A quick round of applause, if you don’t mind, for Judy O’Dell.

An MACPA member and president of O’Dell Valuation Consulting in Chestertown, Md., O’Dell has spent years pursuing common-sense changes to financial reporting standards for private companies.

Now, she is being recognized by the profession for her work.

The AICPA has awarded O’Dell with its 2014 Special Recognition Award, which is given annually “to an individual who has contributed to the success of a particular professional initiative.”

The search for private company reporting standards has been a long pursuit.

• O’Dell chaired the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Private Company Financial Reporting Committee, which “laid the foundation for the next evolution for private companies,” said AICPA Board of Directors Chair William Balhoff.
   
• She was a member of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Standard Setting for Private Companies and has helped raise awareness nationwide of the need for differential financial reporting standards for private companies.
   
• That dedication set the stage for the work now being done by the Private Company Council, which was created by the Financial Accounting Foundation to identify and vote on exceptions and modifications to U.S. GAAP for private companies.

“In fact,” said Balhoff, “you can say unequivocally that Judy has been instrumental in helping us arrive at this point of the Private Company Council working with FASB to effect meaningful changes in GAAP for privates companies where warranted.”

O’Dell was honored by the recognition but was quick to offer some praise of her own.

“I was pleased to receive the award. That said, I am only one of the many dedicated people who have worked over the course of many years to focus FASB’s attention on the unique needs of private companies,” she said. “Chairing the Private Company Financial Reporting Committee was the most stimulating and challenging undertaking of my career and I was fortunate to have been surrounded by 12 very talented committee members.

“I am particularly proud to have been part of the group that drafted the Private Company Decision-Making Framework that FASB just endorsed,” she added. “To my mind, it is the most amazing document ever issued by FASB in that it should embed private company issues firmly in the standard-setting process. I am encouraged by strong working relationship between the PCC and FASB. Standard-setting and making exceptions for private companies that work for all is not an easy process.”

More on O’Dell, courtesy of the AICPA:

“She has over 40 years of public accounting experience starting with a local firm in Iowa. She was named one of Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People from 2007 through 2011 for her role as advocate for private companies. She has served on the Board of the AICPA and as a trustee of the Financial Accounting Foundation, as well as chair of the Audit Advisory Committee of the U.S. General Accountability Office.”

Thanks, Judy. The profession needs more people with your passion.