My Alternative Pathway

Happy New Year! As most of you know, OSCPA begins its year on April 1, and so does my term as OSCPA Chair. I am looking forward to working with you during the 2025-26 year. This will be anything but a typical year for our chosen profession. Among one of the many things the Society has been advocating for are alternative pathways to obtain certification. I will not go into the myriad of reasons that this is necessary, but the Oregon Board of Accountancy and similar organizations are gearing up for major changes.

I thought it might be helpful to share my own alternative pathway to certification. I attended Arizona State University (yes, it was fun) and majored in organizational communication with a marketing minor. Among the business courses I took was Introduction to Accounting I. This was my introduction—and what I thought was my conclusion—to my accounting career. Upon graduation, I attended University of Arizona for law school. I took federal income tax and thought that was the end of my tax career. I think my plan was to be a great litigator and return to my home state of Colorado.

As with many plans, life happens. I met a woman (Jennifer) in law school who had a great position at a large law firm in Phoenix. Thus, after getting married the year after graduation (32 years now!) and needing a job, I took an attorney position with the Arizona Department of Revenue in the Tax Policy section. Among other things, the section was responsible for analyzing all legislation. That was the beginning of my concentration on only state and local tax matters, which has been my focus ever since. If I was going to be successful, I needed to better understand accounting. I entered a post-baccalaureate accounting program. I even had to take Statistics 101 with 18-year-old freshmen. During this time, I transitioned to Arthur Andersen’s SALT practice. The Big 6 firms were just beginning to have dedicated SALT practices.

Almost on a whim, my wife and I decided that we wanted to live in Portland, and I transferred to the Andersen office in Portland. In the late 90’s, you only had to have a college degree and something like 20 hours of accounting courses to sit for the exam. So, in May 1997, I made my way to Salem and sat for the exam at the state fairgrounds “shack” with my little calculator. Since 1997, I have been a CPA, and a member of the OSCPA for most of those years.

I am proud of my alternative pathway, and I hope that no one views this path with any consternation. Different pathways can all lead to a long and positive career. Likewise, I will be very interested to hear about other students’ pathways to a successful career as an accountant. As I write this, the Oregon Legislature is considering the Board of Accountancy’s proposal for alternative pathways. Other states such as Ohio, Utah, and Virginia have passed legislation and many more states, AICPA, and NASBA have proposals for alternative pathways. As I said at the beginning, this is not a typical year, and I hope these proposals bring fresh new perspectives and many more enthusiastic individuals whose pathways take them to the great profession of accounting.