Mark Koziel: The End of Accounting as We Know It | Gear Up for Growth

“The hours-times-rate model is a death knell for the profession,” says Koziel, CPA, CGMA, president and CEO of the AICPA and the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, on Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines and hosted by Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing.

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As artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of tax preparation and compliance work, Koziel says CPA firms must fundamentally rethink how they create—and price—value for clients.

“There’s still value to that tax return,” Koziel says. “It’s just not based on our inputs.”

Rather than charging for the time it takes to complete compliance work, Koziel encourages firms to focus on the insight, judgment and peace of mind they provide through planning, advisory services and proactive client relationships.

One of his strongest messages centers on repositioning the profession beyond its traditional identity.

“If you ask anybody on the street what a CPA does, they’re going to tell you tax,” Koziel says. “But advisory and planning are the two that we really need to start nailing down.”

Throughout the discussion, Koziel emphasizes that while AI continues to reshape workflows, it does not diminish the importance of the CPA. Instead, it elevates the profession’s responsibility to help clients interpret information, make better decisions and navigate increasing complexity.

More:

• Success for smaller firms comes through specialization, client accounting services, industry niches or highly focused expertise—not through being generalists.
• The AICPA is becoming more member-centric. Examples include bringing back the printed Journal of Accountancy, improving member communities and making resources easier to access on the AICPA website.
• Simulation-based learning and internships are becoming increasingly important.
• The AI Navigator provides customized strategic guidance for firms of every size.
• The CPA credential continues to carry extraordinary marketplace value.
• Today’s leaders are responsible for leaving the profession stronger than they found it.

One consistent theme underlies every topic: trust.

“Competency, integrity and trust are the big things people look to us for, no matter what it is that we do,” Koziel says.

About today’s guest

Mark Koziel is President and CEO of the AICPA and the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. He began his career with the AICPA in 2006, serving in a variety of leadership roles over 14 years before becoming President and CEO of Allinial Global in 2020. In January 2025, he returned to lead the AICPA and the Association.

From the beginning of his career at a large local accounting firm in Buffalo, New York, to his current role at the AICPA, Mark has been a leader and consistent advocate for CPA firms. Well known and highly regarded within the profession, he has appeared among the top 10 of Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting and has been named to the International Accounting Bulletin’s Global Accounting Power 50 List.

Transcript

Jean: Hello. Thank you for joining “Gear Up for Growth”, powered by CPA Trendlines. I’m Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing, and your host. I would like to welcome back today’s guest, Mark Koziel, president and CEO at the AICPA and the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. Mark, you were guest number two back in August 2024. Thanks for joining me again today.

Mark: Well, thanks for having me, Jean. It’s great to be here.

Jean: Yes, there’s been some changes since August 2024. You’ve been in your current role about 18 months. What has surprised you the most?

Mark: I don’t know if anything has really kind of surprised me other than the pace of change and things that we have to stay on top of as a profession in general. We’ve had quite a few things that have happened over the last 18 months, which I think for a lot of things, some general positivity. But I think ultimately, I guess the thing that surprised me the most is the ability of AICPA and the strength and stature of the AICPA in the political regulatory environment. We are listened to in a major way in what happens in tax and what happens in publicly-traded companies, what happens with governmental audits, a lot of our smaller firms, and some of the things that they’re dealing with.

I spent the first year on a listening tour, and we did get some really good insights. Don’t forget about the small firm, but at the same time, while we rely on our small firms to handle a lot of the local governmental audits, many are frustrated and looking to get out of it because they’re just messy. But it got me thinking differently. We’ve handled the not-for-profit space really well, and creating and propping up client accounting services for not-for-profits. Why can’t we do the same for government? Something like that. And just being able to see it and being able to how we can help drive the marketplace in a different way. If we can get better accounting, we can get better audits. And I’ve even had a conversation with the controller general of the GAO and with the chair of GASB, and they’re all on board. And so, how we can collaborate and make the market better. And it’s about us being about trust, right? We are on that moniker right now and how well we are, in fact, trusted as a profession.

Jean: You know, I’ve had the opportunity to have several different state society leaders as guests on “Gear Up for Growth”. And they also use that word collaborate a lot about, you know, them getting together and tackling these same issues and learning from each other. Do you see a lot of that going on as well?

