Inside AICPA

Institute names vice-president...Private Company Financial Reporting Committee chair named...Post-hurricane efforts honored...XBRL developer honored

Brackens Is New Vice-President
The AICPA named James Brackens Jr., CPA, vice-president of firm quality and practice monitoring, reporting to Sue Coffey, senior vice-president of member quality and state regulation.

Brackens will provide support and strategic direction for the AICPA’s peer review programs and for the Employee Benefit Plan and Governmental Audit Quality Centers.

Brackens comes to the position from his own accounting practice, which served closely held businesses and nonprofit organizations in Virginia. He has performed more than 300 peer reviews of small accounting firms since 1990.

O’Dell to Chair Private Company Financial Reporting Committee
Judith H. O’Dell, CPA, was named chair of the Private Company Financial Reporting Committee in December. The committee is expected to meet for the first time this spring.

O’Dell, who was a trustee of the Financial Accounting Foundation, which oversees both FASB and GASB, serves as a principal and CFO of a family-owned enterprise specializing in real estate development and construction, and of a hotel and restaurant business.

O’Dell also operates her own business valuation and litigation support practice. She was formerly managing shareholder of a Pennsylvania-based accounting firm.

Awards for Public Service
The AICPA received an award from the IRS in recognition of the Institute’s efforts to encourage CPAs to volunteer to help victims of hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita fill out their tax forms. Richard Morgante, commissioner of the Wage & Investment Division, presented the award at November’s National CPA/IRS Tax Issues Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, the AICPA awarded its first Tax Public Service Award to Ernst & Young LLP for the firm’s work in the aftermath of the hurricanes. Tom Purcell, immediate past chair of the Institute’s Tax Executive Committee, presented the award to Chuck Kowal, CPA, partner and director of personal financial services at Ernst & Young, at the Federal Tax Conference and Fall Tax Division Meeting. The committee created the award to further the Tax Division’s goal of serving the public and enhancing pro bono opportunities for AICPA members.

Hoffman Receives Special Recognition Award
Charles Hoffman, CPA, received the AICPA’s 2006 Special Recognition Award at the Institute’s National Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments in Washington, D.C.

The award, presented by AICPA Vice-Chair Randy Fletchall, recognizes Hoffman’s contributions to the development of XBRL, a mark-up language that facilitates the preparation, analysis and communication of business information.

Hoffman is credited with conceiving the idea of using XML to structure financial statements and with developing the initial XBRL prototype. He is the director of innovative solutions at UBmatrix, a software company based in Kirkland, Wash.