Looking back over the past year, I want to say thank you to the IMA® staff, the IMA Global Board of Directors, and local IMA leaders who arranged and worked on various events throughout my term. Some of my special memories include delivering the ethics case to members and nonmembers in the Louisville Chapter area with Lisa Book, Global Board member, former Louisville Chapter president, and Lincoln Trail Regional Council president. I also enjoyed delivering that same ethics case to the Golden West Council with longtime IMA Global Board friends Sandy Giberson and Dave DiMare.
On the student and academic side of things, I had the opportunity to deliver a presentation to Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) students regarding the benefits of IMA and the CMA® (Certified Management Accountant) certification. The night before that on the EKU campus, I presented on the topic of “The Future of Accounting” to the professional community, accounting faculty, and students in Richmond, Ky. At EKU, I also met with student chapter leaders and the students of Patricia Isaacs, who was my accounting professor at Berea College when I attended college there. Another highlight was sharing the value of IMA and the CMA with students at Berea College and visiting with Ed McCormack, chair of the Economics and Business Department and my spreadsheets and database professor when I was a student.
I also count among the highlights of my term meeting members and other professional leaders from the Middle East and India during the Women’s Accounting Leadership Series events held there. Learning that the women in these regions share similar challenges to those in the United States was enlightening. I also appreciated hearing from the women who had progressed to the C-suite and prominent roles in these regions because it was refreshing to see them openly share how they had navigated to break down traditional barriers.
In addition to participating in the Women’s Accounting Leadership Series events, I enjoyed meeting other IMA members in the Middle East and India and being able to recognize our new CMAs with their certificates and pins. This experience brought home to me the pride each of us feels in having earned the CMA certification and what a privilege it is to be part of this exceptional CMA community anywhere in the world.
Thank you for allowing me to serve as your Chair for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Thank all of you who have dedicated your time and talents to make this yet another exceptional growth year in both CMAs and CMA candidates. I look forward to serving as Chair-Emeritus, and I couldn’t be more comfortable in turning over the Chair role to Christian Cuzick. I know Christian will do a phenomenal job, and I will participate under his leadership in any way I can to further the value each of our members receives from IMA.
Please share your memorable IMA moments with me at gwhite@imanet.org.
June 2019
