MACPA's Tom Hood Named CPA Association Leader of the Year by Accounting Web

We here at Roger CPA Review wanted to take a moment to send our congratulations to Tom Hood, CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs, for being named AccountingWeb's CPA Association Leader of the Year - Tom and his crew over at MACPA certainly deserve the honor for their groundbreaking work in social media and beyond.

From AccountingWeb's article:

Thomas Hood, CPA, executive director of the Maryland Association of CPAs, (MACPA) has been named AccountingWEB's Outstanding CPA Association Leader of the Year for 2009. Executive director and CEO of MACPA since January 1997, 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.

Hood has led the profession in using social media to create, manage, and enhance relationships and share information, knowledge, and resources. He brought MACPA to the virtual (online) world of CPAIsland on Second Life, just one example of ways that involves the members in new technologies which can help them succeed.

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

Speaking of the social media in a recent interview with Rick Telberg on cpa2biz.com, Hood said, "CPAs are in the relationship business and these tools help manage relationships. CPAs are in the information and knowledge-management business and these tools help manage information and get answers. CPAs are in the communication business and these tools help to communicate."

And Hood added, "Did I say that most of these tools are free?" Hood went on to say that he thinks, "We are on the brink of another major technological disruption due to the evolution of these tools. They are being adopted at record-breaking levels and quickly gaining respect in the mainstream business arena."

"Tom sees opportunities way before any of us do," says Bill Sheridan, MACPA's electronic communications manager/editor. "He first wants to know if a new way of communicating is worth doing, if it is right for our members. If it is, then we will figure out how to do it."

We first discovered all the wonderful things MACPA is up to through the very avenue which Tom and the rest of his association talk so highly of - social media! Congratulations to Tom and everyone at MACPA for this honor and keep up the great work!

(oh and p.s. - any MACPA student members interested in a price break on Roger's energy-filled, dynamic CPA Review course may find more information on our relationship with MACPA here.)