Maryland’s Mehta brings tenure as AICPA chair to a close

BY BILL SHERIDAN, CAE

After a year of traveling the globe and bringing an inspiring message of strength, diversity and growth to all corners of the profession, Anoop Mehta can finally catch his breath and pass the torch.

Mehta, a Maryland CPA and former chair of the Maryland Association of CPAs’ Board of Directors, brought his yearlong tenure as chair of the American Institute of CPAs to an inspirational close on May 24 during the spring meeting of the AICPA’s Governing Council in Washington D.C.

“I’m so incredibly humbled by this honor, and I’m eternally grateful to the countless leaders who have mentored me throughout the years and helped put me on this path,” said Mehta. “Maryland has a long history of forward-thinking leadership in this profession, and I’m proud to carry that tradition forward.”

Mehta is succeeded as AICPA chair by Okorie Ramsey, CPA, CGMA, vice president of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals.

Mehta visited most U.S. states and numerous countries during the past year, focusing at each stop on three of the profession’s most critical issues:

• Helping others to grow professionally and personally. The profession must adopt a people-first approach that encourages mutual support, lifelong learning and personal development.

“People should be at the center of our practices and decisions, large and small, the chief focus for where we want the profession to go,” he said.

• Diversifying the pipeline of new accountants. Projects such as CPA Evolution, a new model for licensure, and new apprenticeships for CGMA candidates, will help. But the profession also must set and track progress toward DEI goals to ensure accountability, he said. He vowed to visit as many high schools and colleges as he can during his tenure to talk up the profession.

• Preserving trust in the profession. Mehta cited the profession’s recent role in economic recovery and business relief, and described how that’s built trust with clients and the public. He also pointed to new areas where CPAs can serve, such as assurance and advisory work related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics. “I’ve spent my entire career working with organizations that conduct research on our planet’s natural systems,” he said. “This is one of the places the profession will be looked at in 10, 50, or even 100 years from now as having instilled confidence and consistency in the production of this data.”

“The CPA is a foundation to open doors, broaden horizons and build career journeys,” Mehta said. “It was true when I passed the exam in 1991, and it’s just as true now, if not more. Serving this profession has been my life, and helping others join this profession will be my life’s work.”

Mehta is chief strategist of the aerospace firm Analytical Mechanics Associates. Before taking that position, he spent more than four decades at Science Systems and Applications, Inc., eventually rising to president. During his time there, the company grew from a two-person firm