Mark: A ton. Yeah. It’s funny because I’ve told all the state society folks that I’ve dealt with that, you know, I kind of grew up in that environment. So, I volunteered at the local level, local chapter level, Buffalo chapter back in the day. Then got involved in the state society and then I left for a while and then came back to the profession through AICPA. But understanding the importance of that because I grew up with it. And I have a lot of friends who are now in leadership. A lot of, what we used to call ourselves, young CPAs back in the day, that I then saw in leadership positions 15 years later was pretty amazing.

And we have state-based issues, right? So, we have bringing back Bachelor’s Plus Two. That all started with Ohio in December of ’24 before I even started on January 1 of ’25. And there were a number of other states already looking at it and the collaboration around that and the connectivity. And I had a number of states, I had a number of press ask me back then, they’re like, “What’s your position on for or against 150?” I said, “My position doesn’t matter. Train’s left the station. Let’s go. And let’s get it done. And we need to move on as a profession and stop making that always the issue.”

And so, we’ve eliminated the issue. Now, mobility will be an issue. We’ll have to fix that as all these states come on. But we’re at record numbers right now, and that’s all through state collaboration. Potential risk of deregulation in states. Florida was hit with it two years in a row. There’s other states that have some semblance of potential D-reg along with it and us all working together.

The example of the H.R. 1 last June, last May really, and there was potential regulation in that and the reconciliation bill that would have been negative on CPA firms. Getting all the states involved, collaborating around that, being highly successful, and saving our partners of firms billions of dollars in additional, potential tax that it would have cost them, had that provision stayed in the reconciliation bill. So, there’s always that collaboration. And what’s amazing is we can have firms that are the fiercest of competitors out there in the marketplace still come to the table and collaborate in a major way.

Jean: Right, yeah. It’s great to see, you know, you always have those folks that are willing to step up and take those leadership positions and, I don’t want to say, fight for a profession. But I mean, you have a lot of people who really love the accounting profession and want to contribute their skills and talent to keep advancing it.

Mark: That’s right. I said we are but mere stewards of this great profession of ours, so were stewards before us that got us in the position that we’re in today, and we need to make sure that we carry that on for the next generation.

Jean: Right, absolutely. So, let’s talk about consolidation for a minute. You know, there’s not a day that goes by, right, that a firm is not acquiring another firm. And now, we have groups of firms coming together to form a separate firm or some sort of legal network or association. And some people think, like, the consolidation is good, they’re building stronger firms, they could offer more services. And then other people are thinking, “Well, does this limit career options for staff?” So, what do you think? Will the profession do you think be dominated by these big, national and regional firms? Or do you think the smaller firms have an opportunity to niche and to continue to thrive in their own way?

Mark: They always will be. I mean, you know, and maybe, you know, I think some of the consolidation, what I have seen, and I think it’s only temporary for now, is kind of like hollowing out of the middle of the profession, right? So, you have the bigger getting bigger and the smaller getting smaller, and then in the middle, what’s happening inside of those firms. There are less opportunities for generalists today. We’ve said that time and again. But our small firms, they’re either focused on CAS, maybe it’s CAS and tax. You know, maybe it’s audit only. We do have a number of firms that do that.

Maybe it’s a particular industry niche only, as a small firm that they’re going to focus on that one thing. You know, the problem is, you know, life has gotten complicated and business has gotten complicated, and so, it is very hard to be a generalist in today’s environment. And so, the largest of firms are serving a multitude of clients. And it may just be a geography thing more than the size of their client are that much bigger. But then you have some of the larger firms that are focused now on bigger clients, capital markets, whatever that may be.

And I think that consolidation has always been around. I mean, I came out right at the point of eight going to six, now we’re down to four, right? And you look at the top 100 firms, the top 50 firms really, I could show you a list from 1977 that a member had given to me back a number of years ago, and you wouldn’t recognize half of the names that are on that list, or you would have known them as the consolidated versions of that that now are but mere letters left of what they were from that. So, firms have evolved over time. But at the end of the day, you know, I think about and, you know, I’ve gotten the knock at times from members saying, you know, “You came from a big firm. You don’t get it.”

