Maryland is back at the top of the food chain in the accounting and finance world these days, now that former MACPA Chair Anoop Mehta has taken the reins for a year-long stint as chair of the American Institute of CPAs’ Board of Directors.
Of course, we couldn’t be prouder to see a Marylander rise among the ranks of our esteemed profession.
And this is a great time for all of this to be happening. Anoop is a huge proponent of greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in the profession. He’s a product of it, as a matter of fact. He’s an Indian-American who immigrated to the United States in 1972 with his parents, when he was 12. He has followed a path toward a more diverse, equal, and inclusive profession — not only followed it, but he is helping to pave that path as well.
Make no mistake: We’ve got a long way to go, but we’re making progress. According to the Journal of Accountancy, the number of new accounting graduates with diverse ethnic backgrounds to be hired by U.S. CPA firms hit 35% in 2020, up from 30% two years earlier. Meanwhile, the portion of ethnically diverse partners in accounting / finance functions at CPA firms doubled over a two-year period from 9% to 18%. These included gains with partners identifying as Asian / Pacific Islander, from 4% to 10%; Hispanic / Latinos, from 2% to 5%; and Black partners, whose numbers doubled from 1% to 2%.
The number of women who reach the partnership level at CPA firms also jumped significantly, from 23% in 2018 to 39 percent in 2020, and the percentage of women CPAs at firms overall increased from 42% to 46%.
We’re making progress, yes … and there is still much work to do, and that’s why Anoop is including DEI as one of his areas of focus this year.
So we’re looking forward to working with Anoop this year, and we’re excited to have him as a guest on the podcast this week. Listen to our conversation in its entirety.
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