We at the MACPA have always known Tom Hood is a one-of-a-kind leader. Now everyone else knows, too.

Tom, who does double-duty as the MACPA's executive director and your friendly neighborhood blogger, has been named AccountingWeb's CPA Association Leader of the Year.

An excerpt from AccountingWeb's article:

Hood's passion is connecting with members, listening to their issues, and gaining direct member feedback in order to best meet their needs. “For Tom, connecting with the members is his job,” says Jackie Brown, deputy executive director and chief operating officer. “He is on the road, out with the members all the time.”

Named one of the “100 Most Influential People in the Accounting Profession” by Accounting Today magazine for his profession-wide change management efforts and his role in creating a national “shared services” model for the state and national CPA organizations, Hood has helped the MACPA achieve national recognition as a leader in preparing the CPA profession for the 21st century. (He) has led the profession in using social media to create, manage and enhance relationships and share information, knowledge and resources.

“What Tom brings to our association is a vision,” says MACPA Board Chairman Arthur E. Flach, CPA, managing partner of Grant Thornton, LLP in Baltimore. “He is proactive, anticipatory, always asking how the association can bring value, how it can benefit our members.”

“Tom is an amazing relationship builder with strong connections in the business community, the academic world, and government,” Brown said, “and every relationship has a benefit to our members. He is a passionate leader who is earned the deep respect of his colleagues in Maryland and the accounting profession nationally.”

Congratulations, Tom — you deserve it. Maryland CPAs are better off for all you do on their behalf.