Because the firm I was with, we were 50 people when I started, at 120 when I left. But it was started by one professional going out to his clients with his wife carrying the typewriter to type out the financial statements as he was talking to the client and getting it all done. And those clients were still there. They were still a big part of our business. And that sole practitioner, now founder of that firm, still remembers those days, and educated all of us as we grew up in that firm to, “Don’t forget about the client. Don’t forget about what that is.” Now, we added a few more resources over the years to that added, a few more things to what we were going to do. But the end of the day, there’s a lot of firms, even the largest of firms today, those names that are on the door, they started probably with a single or maybe a few people as they got started. They just had a different goal on what they wanted to be when they were done.

Jean: Right. How has consolidation impacted membership in the AICPA?

Mark: It hasn’t at all. I mean, you know, we still see the same retirements and boomers exiting and not having as many entering into the profession. That has affected it far more than anything else. And I think the states are seeing even some of the same things. There’s been a rare occasion that we hear of a firm, and it turns out that it wasn’t factual that they were going to stop supporting. You know, in the larger firms, we have firm membership at that point. But the bigger thing for us is making sure that we attain member value, right?

And so, the large thing is I’ve heard in this last year that people who may have dropped membership, they didn’t feel as connected to AICPA. We brought back the Journal of Accountancy, maybe only quarterly now, but it’s in print. And I’m getting a lot of cheers for that. And so, you know, the people said it’s hard. Our website needs work. I’ve identified that. I’ve heard that plenty of times. And we are working on a way to do that. That’ll take a little bit more time. But creating communities of practice and audit and tax and the like and getting people propped up and getting our resources out into those communities directly rather than hoping people can find it on a ginormous website is not the way that we need to interact with our members.

So, the Rise2040 here, you have a strategic initiative. And there’s a navigator tool on the Rise2040 website where members, when they access it, they can actually go in and can help them focus on the things they need to focus on, whether they’re a small firm, large firm, CFO in business. They could go in and say, “Hey, I’m a CFO in the Midwest. What do I need to worry about? What do I need to bring to my finance team?” And it’s amazing based on the 6,000-plus responses, the wealth of information you’re going to get from that.

Jean: Yeah. I’ve got Cassie Rushing lined up to record with her in a few weeks, all about Rise2040, so…

Mark: She was a great help to that. She was a help to me when I left AICPA to run an association of firms. We did a similar strategic focus, and that set the stage for our board. This Rise2040 is going to set the stage for the association board. They already know that, and we’re working through the expiring strategic plan that I inherited when I came in. Now it’s about this member feedback specifically on how we need to focus on the future.

Jean: Right. Because isn’t it? It all goes together, Mark, right? Because as you said, you know, the AICPA needs to bring value to the members. You need the members. So, you’ve got the finances to run the AICPA and create the services and value to the members. It just all goes around and around all together.

Mark: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Jean: Yeah, yeah. So, let’s jump to private equity for a minute. I don’t want to get too deep into that. There’s a ton of resources and interviews and podcasts and everything out there about PE. And there’s the fiercely independent firms not jumping in the swimming pool, for lack of a better term. For the firms that have taken private equity and running under that investor-driven model, more of a corporate model, how can those CPA firms maintain their professional identity running under a model like that?

Mark: So, we have to ask ourself, has every private equity-backed type business out there lost their identity based on who they are or what they do? And I think culture is always a big reason why private equity firms were looking at the firms that they did to invest in. And then you have the independent firms who that is part of their cultural identity that they say that they want to be a part of. First of all, the corporate model as a theory, there have been a large number of firms, and even independent and fiercely independent firms are running like a corporation today, that they have a dedicated CEO, probably has little to no book of business in the larger firms that are doing that. That’s because they are a big operation that needs somebody to have 100% focus on the firm. And so, that hasn’t changed.

Now, the capital in how to do it. It’s a capital play. I’ve met with the private equity firms directly because what I have to worry about is the profession. And I want to make darn sure that they understand that audit quality is paramount. Quality in general is paramount to us as a profession. And they do understand that. And that is part of why they have actually invested in many of the firms understanding that. And so, I can only focus on it from the profession standpoint and making sure that the firms are doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

Has culture changed? Yes. Are there greater accountabilities in those firms? Probably. And those accountabilities then tend to be what drive things a little bit differently. But again, it is who you want to be, how you want to show up to the marketplace, how you want to serve your clients, all of those things. You can do it as an independent. You can do it as a private equity backed. And I think, in those conversations for the firm, it’s up to the firm to also make sure that they want to keep their cultural identity. I’m sure that is part of the conversation when they are talking to a private equity firm.

