Growing the profession: Insights from the AICPA chair’s travelogue

Okorie Ramsey, CPA, CGMA, hasn’t discovered the secret to being in two places at one time.

It only seems that way.

Last month, in his role as AICPA chair, Ramsey woke up in Alabama one day and in India the next.

Diverse destinations, for a man with a diverse background, but all in the name of a singular cause.

“What the profession has done for me,” Ramsey said, “allows me to do for others.”

Ramsey, vice president of Sarbanes-Oxley at Kaiser Permanente in California, is investing his time and his money for the good of the profession on several fronts.

And we’re literally talking about his money. At the recent Balance Sheet Bash, a program that exposes students attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in three Alabama cities to careers in accounting, Ramsey awarded two students at each stop with $1,000 from his personal checking account.

“For them, here’s someone who you didn’t know from Adam who came to talk to you about the profession, and you leave with a $1,000 scholarship to support your education,” Ramsey said. “And it’s coming from me personally because, ‘I need you to know that someone outside of your surroundings believes in you and your ability to get it into the profession — because you’re busting your butt to be able to do that.'”

Ramsey, the first Black man to serve as AICPA chair, is working to address the challenges facing the profession while also remembering to celebrate its successes to, as he put it, “tell the full story so we have a greater sense of where we are and why.”

Minority representation has long been a challenge for the profession, one that was a lived experience for Ramsey 30 years ago as a student at San Francisco State University and still is to this day.

“When I’m meeting with different organizations, I’m still very often in rooms where I may be one of a couple, or I may be the only one — and I’m at the front of the room, giving a presentation,” Ramsey said. “I leverage that platform to be able to talk about why diversity, inclusion, and belonging is such an important element of the work that we do and how we need to create either longer tables or more seats for people to feel they can be heard, seen, and a part of the conversation.

“Ultimately, it’s about how we grow that number, because there is clearly an opportunity to create multiple wins. One, the level of creativity and how we might do something when you have different perspectives, that’s strategically helpful for you to grow your business. I think it’s the right thing to do, and you can really differentiate yourself as an organization and grow your organization by doing such.”

From the Balance Sheet Bash to other events exposing college and high school students to the profession — like an Illinois CPA Society program that honors Mary T. Washington Wylie, who in 1943 became the first Black woman to earn CPA licensure — Ramsey is helping open the eyes of minority students to what the profession has to offer.

But Ramsey’s outreach doesn’t stop there.

“The student population is amazing, and it’s definitely a space where we need to be,” Ramsey said. “And because of the background that I have — I work for a premier healthcare enterprise that would be a Fortune 40 company if we were publicly traded, but I also have worked in public accounting — I’m trying to connect the different places where people are in the profession so that I can really address different interests that our professional membership has and what’s most important to them.

“I want to make sure that I’m crossing different boundaries.”

Traveling from Alabama to India last month, Ramsey partnered with Sarah Ghosh, CIMA president and his Assocation of International Certified Professional Accountants co-chair, for a CIMA Council meeting. Around the same time on his hectic calendar, he traveled to Florida to attend the latest gathering of the Major Firms Group.

Throughout his term, which will end in May, Ramsey has worked closely with Ghosh, with the Major Firms Group, with state CPA societies, colleges and universities, and with countless other individuals and groups.

“There was a week where I attended our SEC/PCAOB conference one day (in Washington, D.C.), then flew to Digital CPA (in Las Vegas) for an event there. Then I went to our Leadership Academy (in North Carolina),” Ramsey said. “At Digital CPA, that’s where we’re thinking creatively about how we change the way that we do our work and leverage technology in a different way to really advance the profession. The SEC/PCAOB conference, that in my mind is kind of table stakes: We built this great profession on how we engage with the SEC and publicly traded companies — which are a significant component of our economy — and a regulatory agency like the PCAOB. It’s important to have our voice heard. Then the Leadership Academy, we’re bringing in the future and showing them the art of the possible within the profession.

“It’s important to be in all those different spaces while also being present for Kaiser Permanente. That’s really representative of who we are, and it’s important to leverage this opportunity that I have to make sure I’m doing that.”

When Ramsey meets someone on his travels, he asks if he can take a selfie with them.

Now his volumnious virtual photo album reminds him of the big picture but also all the touchpoints that unite the profession.

“Throughout my year as chairman, I am trying to tell our story from my experience,” Ramsey said. “We need everyone in the boat sharing their experience with the public and the next generation on why we are proud to be a part of this profession and the value we provide.

“There needs to be a balance in sharing our story — yeah, there’s a pipeline issue, but here’s what we’re trying to do to address that. I have no problem acknowledging the challenges, but it’s also about, ‘Here’s what we’re doing, and here’s the why behind it,’ so that ultimately it helps to tell more of a full story.”

— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Bryan Strickland at Bryan.Strickland@aicpa-cima.com.