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Leaders of the Ledger from CPA Practice Advisor in partnership with Rightworks spotlights the people and ideas shaping the future of the accounting profession.
Each episode host Rob Brown interviews influential firm leaders, innovators and rising stars to uncover how they are tackling today’s biggest challenges whether it is client advisory services, AI and technology, talent strategy or firm growth through M&A.
Built on CPA Practice Advisor’s trusted recognition lists like the 40 Under 40 Influencers in Accounting and other collections of prominent professionals, this show goes beyond the headlines to share practical insights, personal stories and proven strategies from those moving the profession forward.
If you are a firm owner, leader or ambitious professional who wants to stay ahead of the curve Leaders of the Ledger is your inside track to the conversations and connections that matter most in accounting.
Subscribe now to hear from the voices redefining what it means to lead in the profession.
Speaker 2 (00:00.142)
This is Leaders of the Ledger. I'm Rob Brown, your host. This is the official podcast of CPA Practice Advisor, where we focus on the people that are movers and shakers and influencers in the world of accounting. We're going through a list they've nominated for several years called the CPA 40 Under 40. We're bringing on some of these guests. We've done a few interviews already and today I'm thrilled to have with me today, Lexy Weber. Good day to you. Good to you. We're splendid. lexy, tell us a little bit about where you are right now and your work environment.
Hi, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:29.41)
Well, I'm based out of Buffalo, New York. I work for the AACPA in SEMA. So I'm a remote employee. I just started with them back in December. So I'm about seven months kickstarting from my start date and you know, it's been a really great ride with them.
Well, it's always tricky starting a new role, but it sounds like you've settled in okay.
Yeah, I've had a great team here. You know, I work under Lisa Simpson and she's absolutely phenomenal. So, you know, I couldn't wish for a better team to start with.
Took us back to the lexy of 16 years old. Were you always cut out for the accounting world?
Yeah, I think so. My grandfather, he was an accountant. My mom had her own bookkeeping business. She worked from home. And so was constantly helping her out with different client projects and just, think it was always around me. So I really enjoyed accounting. then
Speaker 1 (01:20.302)
In high school, I took an accounting class in my, so I'm based out of Buffalo. My accounting teacher was based out of Long Island. She moved to Buffalo and she had this like crazy New York accent and she was so cool. And I just fell in love with her and accounting. And, you know, it was really cool to see her journey because she started in public accounting and then worked in corporate finance for a while. And then she ended up going back into teaching and was teaching at a local high school. And I just thought, wow, that.
It's such an interesting profession to be able to pivot that many times and have a successful career.
out very strongly in the interviews we're doing about how versatile the accounting qualification is. There's so many different directions you can go in, but when you're back in high school and university, they don't sell that well, they? Would that be fair to say?
Yeah, mean, I will say Carol Conjugulian, who is my professor and I'm still really great friends with her today. She's one of my mentors. She was always right from the bat. You can do whatever you want with your CPA. As long as you, if you want to pursue that route and go through the CPA exam, she said you will be successful regardless of what you do. You're just set up for that. So I think she did a really great job of it.
But to your point, you know, I think it's definitely some work that we have to do in, you know, the National Pipeline Advisory Group. Well, they identified that as well that we really need to start getting in the high schools because quite frankly, by the time students get into college, a lot of them already have declared majors. So sometimes by the time you get into colleges, it's too late.
Speaker 2 (02:52.962)
Well, we've had lexy Kessler and Sue Coffey on my other podcast, Accounting Influencers. yeah, they've talked very much about the brand of accounting and to what degree it attracts young professionals because as you're alluding to, there's a lot of competition for their major, isn't there, for their time, for their career direction.
Yeah, it's, you know, it's so incredible because you always get asked this daunting question, right, when you're growing up of what you want to be. Yes. But I think now with just the way technology has emerged and people being able to see through social media, different lifestyles and different professions, I think it's become even more confusing for your average student to figure out what they want to do. And, you know, I've read a lot of different articles and studies and it's crazy how many students will pivot.
between different majors and or careers and going back to school. You know, I know a couple of students that are on their third degree because they just haven't really found that passion for it yet.
That's an excellent point. We try a few different things. Back in the day, you would get locked into a, dialed into a career maybe when you were young and that was it for 40 years, but that's not the way these days. So your role now you're out of private practice. You're in the ICPA CEMA. You're representing a membership organization in effect. Would that be right?
Yeah, so I started with them in December as their senior manager of emerging professionals initiatives. I was in public accounting with a local firm in Buffalo for almost 10 years and then made the switch. just kind of throughout my career path and my journey really fell in love with professional development and leadership and helping accountants get to where they are from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow. So this position when it opened up was kind of my dream job. So it's really cool to be living there.