Jean: Right. Yeah. Culture has to be a big part of that conversation because, you know, firms and leadership that have really built firm cultures, because… Well, let’s say, every firm has one whether they want one or not. And sometimes it has been created and lived. And other times it’s just what it happens to be based upon how the firm runs. Because we also get some feedback that, you know, after PE, folks are dropping out. They’ve decided like, “This is no longer the right firm for me.” But I suppose that could just be a natural consequence of any sort of business move.

Mark: Yeah. It happens in a merger. So, one firm merges into another, the same thing happens. And so, not that this is a merger per se, but I do think, when life events like that happened, I do think that there will be some cultural shift at that point in time and people make decisions. But back to your point about the number of firms, I used to say this in the M&A space when, you know, I’d get a newspaper… I’m now dating myself. Like newspapers exist anymore, right? But a news outlet that would call because one of their patriarch firms in their marketplace was bought by a larger firm somewhere else. And they want to say, “Is this the consolidation of the local firm?” And my answer always was no, because the math on a merger is one plus one equals four to five, right?

So, two firms merge. A couple of people say that’s not for me. And they go out and they decide maybe they hang their shingle with one of their other partners from that firm. Or, you know, you create three other sole practitioners that come out of that firm, they decide to hang their own shingles. So, that has been always the evolving economy of who we are as a profession, that we do get that kind of mix of firms that happen anytime there’s a merger like that. We have dropped in a number of firms. Sole practitioners definitely have retired off at a significant clip. But at the same time, we’re still seeing new firms being created every day.

Jean: Right. And Mark, I see… Because I’ve talked about this with a couple of different guests. I’ll date myself. So, I remember back in the ’80s, early ’90s, the number of practitioners that left firms and did hang their shingle and created new firms. And I don’t see as much of that happening today, except for the sole practitioners. I see a lot on social media and also about so-and-so, “I’ve made the break and I’ve started my own firm.” Is that what you’re seeing also?

Mark: A lot of it, yeah. And I think, you know, if you go back, even in the ’70s, so it was well before me. But the sole practitioner that I mentioned that I went to work for in 1994, he started in the ’70s. He came from one of the big four. He left, did that, started to grow a business, started to hire other partners from that big four into the firm, and then they grew it into a partnership. And so, you know, I think there’s a lot of lifestyle firms that we’re seeing today.

There’s a lot of collaboration to be able to say, “Okay, these are my clients. I’m going to handle them. When I don’t have it, I’m going to have a collaborative relationship, some type of an alliance maybe with another sole practitioner. Maybe I’m the only one doing CAS, but I have a relationship with a tax partner over here and we can share things rather than getting together.” Maybe someday they decide to get married, but if they never did, so be it. Their clients were taken care of, and the clients are okay with that as long as they know they’re on their way and able to get done what they need to get done.

Jean: Right, right. Another topic that we’re hearing and reading about a lot, of course, is AI and how AI is going to eliminate compliance work. There’s even the data out there, by 2030, accountants will no longer be preparing financial statements and tax returns. So, I’ve got a couple of questions around this. The first being, with AI helping CPAs be more efficient, that does open up time to spend more time with their clients because they’ve built that trust. We’ve used that word already here. I also hear that with the extra time, CPAs are just taking on more work. What do you see?

Mark: Yeah, I mean, that’s where the hours times rate is a death knell for the profession. There’s still value to that particular tax return. It’s not based on our inputs, and it hasn’t been for a long time. I think we need to figure that out. We also need to figure out how to create value around the advent of information and the information that I can trust. So, I think of the small firm that does tax only for their clients. And it’s interesting because, you know, we have a commercial, we have our CPA trust campaign we’re doing. In the commercial, in the voiceover, it says that, you know, things like audit and advisory and planning were the three words that were done in the brief 30 seconds that we had, but we have more time on screen. So, tax was mentioned on screen, wasn’t verbally mentioned. Our members who are tax only, they were a little upset about that. But at the same time, we’re also trying to shift the marketplace.

