Advancing Accounting

Bentley University (July 31, 2024) – What does the CPA of the future look like? If they’re anything like Carla (Stella) McCall ’89, P ’28: whip smart, passionate about the industry and a tireless advocate for evolving the profession. The managing partner at AAFCPAs, a 325-person CPA and consulting firm based near Boston, McCall is the new chair of the American Institute for CPAs (AICPA). She’s hit the ground running as a champion for accounting. “People have an old view of what we do. One of my responsibilities as chair of the AICPA is PR for accounting. We don’t do math! We use technology, we solve complex problems, we own public trust, we work in teams,” she says.

The top skills McCall looks for in a new hire: agile thinking, adaptability quotient, critical thinking and analytics skills. “Accounting used to be an apprenticeship model: you started on the ground floor and learned the basics,” she explains. “Now, more and more of that lower level work is being done by technology. Learning and development in firms need to change, and colleges and universities also need to prepare students for what they’re going to encounter.”