Are you looking to getting more involved in your profession? More involved in leadership? Have the ability to network? Learn skills to further your career? The FICPA Emerging Leaders Program may be right for you.

FICPA Emerging Leaders is a leadership program for young CPA professionals who are passionate about the CPA profession and their local communities. The Emerging Leaders Program has limited admittance and candidates are selected by the FICPA and Young CPA Committee. This program brings young CPA leaders in each region of the state together to provide programming that intertwines leadership development skills and insights from local leaders on issues impacting the community.

Emerging Leaders Program

This year I had the opportunity to participate in this newly designed program, which was formerly known as ACCEL at the Capitol. The first part of the program consisted of a regional portion with up to five young CPAs per region. Each region had a one-day, four-part program with speakers involved in their local community. The speakers came from areas of local government, not-for-profit, leadership development, and state government. Region IV (Orlando) heard from the Orange County Comptroller’s Office, House of Representatives member Bob Cortes, FICPA past Chair and Director of Customized Learning Mia Thomas, and Jill Bolander-Cohen from The LifeBoat Project Inc., a NFP human trafficking organization in Central Florida. In addition to hearing about issues in our community, this regional event gave YCPAs the chance to network with the community leaders and other young CPAs.

Emerging Leaders Summit

The second part of program was the Emerging Leaders Summit in Tallahassee where attendees from all over the state interacted with leaders in the state’s Capitol and heard from a nationally recognized leadership development specialist. This program is open to all YCPAs. The night before the Summit, a reception was held for YCPAs to mingle and get to know each other before the program. Day one of the summit started with a breakfast with Liberty Partners of Tallahassee, the lobbying firm for the FICPA. Participants were able to continue to network with each other and the lobby team introduced themselves and talked about some of the issues they have worked on with the FICPA. After breakfast, we walked to the State Capitol and met with State House and Senate leaders. These leaders talked to us about their committees and the legislative session, shared major bills that they are working on, and shared how they started in politics. Throughout the day we met with Rep. Dane Eagle (majority whip), Rep. Erin Grall, Rep. Jayer Williamson, Rep. Jim Boyd, Senator Travis Hutson, Rep. Michael Bileca, CPA, Rep. David Richardson, CPA and Rep. Cyndi Stevenson, CPA. We had the opportunity to attend the appropriations committee meeting, which was looking at the governor’s suggested budget. The day ended with a tour of the Capitol and senate Chambers, and a reception for graduates of the Emerging Leaders Program.

Day two of the Emerging Leaders Summit was a leadership development seminar hosted by Dan Griffiths, a leadership speaker for CPAs across the country. Dan is an executive Board Member of the Utah Association of CPAs and serves the AICPA as a Board Member, Governing Council Member and the Chair of the Young CPA Network Committee.  During this seminar, Dan covered five sessions: Intentional Career Design, How to Sell…Without Feeling Like a Salesperson, Moving from Compliance to Consultant, Leadership in the Profession, and Conflict Management. Emerging Leaders earned eight hours of CPE credit during this seminar.

This program provides the opportunity for Young CPAs to have an experience that many young CPAs don’t have. It combines networking, accounting, leadership, local politics, and state politics all in one program. It is a professional opportunity that develops the individual both personally and professionally. This program is great for CPAs working at local firms, regional firms, big four, industry, or government.

For more information about Emerging Leaders 2018, please email emergpro@ficpa.org or look on the FICPA website here.

Drew Ulloa, CPA Central Florida