Because if you ask anybody on the street what a CPA does, they’re going to tell you tax. That’s the easy one. But advisory and planning are the two that we really need to start nailing down. And those words were in there in addition to verbally saying it. All in our billboards and everything, tax is there. And we’re going to keep trying to make that shift from tax only to tax advisory and tax planning. We need to make those shifts. In addition, all kinds of other advisory and planning that we do inside of business planning and wealth planning and just a variety of things.

So, as compliance gets reduced, I still think… And, like, we work with Blue J as a partner of CPA.com. And having that information at your fingertips, to be able to say to a client, “You know what, client? I’m going to give you information. Don’t worry about reading up on these things. I’m going to send it to you when you need to know it. If you don’t hear it from me, not worth your time to read it. I will do that for you.” That is included in our service package. So, if we did a good, better, best service package, I’ll give you compliance only. Here’s the price. And it better be the price we’ve always been charging no matter what AI does with it.

I’m also hearing from small firms that their clients are taking their tax return. They’re putting it up into an AI tool. And then they’re coming back to the firm saying, “Here’s where Claude told me you got my return wrong.” So, now, the firm has to defend what they do. So, all of this, to me, has to be high value, because now, they have to actually defend against what this client…still isn’t any more educated in how they could do it. And they’re using an open AI tool to be able to get it. And it turns out some of what the open AI tool is pulling from is outdated information to produce that versus, you know, in the confines of what the firm is doing.

So, having that education process, going through all that, all these things are big time value additions that we need. Being able to sit down with the client four times a year just to check in. You don’t have to have an agenda. You don’t need to talk about anything. You don’t even need to do all these additional things. You can refer it on to somebody else. But putting that in the package to be able to sit down and give the client peace of mind. Maybe it’s twice a year. Maybe it is only once a year. But at that once a year, you’re going to take more time to be able to do it.

I had an older couple that I absolutely had to continue doing their tax return. It was not worth the money to them. I charged them a fair rate to do it. But I always said that the return took me about a half an hour to do. And it took me about four hours in client time for that half an hour return. Because it took me two hours to go and pick up the information for the return. And then when I was done to deliver it again, another two hours to hear the same stories I heard in the two hours when I picked up the return. But for them, they just enjoyed the socialization and they were just nice people, so I did it. But at the same time, you get paid a fair rate. They were more than happy to do it. And it wasn’t based on the… I didn’t charge them on 30 minutes. I charged them for a lot of things that we had other conversations about. And it was really important.

Jean: Yeah. And in other research that I’ve done and other people have done, the CPA being proactive with their clients is always near the top of reasons why a client would stay with a firm, and also at the top of reasons why they would leave a firm. Because if they don’t feel they’re getting that proactivity and that information and advice, they go somewhere else.

Mark: That’s right.

Jean: Yeah. So, just briefly on the talent shortage. And I know the numbers seem to be going… I’ve heard numbers are going up, number of students studying accounting, graduating with accounting degrees, all of that. It’s kind of taking a turn, swing back up. So, we’ve been talking about the talent shortage for a long time. What are firms still getting wrong?

Mark: I don’t know if anyone’s getting it wrong as much, you know, we’re at an inflection point now. And what I’ve been seeing in the last really six months… It kind of started towards the end of last year. I was in a state that had already passed adding the Bachelor’s Plus Two and it became effective pretty quickly. And so, I was at an event in December for the state, and I had a professor there from a large university raise their hand and said, “I have a number of masters. You’re telling me how great this profession is, all the great opportunities. I have a bunch of masters kids who aren’t getting jobs. Tell me what I tell them.” And I said, “Okay, well, let me ask you,” I said,” “how many firms do you have on campus?” And she says, “Well, we bring six firms in on campus.” I said, “Okay, well, there’s another 39,994 firms out there. Maybe we can open it up a bit and get more firms on campus,” which we used to. And I think a lot of firms just kind of gave up on that.

