WICPA PresIdent theodore e. hArt, CPA, CFe

the art of leadership
WICPA President Theodore E. Hart, CPA, CFE
photograhpy by shelly wittstock orlandini
“Unless the state society becomes relevant to its
members in its own right, it’s going to be difficult
to operate as a viable enterprise.”
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Having grown up the son of a banker
and the nephew of an attorney gave
Theodore E. Hart, CPA, CFE, the desire
to pursue a career in business.
Hart, managing partner of Clifton Gunderson LLP’s 13 Wisconsin offices,
planned to follow his uncle into law. However, Hart decided to pursue a CPA
career after his uncle suggested becoming a CPA could help him as an attorney.
During the summer between his junior and senior year at Iowa State University, Hart worked at a small CPA firm in Peoria, Ill. After graduating, he took
a job as an assistant at the firm’s Peoria home office. He developed a niche in
assurance services, and in 1980, became an audit partner at Clifton Gunderson. Hart spent two years in the firm’s Chicago office before transferring to its
Racine practice in 1987.
Hart’s ambition and longevity in the profession has netted him a 33-year
accounting career. Longevity also describes his association with the WICPA,
which he joined in 1987. He has served on the WICPA Public Policy Committee, the Institute’s 100th Anniversary Task Force and the AICPA Council.
As 2008–2009 president of the WICPA, Hart said he will use his experience
as a CPA and dedication to the accounting profession to further the organization’s mission.
“Serving as president isn’t about me, it’s about the WICPA,” he said. “This is
an organization that we need to make sure is viable or it’s going to be detrimental to us and our profession and the people who come up in our profession in
the future.”
By Cynthia M. Hodnett
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“I think we need to celebrate the
profession in Wisconsin a lot more
than we do,” he said. “The
stereotype of the CPA is there for a
reason. CPAs are very modest.”
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A major challenge for the WICPA, Hart
said, is to maintain its history while shaping its future.
“For many years, we as a state society
acted to some degree as an extension of
the AICPA,” he said. “We delivered their
material, their continuing professional
education, their marketing and all of those
things. In an electronic age, the need to
have the state societies as an extension of
the AICPA is not as a great as it used to
be.”
“Unless the state society becomes relevant to its members in its own right, it’s
going to be difficult to operate as a viable
enterprise,” he said. “That’s compounded
by the fact that more than 50 percent of
our membership is not in public accounting. I think that the traditional state society model may overemphasize the public
accounting aspects versus the industry
aspects of the members. Our challenge is
to be relevant to our existing and future
membership to complement what the
AICPA does but to provide significant
value in our own right.”
An example of this, Hart said, would
be partnering with local service providers in sectors such as human resources,
marketing and insurance. He stressed the
importance of having members working
in these sectors to help establish the partnerships. Ultimately, information about
the providers would be compiled and kept
on the organization’s Web site for members to access.
Other issues on the new president’s
agenda include keeping the organization
afloat financially and encouraging members to stay aprised of regulations affecting
the profession.
Public policy issues related to the profession are among Hart’s biggest interests.
He became interested public policy
about six years ago when former WICPA
Executive Director, LeRoy C. Schmidt,
CPA invited Hart to a luncheon. Schmidt
spoke about the organization’s Public
Policy Committee efforts surrounding
local and national issues affecting the profession such as implementing sales tax on
professional fees, privacy and unauthorized practice of law. Hart later became a
member of the public policy committee.
wicpa.org
“It became apparent to me that by
working on the Public Policy Committee
and serving on AICPA Council that the
WICPA performed an important role in
preserving the quality of our profession,”
he said. “It is everybody in the profession’s
best interest to make sure that the organization was and remains healthy and that
we are represented within the state.”
Major issues facing the profession include diversity and an impending shortage
of young CPAs, Hart said. Attracting more
young people into the profession and
retaining them is vital to the profession’s
future.
“Part of this challenge is when you’re
dealing with young people, you have to
regularly reinvent yourself,” he said. “The
Reality Store concept is a good one, but
we will need to do something different in
the future or find ways to update the Reality Store concept and make it fresh.”
As the profession continues to evolve,
more attention needs to be paid to chang-
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ing the public’s perception of the profession, Hart said.
“I think we need to celebrate the profession in Wisconsin a lot more than we do,”
he said. “The stereotype of the CPA is
there for a reason. CPAs are very modest.
We need to promote the CPA career in
Wisconsin as a well-respected profession.”
Despite Hart’s busy schedule, he
enjoys reading, jogging and golfing. He
is involved with a number of non-profit
organizations including the Racine Art
Museum and Racine Founders Rotary
Club. He and his wife, Ann, live in Wind
Point and have two adult children, Dan
and Caitlin.
Cynthia M. Hodnett is editor of
On Balance magazine. She can be
reached at 262-785-0445 ext. 3004 or
[email protected].
On Balance
Coming in our next issue:
young
professionals issue
• Profile on WICPA Young Professionals Committee Chair Jessica B. Gatzke, CPA
• A young CPA opens his own firm
• Preparing for your first review
Plus…
• Inaugural dinner recognizes
new CPAs
• Fraud versus traditional audits
• Cultivating an office of professionalism
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