The American Institute of CPAs, the world’s largest member organization representing the CPA profession, has named Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, global accounting strategy director for Oracle America, as its new chair. Eric Hansen, chief operating officer of the national CPA and advisory firm BKD, was voted in as vice chair.

In her acceptance speech, Ellison-Taylor said one key for the profession going forward will be pursuing “complementary and sometimes unexpected skills that drive new ways of thinking and doing.” She named a number of emerging fields—Big Data, cyber-security assurance, and advisory services, for example—where this approach will pay dividends.

Ellison-Taylor’s own background in technology runs deep. At Oracle, she is responsible for driving innovation in support of the financial and professional services sectors. She also served as the company’s global practice team leader for health and human services, where she worked on cloud migration, fraud detection and prevention, customer experience and finance transformation initiatives.

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