Inside AICPA

Metzler Named SBA Financial Services Champion of the Year
The AICPA’s Jim Metzler, vice president–small firm interests, received the 2007 Financial Services Champion of the Year Award from the Small Business Administration’s New York District Office.

Metzler is the Institute’s advocate for small firms on practice, regulatory, legislative and CPA professional matters. He is the chief liaison between the Institute and its member firms, and he oversees the Private Companies Practice Section and the Management of an Accounting Practice Committee.

The award recognizes people who assist small businesses through advocacy efforts to increase usefulness and availability of accounting or financial services.

Pundits and Politicians Take the Stage
A number of high-profile speakers presented at the Institute’s spring council meeting prior to council members’ visits to the Hill. Karl Rove, deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to President Bush; Terry McAuliffe, former chair of the Democratic National Committee and chair of the Hillary Clinton for President Exploratory Committee; Ed Gillespie, former chair of the Republican National Committee and founder and co-chair of Quinn Gillespie & Associates; Paul Begala, CNN political analyst and former aide to President Clinton; George F. Will, columnist for The Washington Post and Newsweek; Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif.; Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La.; and Erik Peterson, senior vice president at CSIS and director of the Global Strategy Institute.

AICPA Honors CPA and Firm for Public Service Efforts
Robert F. Kevane, CPA, and Mountjoy & Bressler LLP received the AICPA’s 2006 Public Service Awards.

Doyle Williams, CPA, Ph.D., chair of the Institute’s Awards Committee, dean emeritus of Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas and senior scholar in the accounting department of Kennesaw State University’s Coles College of Business in Georgia, presented the awards at the AICPA spring council meeting in May.

Kevane, owner of the Kevane Company Inc., in La Mesa, Calif., has served on the boards of more than 40 local organizations, such as the San Diego Blood Bank and the Boys & Girls Clubs of East County Foundation.

Mountjoy & Bressler LLP, of Louisville, Ky., was recognized for corporate citizenship. The firm encourages employee volunteerism and supported such organizations as the Special Olympics of Kentucky, Junior Achievement and the American Cancer Society.

Academic Recognized for Achievement in Accounting Education
Dan S. Deines, CPA, Ph.D., received the Institute’s 2007 Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award at the AICPA spring council meeting.

AICPA Chair Jimmy Williamson presented the award.

Deines, the Ralph Crouch KPMG Chair in Accounting at Kansas State University, also recently received a grant from the Kansas Society of Certified Public Accountants to develop a high school Pre-Advanced Placement accounting course. He is a member of the AICPA’s Accounting Scholars Leadership Task Force and its Task Force on High School Accounting Curriculum Revision.