But in this year, we have almost like double the number of students available. Because you have students who are graduating with a bachelor’s saying, “I’m not going on to the 150 or a master’s.” And you have the ones that are graduating with the 150 and a master’s. So, now, all of a sudden, we have far more capacity than we ever had before. And I don’t think a lot of firms are aware of the fact that there are potential students out there that we can hire in. Then on the flip side, I have a number of firms saying, “But they’re not trainable. I need kids with experience because what I’m asking them to do today is far different than what I had available 10, 15, 20 years ago. And they’re missing that skillset and the universities aren’t teaching it.” And I say, “Well, I don’t know that the universities can. The universities can teach theory.”

This is where I think internships are highly valuable. Get them in there. We’re not having as big an expectation on productivity as we’re doing that. Let’s get them and train them up a bit. And I think getting more firms in there to do the internships. On our PCPS group for firm membership, we have all kinds of support on how to develop an internship for small firms, large firms, and the like. I think we need to continue that. We need to focus on that.

We are also at the same time working on what we’re calling a profession-ready initiative. I had, in the first year out on the road, whether it was in business CFOs or it was partners and firms, all saying the same thing. There’s a skills gap between graduation and what I need them to do today. When I think about tax or audit and what I’m asking them to do, accounts receivable audit, we’re asking them to almost immediately opine on whether or not the accounts receivable is fairly valued. And being able to assess and critically think about what the automation is telling us around having all the confirmations go out and the responses back to that and what all that looks like, all of those steps have been eliminated. So, without doing that, how do they have the critical thinking capability to do it?

So, we’re actually looking at creating a simulation model, a simulator tool that firms can use of all sizes, small firm, large firm, that they can actually pull their data, put it on the simulator tool, and give those kids access to be able to learn at the office rather than trying to take them out to a client on things that they’re not able to do anymore. And I think that’s what we need to really focus on, is how do we get them up to speed faster? Because we’re no longer in an apprentice model where they’re going to learn it on the job because any of those steps are gone.

Jean: Right, right. And add that to the fact that firms still have work from home options, and they may not be in the office as often working side-by-side with a senior or manager to learn their job.

Mark: That’s right.

Jean: Mark, what gives you the greatest optimism about the future of the accounting profession?

Mark: It’s our profession in general. We are absolutely the greatest profession in the world. I would do it all over again. I think the opportunities that we offer in a variety of ways, whether you want to stay in public accounting, you want to stay in a large firm, you want to go to a small firm where you have a little more client-focus, you want to go into business and industry. There’s just so many options. And then I’m getting emails and texts from members who are doing all kinds of incredible things.

I was amazed. I shouldn’t be amazed by this, but in our Securities and Exchange Commission, the number of CPAs and members of the AICPA we have working at the SEC is phenomenal. And how proud they are of the profession. And they’re there for enforcement to make sure the capital markets are thriving. Great. The small firm practitioners, the number of practitioners who have come to me says, “I’ve been back at AICPA.”

And Erik Asgeirsson and I talking about, we started the AICPA Town Hall together back in 2020, the pandemic. And the members telling us how we got them through the pandemic. Being able to know that they had somebody like us to talk to. And starting with 600 participants in that first one of April of 2020 to the 15,000 that we get today is just truly remarkable. And how collaborative the profession is and the opportunities that it drives.

You know, I left the profession. For three years, I went into political media to go work for a client of mine, which was crazy, in media planning. They used to promote the fact that I was probably the only CPA running a media planning division for a political media firm. And they were right. And so, that trust, as we keep coming back to that word, they knew that those CPA credential, those three letters meant something to the market. And they wanted to promote the fact that they had one that was doing their media planning. Had nothing to do with the type of job that it was. But again, it mattered and it was a differentiator. So, all of us figuring out what that differentiator is, those three letters are absolutely imperative, and I think something that we need to continue focusing on.

Jean: Absolutely. So, a couple more questions. So, for the managing partners, you know, listening or watching today, if they could make one decision in the next year to better position their firm for the next decade, what would you advise them to do?

Mark: Well, first and foremost, they’re going to go to rise2040.com, and they’re going to click on the AI Navigator tool, and they’re going to ask that question. Because the AI Navigator tool will help them do that, which for us, is incredibly important. I was at our CIMA side. The CIMA had their council meeting in London last week. And so, we had all of our CIMA council members, our CFOs from a variety of businesses around the world. And we ran the tool. Tom Hood, who’s been running this project, ran the tool with all of them to say, “I’m a CFO in Dubai. What do I need to know?” And just to see the answers to that.

