November 1999
Society Member Robert Elliott Named AICPA Chair
NYSSCPA member Robert K. Elliott became AICPA chair at the Institute's Council meeting in October, succeeding Olivia Kirtley. The Society recognized his achievement with a special breakfast reception at the meeting.
Elliott is charged with leading the AICPA and the profession into the 21st century, through an historic era of transformation for the accounting profession. Among his overarching goals is to help CPAs exploit the advantages of technology to deliver new services to clients.
"Information technology is causing the convergence of computing, communications, and content," he said, in his inaugural speech at the Council meeting in Seattle. "In the future, the winners and losers among our clients and employers will be determined principally by their different capacities to create and use knowledge. Our challenge--and our opportunity--is to be the principal agents by which this is accomplished."
Elliott called on CPAs to look well into the future.
"Every branch of the profession must consider demand for its services in the world ten to twenty years from now," he said. "What will corporations need most from their managerial and outside accountants? What will governments and other not-for-profit organizations prize most from their accountants? What will students need to learn from accounting professors?"
Elliott reaffirmed the need for AICPA members to work toward achieving the objectives of the Vision, a long-range collaboration between the Institute and state societies to reposition the accounting profession for the future. In doing so, he presented his own vision of the future.
"I foresee a time when CPAs will be experts in all phases of leveraging information," he said. "CPAs will identify and deploy knowledge needed for strategic planning and investments, for marketing decisions, for monitoring internal and external conditions, for conducting daily operations, for maximizing the productivity of employee behavior, and for measuring the effectiveness of operations, personnel, and processes."
Elliott has served as a principal architect on several groundbreaking AICPA initiatives. These include assurance services, among them WebTrustSM for consumer protection in e-commerce transactions and ElderCareSM for the aged and their families.
Elliott also is a champion of an information technology project to develop an XML-based financial reporting language. The AICPA is spearheading this project, currently called XFRML, with the Big Five and several technology companies, including Microsoft (See related story on page 15).
Elliott has served on the AICPA's major policy-making bodies, including the Auditing Standards Board and the Strategic Planning Committee, of which he was the most recent chair. He was also a member of the AICPA's Special Committee on Financial Reporting (also known as the "Jenkins Committee").
Author of numerous professional articles and recipient of many awards, including the AICPA Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Service, the Journal of Accountancy Literary Award, and the American Accounting Association Auditing Section's Distinguished Service in Auditing Award, Elliott also has appeared on Accounting Today's "100 Most Influential People in Accounting" list every year since its inception.
Elliott holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a master's in business administration from Rutgers University. He resides in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. *