Speaker 2 (04:36.686)
What are you responsible for? What kind of things are on your docket these days?
Yeah, so I'm actually going through our AICPA Leadership Academy applications today and tomorrow. So I oversee our AICPA Leadership Academy, our AICPA Emerging Leaders Award, which was previously the Outstanding Young CPA Award for the association. I oversee our EDGE Leadership Track at Engage, which is our national conference in Vegas every year in June.
I oversee our emerging professionals initiatives committee. I am helping Mark Kozeel and Tom Hood out with the Rise 2040 project that we're doing at the association, which is our next 15 year visioning and strategy project. So that's been really, really great to work with and get to be a part of that project.
many, many things kind of dabbling in a lot of areas because emerging professionals is prevalent throughout our entire membership organization. There's not just one kind of facet of the organization that sits behind you.
you talk about emerging professionals, the accounting role now in whatever situation you put it in is quite different to the accounting role of 20, 30 years ago.
Speaker 1 (05:46.88)
Yeah, you know, there's just so much that's changing right now for an emerging professional where I think this is a beautiful time for them to be in the profession because there's so much opportunity with emerging technologies. We're able to hone in on our skills better and do more consulting type work that we would like to do rather than the tedious or monotonous tasks. And there's a lot of room for elevation within firms and organizations because you can take that technology and start to really work with
how you want to do things and shape and make things more efficient. you know, I think there's a lot of change and it can be scary, but I also think there's a lot of opportunity as well that comes with that change for emerging professionals to shape the future of the profession as to how they want it to be.
Accountants, I'm probably okay saying this, are not traditionally good with change. Direct debits, debit and credit, they've been the same for thousands of years, haven't they? And we're just about automating bank feeds and getting the hang of spreadsheets now, but we're asking them to do AI engineering and prompting and master all these technology tools. What we're asking of our modern professionals is a lot more than used to be.
Yeah, it definitely is. know, I think the, from what I've seen in the colleges and universities, they've done a good job of preparing students for that change. But I think this younger generation, know, Gen Z's millennial, they grew up with evolving and rapid change, right, of technology. And you think about, you know, I think about 20 years ago when I was sitting, you know, in front of my parents' tube TV, you know, that...
Now today, everything's flat screen and you're able to do so much more with technology where I think we're inherently just good at managing that change. I think some of the other generations such as Baby Boomers and Gen Xers typically have a little bit more hard time with change because to your point, growing up for you, was you stuck with your career for 40 years. There was no opportunity for change. So I think
Speaker 1 (07:45.248)
The younger generations have a little bit more of an appetite, but I think firms and organizations are really relying on those younger generations to lead the charge and help them navigate that change.
Well, I graduated as a high school math teacher. That was my major. And I spent eight years, four years in the UK and four years in Hong Kong actually at an international school. And back even then it was considered this is your career for life. And it was actually really hard to get out of teaching. I felt like I'd got to the point where I was coaching kids to pass tests rather than educating them. So I started to plan my exit from teaching. when you get locked into a career, it can be very difficult to see the options outside.
I talked to so many people that say how, to your point earlier, they're pivoted, not quite in and out of accounting, but the whole variety of jobs and disciplines you can go into with a CPA qualification. So you remain bullish then you're excited for the future of accounting.
Yeah, I am. I think there's a lot of opportunity, I get the fear and the change too. mean, even just changing from public accounting to joining the association as an employee, that was a huge change for me. I mean, my entire career, the only pathway that I was looking at was partner. So to kind of disrupt my entire career path to say, am I ready for a different change? Do I want to pit a bit to something I'm more passionate about?
That was so scary for me. mean, I didn't tell anybody in my family outside of my sister. I really kept it very like hush-hush as I was going through the interview process. Cause I said, I really need to sit and reflect with this to make sure it's what I truly want. Because the first thing, like I told my dad about it and he said, do you think you're making like a big mistake because you're on partner track? Like you're set, you know, for your career, if you want to be. And, you know, for me, it was just more so following my passion for leadership and.
Speaker 1 (09:31.988)
I think it was a good change for me and I think it worked out really well. And I don't think that my career path is got railroaded or off-roaded by any means, but that change in sitting with it, it was terrifying trying to make that decision.
your esteemed leader, Mark Kozi, I've interviewed him a few times. I introduced him at a conference in London a few years ago and he's very bold. He's a formidable individual and he's really leading the charge. He said the partnership model is broken and the managing partner role is dead because partners can't be managed. But when you are in practice, you feel that is quite a career path, isn't it? And that's where you're going. But you talk about opportunities. There's a whole lot of challenges and the waters are muddy with private equity and AI too.
Just thinking to Thala a little bit, what's making it slightly problematic in the world of accounting perhaps.