So, it will even ask you, based on asking that question, “Would you like a 90 day plan of what you need to focus on? Would you like a sample strategic plan based on who you are?” So, going in saying, “I’m a small firm, I’m a sole practitioner who’s only doing tax, what do I need to focus on?” You will get the results of that. And I think it’s a phenomenal way to do business. And to me, an incredible member benefit that we just created that didn’t exist a year ago.

Jean: Right. Amazing. So, you mentioned earlier about leaders in the profession, you know, 10, 15 years ago. And now here, you know, you are, you know, leading the AICPA. When future leaders look back on this time, what do you hope they say about this generation of firm leaders and what the AICPA got right?

Mark: I think, again, being the stewards, getting AI assurance right, getting the arbiters of trust based on how businesses trained, changed around trust, and making sure that we maintain our place in society to maintain that level of trust in who we are and as we go forward. Because that’s… I don’t know what they’re going to be the arbiters of trust for 10 years from now, 20 years from now, but as long as we continue on.

I could tell you that in the 1920s, the CPAs wouldn’t have even guessed that they would have been the arbiters of trust around the capital markets that needed it in 1933. How about the fact that today we are the arbiters of trust on digital assets and the reserves over digital assets. That didn’t exist five years ago. And now, here we are. And I think for us to always make sure that we provide that, that we stick to who we are as a profession. You know, competency, integrity, you know, and trust, those are the big things that people look to us for no matter what it is that we do. And I think we need to maintain that. We need to make sure it’s well established for the future.

Jean: Okay, so I’d like to end with a lightning round. Just really kind of, you know, brief answers. What’s your favorite way to relax when you’re not working?

Mark: A cigar and a glass of wine.

Jean: Okay, early bird or night owl?

Mark: Early bird.

Jean: What’s the last book you read just for fun?

Mark: Oh, no. Well, actually, I just read it, you know, front to back last night. And it was… I’m now trying to think of the title. So, literally, we celebrated Father’s Day yesterday because I was out of town for Father’s Day. And so, my family got me a book on Disney park maps or Disney movie maps. And it talked about, like, what setting the Disney movies would be in to do it. And that was fun. I literally knocked it off last night.

Jean: Interesting. Okay. What was your very first job?

Mark: I was a pool boy, if you will, in the town of Cheektowaga where I grew up. So, I worked in, you know, handing out locker keys for the town. That lasted all about a week. And then I got a job at Wegmans, which I’ve talked about for years and years and years. One of my favorite companies in the world.

Jean: Everybody loves Wegmans.

Mark: I interned in their internal audit department. Yeah. So, I’ve worked in their main office and internal audit as an intern back right around ’89, ’90. And just a great experience and a story I love.

Jean: Awesome. Okay, last one. What is one skill you’d still love to learn?

Mark: Probably golf. Because I keep trying it and it’s just not working. You know, I keep saying, I’ve said this, I’ve used the comparative. Like, some firms have said, they try it, they want to still be in the audit business, but they’re only going to do an audit once a year. And I said, you know, I try and be good at golf once a year and it’s really not working out for me. And it’s hard, right? You know, something that is complicated is getting all the steps right in golf. It’s complicated as getting all the audit steps right. And all the audit standards as they continue to change, they don’t always evolve from us. We have to follow what’s happening in other markets and, you know, internet, trying to keep standards as converged as possible. So, you know, again, it definitely would be golf. I keep thinking about it, but I’m never in the same city long enough to find an instructor for all the time that I need to get it right.

Jean: Right. Yep. It is a complicated game, but it is a fun game and it’s a game for life.

Mark: It is. That’s right.

Jean: Yeah, golf’s a good one. I have been speaking with Mark Koziel, president and CEO at the AICPA and the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. Thank you, Mark, for your leadership and sharing your perspectives with us today.

Mark: Thank you, Jean.

Jean: And thank you for tuning in to “Gear Up for Growth”. Be sure to check us out next time when we focus on another topic crucial for accounting firms aiming for smart growth in today’s competitive marketplace. I’ll see you then.