global organization with a legacy of change. His last official day is Dec. 31, and Mark Koziel, CPA, CGMA, is his successor.

In this episode of the JofA podcast, recorded earlier this week at Digital CPA in Denver, Melancon explains why he’s not counting down the days of his tenure, why there likely will be more recreation in his future, and why he expects he will “still wake up every day and think about the profession.”

What you’ll learn from this episode:

· Why Melancon hasn’t been counting the days until his tenure as CEO ends.

· His “stellar” assessment of how he will transition into retirement.

· His relationship over the years with incoming CEO Mark Koziel, CPA, CGMA.

· The “unsettled” nature of the world and how accountants can help.

· Why Melancon prioritized the profession and the members before thinking of the organization.

· The “humbling” messages he has received.

The potential for less regulation is one factor driving optimism among CPA decision-makers in a quarterly survey, according to Ken Witt, CPA, CGMA, AICPA & CIMA associate director–Management Accounting Research and Development.

Witt joined the JofA podcast to discuss fourth-quarter results of the Business and Industry Economic Outlook Survey — statistics that were dramatically different from the third quarter.

The executives are mostly optimistic about the domestic economy in 2025. They also have a brighter outlook as it relates to their own organizations, although that increase since the third quarter was more muted.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

• A breakdown of the quarter-over-quarter change in optimism.
• What challenge returned to its familiar top spot in this quarter’s survey.
• The reasons that optimists and pessimists feel the way they do, according to Witt’s analysis.
• The hiring outlook for 2025.

Melanie Lauridsen, vice president–Tax Policy & Advocacy for the AICPA, reflected on how election results might inform future tax legislation and why any change in administration and tax policy can make it more difficult for practitioners seeking clarity.

Lauridsen also discussed advocacy related to beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting and what might change related to IRS funding, the corporate tax rate, and more in this episode of the Journal of Accountancy podcast.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

· An update on AICPA advocacy related to BOI reporting relief.

· Why Lauridsen expects any changes to the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) to be “hybrid” — as opposed to all TCJA provisions becoming permanent.

· Discussion about the future of the deduction limit for state and local taxes, aka the SALT cap.

· The fate of IRS funding from the Inflation Reduction Act — and why a “rebalance” might be possible.

· Lauridsen’s summation that 2025 “is a huge tax year.”

Tom Hood, CPA/CITP, CGMA, executive vice president–Business Growth and Engagement at AICPA & CIMA, understands why accounting skills are often ranked outside the top five of key skills in informal polling of finance audiences.

“It’s not because they're less important, but because the other skills are more important,” Hood said.

The core requirements remain, but the ability to adapt and add new skills has grown in importance with the pace of transformation accelerating.

In this episode of the JofA podcast, Hood expands on some recent themes of his travels and what he looks forward to from the Future of Finance Summit in December.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

· Why mindset is more important in transformation than the toolset of technology.

· Details of a recent report about skills from the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs.

· The skills that rank ahead of the “table stakes” of technical accounting skills.

· Why it’s important to “grab these new skills.”

· The new way that Future of Finance Summit attendees will get a summary of the event.

Stig Nybo is not afraid to admit that he’s made mistakes. He’s also happy to have been part of a movement that improved the thinking around retirement savings.

Nybo, a keynote speaker at the Employee Benefit Plans Accounting, Auditing, and Regulatory Update, a Dec. 4-5 virtual event, co-wrote the book Transform Tomorrow: Awakening The Super Saver in Pursuit of Retirement Readiness.

In this episode of the JofA podcast, Nybo talks about finding passion at work, why attempts to fix things can lead to breaking other things, and the “entire ecosystem” that’s aiming to drive better retirement-savings habits.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

· The circumstances that led to Nybo co-authoring a book emphasizing saving for retirement.

· The 2019 JofA podcast guest that Nybo interviewed for his book.

· Why his message is about more than saving, creating retirement plans, or auditing such plans.

· Why he agrees with the words of Mark Twain when it comes to career choice.

· The issues Nybo and others aimed to fix related to retirement saving – and what got “broken” in that process.

Digital disruption is everywhere, including in the practice of internal audit. An audit leader joined the JofA podcast recently to discuss how technology can be harnessed instead of feared or resisted.

Anthony Pugliese, CPA/CITP, CGMA, president and CEO of The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), said it is understandable for fast-moving technology to be daunting. But such technology presents opportunities as well as risks. One tie-in is the new tools’ ability to attract the next generation of talent for auditing.

In this episode, Pugliese reviews recent IIA research, reminds auditors about the importance of curiosity, and discusses some of the misconceptions facing the profession.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

· Highlights of recent research by The IIA about top risks.

· Some of the “misconceptions” about internal auditing, according to Pugliese.

· How the “slow trek” of blockchain integration into processes differs from today’s tech implementations.

· The “most golden thing” auditors can do.

· A reminder of the timeline for adoption of international auditing standards.

Scott Simmons is co-managing partner at the firm Crist Kolder Associates. In more than two decades handling executive searches for clients, he’s seen the qualifications for the CFO role change dramatically. The pressure on CFOs to deliver value has also grown. While some skills remain constant, of course, so do the paths to landing a CFO role.

In this JofA podcast episode, Simmons takes listeners through some of the recent statistics in the firm’s annual Volatility Report, discussing the importance of escaping one’s comfort zone and developing new skills to be in line for a job as finance chief.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

• The number of CFOs at larger companies who have Big Four accounting backgrounds.
• The companies and C-suite positions Crist Kolder tracks in its annual Volatility Report
• How candidates can develop CFO skills without first becoming a CFO.
• Why an investor relations rotation should be something aspiring CFOs “jump” to accept.
• The major college athletics conference that has produced the most CFOs in companies tracked in by Volatility Report.