Aaron Berson, CPA, MSA – 2018 40 Under 40 Honoree

• Twitter: @aaronberson
  
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/aaronberson

Professional Associations/Memberships: President-Elect – NYSSCPA Manhattan Bronx Chapter / NYSSCPA – Chair Emerging technology and entrepreneurial committee / AICPA, Xero Ambassador for NYC, Adjunct professor at NYU

Career highlights:

This past year has provided me with a bunch of new career highlights. However, let’s start with the staples. The day I passed each of the CPA exams, the day I received my license, When I went to my first accounting conference and met some amazing people, it was Quickbooks Connect FYI. When I met Jenne Krimp, an owner of a microchip company, who introduced me to cloud accounting and subsequently when I met Ryan Watson, and he helped me understand the cloud accounting space. Now for the last year, I have presented at several conferences including Xerocon, National conference of COA Practitioners – Tax Symposium, The American Accounting Association Annual Meeting, Being asked to present at Digital CPA and being able to be in the room at the CPA.com annual Executive roundtable. Most of my career highlights revolve around being able to learn more about the profession or helping the profession and those in it excel at what we all do best!

What are you doing to make a difference in the profession, your community, the world?

I am always attempting to help other practitioners grow and see where we can collaborate to benefit the profession. Currently, I mentor businesses at NYU and serve in my state society in various roles.

Favorite books/websites/speakers:

I always love hearing Tom Hood, and Clayton Oates speak they each bring their own stories and history to their talks, and I find them always to be impactful and thought-provoking. One other speaker I have never forgotten is Sekou Andrews, every time I hear him I get goosebumps and feel energized! At the moment I am reading a book “Digital Workplace” by Oscar Berg and Henrik Gustafsson and find it very interesting. They speak of the importance of the employee experience in the evolving workforce, and I happen to agree with this as we move to more tech supported roles the importance of continuing to develop and provide what our human employees need is going to set companies apart!

What do you see yourself doing professionally in 10 years?

Professionally in 10 years, it will be a very different place than today. I believe I will be at its core performing similar services as today, Advisory, Tax, Financial statements, however, the way we deliver them will be wildly different. I believe to survive in the profession we will all need to become technologists and learn to leverage the tech! We will all be using similar technology as the larger players will rise to the top. However, the way we use those technologies will set us apart. I believe that the ability to think outside the box and push systems to their limits will allow us to excel.  Additionally, I hope to be in a place to be speaking at more events to help my fellow accountants excel in their firms and bring meaningful change to the profession.

What accounting conferences do you normally attend?

I try to attend a number of conferences and change them up year by year. Some of the larger ones I can think of from recent memory are: Expensicon / Xerocon / QuickBooks Connect / Scaling new heights/ Accountex / Various industry-specific conferences. I would encourage anyone looking to become an expert in any industry to attend some conferences for that industry. You will learn what is important, how they think and as an added benefit you will be one of very few accountants in the room.

What websites/magazines do you use to keep up on news of the accounting profession? CPA Practice Advisor / The CPA Journal / Accountingtoday.com / Journalofaccountancy.com / State Society publications – NYSSCPA.org, Macpa.org / Vendor Blogs / XU Magazine / CloudAccountingweekly.com

 

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See more of the 2018 40 Under 40 Honorees, and the 20 Under 40 Vendor Superstars.