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The accounting profession has changed dramatically over the past few years as the business world better appreciates accountants’ input, a panel of CPAs agreed May 9 in a discussion on “The Role of the MBA Graduate in Accounting and Corporate Governance,” at Gleacher Center.
“The profession is entering into a real golden age,” said Wayne Ebersberger, a partner at Ernst & Young LLP in Chicago. A shifting awareness of the accountant’s role in corporate governance has made accounting the “hot profession,” he said. “The needs, the wants in the financial area are overwhelming. I don’t think, bluntly, any of our firms can get enough talent.”
PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Larry Borak, ’00, agreed there is a far greater emphasis on the accountant’s contribution. “Corporate governance at its best has really taken off, which has really made our role far more important,” he said. “People [now] notice what you do.”
Speaking to students at an event organized by the Illinois CPA Society and the GSB’s Accounting and Auditing Club, the panelists also assured their audience an MBA degree makes a difference, even for accountants.
“When we hire people who are MBAs they have a better sense of the business and how it’s supposed to operate,” said Kimberly L. Rice, vice president and managing director of the Titus Group. “They really understand how the puzzle fits together.”
Borak said that participating in the GSB’s Executive Program helped him see “the accountant’s view isn’t the only view.” That exposure to diverse perspectives enhanced his ability to hold his own in the boardroom, he said. “[The GSB curriculum] really helped me understand that there was far more to what I do than the debits and credits at the end of the day.”
— Jenn Q. Goddu