Richardson Honored for Technology Contribution

Dana R. (Rick) Richardson was acknowledged in April at the 1999 AICPA Computer and Technology Conference in Denver for his lifetime contributions to the profession.

Since 1982, Richardson has been the keynote speaker at each of the AICPA’s annual technology conferences, producing a high-tech sight-and-sound show that leaves the audience not only entertained but more knowledgeable about current and future technology. His annual technology forecasts have become an institution at the conferences.

“Probably my best prediction was in 1991,” he says, “when I forecast that, of all the technologies in the 20th century, the Internet would bring the biggest change to the way we do business.”

Richardson retired from Ernst & Young in 1994, after 28 years—the last eight as the firm’s director of technology. He immediately launched a consulting firm, Richardson Media & Technologies, and a video production company, Dream Street Productions, both in New Canaan, Connecticut.

When he began his career at Arthur Young in the late 1960s, he was one of the earliest computer auditors. He went on to develop practice aids, guides and a standard on the use of computers in auditing. In 1981 Richardson developed the first computer-assisted auditing system, called the Arthur Young Audit Computer.

He is currently a member of the AICPA’s strategic planning committee.

The award was sponsored by Great Plains, the Intel Authorized Solution Provider program and Microsoft.