BONUS | Alan Johnson - Accountants Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Across the Profession

Alan Johnson, President of the International Federation of
Accountants (IFAC), joins Count Me In to talk with Loreal Jiles,
IMA Director of Research, about the importance of taking action
to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in the
accounting profession. On the heels of an IMA and
CalCPA-sponsored research study supported by IFAC and 13 other
organizations, Loreal shares relevant findings from the research
study and Alan recounts personal experiences and offers
actionable insights on steps accounting and finance professionals
can take to play leading roles in DE&I improvement. Download
and listen in for inspiration to act now!



Contact Alan Johnson:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-johnson-a96601a8/
Contact Loreal Jiles:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/loreal-jiles-804648a1/


IMA's Diversity and Inclusion Commitment and Resources:
https://www.imanet.org/about-ima/diversity-and-inclusion


FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch:
(00:00)
 Welcome back to Count Me In. IMA’s podcast about all things
affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host Mitch
Roshong and today I am previewing another special bonus episode.
You will hear from IFAC President, Alan Johnson, as he speaks
with IMA's Loreal Jiles about diversity, equity and inclusion. In
their conversation, to the two discuss what accountants can do to
promote and support diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces,
and ultimately do a better job as a profession to attract,
retain, and promote diverse talent. Keep listening as we tune
into their insightful dialogue now. 
 
Loreal: (00:40)
Hello everyone. I am Loreal Jiles and I am Director of Research
for Digital Technology and Finance Transformation at the
Institute of Management Accountants. Today, I am joined by an
accomplished executive in the accounting and finance profession,
Alan Johnson, who is currently President of IFAC, the
International Federation of Accountants. Throughout his career
spending about four decades. Alan has worked in Africa, Europe,
and Latin America in a host of finance roles, including chief
financial officer, chief audit executive, and several other board
roles and executive roles. We joined today in discussion of the
important topic of diversity equity and inclusion in the
accounting profession. And for the purposes of this discussion,
when we refer to the accounting profession or the accounting and
finance profession, we are collectively speaking of the public
accounting segment as may be familiar to those in the US those
typically working in CPA firms and audit tax or advisory
capacity, or the management accounting segment, accounting and
finance professionals working within business or other
organizations. And so for the last few months or so, the
Institute of Management Accountants and the California society of
CPAs to gather with global research partner IFAC, and a host of
other research partners and contributors have just concluded a
look into DE&I in our profession. We discussed, and focused
on three aspects of diversity, race and ethnicity, gender and
persons who identify as LGBTQIA. We began with the US and this is
part of the larger multi-part series that will ultimately be
global, and what we found in the US was the presence of something
we've termed the diversity gap. Much greater diversity across the
profession, but considerable under-representation of diverse
talent among senior leadership levels. For every 10 of our
professions, most senior leaders, eight of them are men., nine
are white and few identify as LGBTQ. We surveyed over about 3000
US accounting professionals and found that diverse talent
believes aren't advancing because of inequity and exclusion that
still persists and it's diverse talent, unfortunately, is leaving
companies, and in some instances, the profession because of a
lack of D&I. So not like to invite you, Alan, if you could
help us shed a bit of light when the importance of this topic,
please tell us why is DE&I an issue that should matter to the
accounting profession. 
 
Alan: (03:24)
So, good afternoon, everyone and good afternoon Loreal and thank
you very much for inviting me to this podcast. First of all, I
just to let your listeners know that, the accountancy profession
is a profession. It's a global profession of 3 million
professional accountants around the world, and we support
businesses. We support, which are both large and small. We
support the public sector and we support indeed many
organizations across the world. And, you know, at the core of
what we do, we act in the public interest. Therefore, we must
operate clearly with integrity and we should operate to the
highest standards of ethics in line with our professional code of
ethics, which I hope you're all familiar with. I think we would
all agree that decisions, the best decisions that are made are
those that are rigorous on analysis, robust in debate, and that
the decisions are made putting the public interest or the
interest of all stakeholders ahead of the personal interests. And
it's also, I hope we recognize that our profession clearly is a
people-centered profession, that is people at the heart of
organizations. So it is obvious that we need to ensure that we
have a diverse, inclusive, profession that clearly respects
everyone's views. And that is why it matters to our profession.
It actually also matters to all other professions, but, you know,
in our case, we are purely a people centered profession and
therefore ethics, which ethics equality. And, and I would
actually say that, diversity equality and inclusivity or
inclusiveness is actually also, you could argue is an ethical
issue. And as ethics is at the heart of what we do and how we
operate it is of course, pretty obvious. I hope that DE&I is
so important to our profession. 
 
Loreal: (05:26)
Absolutely. Thanks so much for that, Alan. If we shift gears a
bit more building on the importance of this for our profession,
what can, and should individual accountants do to promote and
support diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces? 
 
Alan: (05:45)
Well, as I've said, you know, all professions should, in fact,
all aspects of society should be promoting inclusivity, diversity
and equity, that goes saying. But I would love to start by saying
one thing, which pleased me, what, on Wednesday morning, when I
read the press, the president Biden had signed for executive
actions on Tuesday, aiming to increase racial equality across the
nation. I was very pleased to read that, but on the other hand, I
was also saddened that it needs a presidential executive action
to address the issue of racial inequality. Honestly, in societies
today, it should not need a presidential act of that kind, but if
it needs it it's been done and I applaud your new president, and
I hope that everybody takes note of the importance of this. But
let's go back to our profession in terms of promoting D&I.
First of all, I would say it starts with leadership. Leaders have
to demand that their organizations embrace diversity, equality
and inclusivity everywhere. But just by saying it doesn't mean it
gets done. So it's about leading by example, our professional
leaders need also to make appointments that reflect society,
which means more diverse, more inclusive and more equitable.
Cause these are the basic principles of humanity. They then need
to hold their own teams accountable to ensure that they live up
to those values. They need to set targets, they need to set
objectives, and they need to measure that the organizations are
moving in the right direction ...