Yeah, you know, I think with anything that you kind of work through when there's change coming in, know, private equity, for example, you have an entirely new group of investors that are coming in, they're making waves, they're making changes. Some of them are for the better, right? There's a lot of firms that struggled with succession planning and needed that investment to continue to drive their firm forward and leave that legacy. So, you know, I think there's a lot of firms that see private equity as a great opportunity because they can
finally invest in that technology, invest in their people with resources that they didn't typically have in the past and, you know, wasn't as advantageous to, you know, to go to a bank and get a loan for it. It wasn't, it wasn't that type of investment that they needed. So I think a lot of firms that, you know, needed that succession planning and needed to kind of get that backing from PE, I think it's, it's been beneficial for them. You know, I think from an emerging professional standpoint, it's a little scary.
Speaker 1 (11:17.95)
You know, you come in and you hear your, not necessarily that your employer is changing, but the tone at the top may change, who is calling the shots may change from a private equity or even just from a merger perspective, if you're remaining independently from a financial aspect. But I think a lot of it too is just how we communicate that change, right? And seizing that opportunity to say, hey, you know, we're still the firm that we are today.
We're just taking in new resources and being able to grow our practices and evolve with the rapidly, you know, changing technology that we're seeing. mean, AI, they always say it's the dumbest it ever will be today, right? Because it's just going to keep changing and evolving technology and software. mean, you have to think about it with AI changing so quickly, technology and software are going to change so quickly. By the time some companies might be ready to release their newest version, that might be outdated.
So, you know, I think a lot of people are looking to PE investment because they need that support from a resource standpoint.
Yeah. I saw a stat recently that said, skills you're learning now are going to be out of date in 18 months. So there's that constant drive, isn't it? To be up skilling and become aware of what's going on and plug into that. Talk to us about your personal brand lexy. You've been, you've been recognized as an influencer. Is that an intentional thing? Did you just wake up a little bit more famous one morning? Give us a sense of that journey.
Yeah, you know, I think it's just my passion for the profession. You know, I think there's so much opportunity, like I've been saying, and, you know, I want to share that with people. want people to understand what I do and the way that I love it and the importance of what I do. And I tell students that all the time, you know, I think sometimes accountants get a bad rap of, we were at the pocket protectors, we sit at our desks and sit at, you know, looking at spreadsheets all day and we're very introverted and
Speaker 1 (13:13.026)
You know, I always like to say that the biggest thing about my job is building relationships, whether I was in public accounting or here now at the association, it's really about networking, building relationships and that client service. But there's a beauty in that relationship building where you become that trusted advisor. You know, we saw it, especially, you know, in public accounting, there are things that business owners will call us that they haven't even talked to their partners about. They haven't talked to their families about that they're really looking to us for advice on.
And you know, it's so interesting. just did a, the New York State Society puts on a career opportunities in the accounting profession. So I did it at the university at Buffalo and I was the closing speaker. And we talked about a case study that I had created and just talking about how accounting really touches every facet of a business, whether it's marketing or HR or operations in the supply chain, all of that, especially with current events with the tariffs that we're seeing in the U S right now.
across the global economy, all that ties into what we do and how we advise our clients. So, you know, I think just that passion for being able to be that trusted advisor, just, I wanted to share it. You know, I love LinkedIn. I have friends that make fun of me. They're like, I have another LinkedIn notification from lexy that she posted today. You know, it was at fireworks with a friend of mine at our country club. And, you know, he said to me, he's like, are you going to post the fireworks on LinkedIn too tonight? And I was like, you know, let's, let's.
Let's take it back a second, but I really just enjoy sharing my journey with others and hoping it resonates with somebody because you never know where they are in their career path or what they're facing. So it wasn't necessarily intentional in the fact that I was hoping to become an influencer, but it was more so just about sharing my passion. And to your other question, I think it really hit me. was at the New York State Society Buffalo chapter. We just celebrated our 100th anniversary. were the first chapter in.
the in New York state, I'm not sure we might have been the first chapter in the US. I'm not quite sure on that detail. So don't quote me on it. But somebody came up to me they're like, lexy, I've been following you. And I was like, I was like, that's great. Thank you. And they're like, you know, really appreciate your posts and just sharing your journey. And I had somebody at spring council come up to me from Georgia said that and I kind of struck me a little bit like, wow, like somebody knows who I am that I've never even talked to before and that follows my journey. So
Speaker 1 (15:40.621)
That was pretty cool.
I've to ask you, lexy, about the balance between professional and personal because you're very personal, but you're passionate. I'm thinking of Calvin Harris. You obviously know Calvin extremely well. He's got his t-shirts. He's got his brand. He's very passionate about the brand of accounting. And he's admitted to me that the brand of accounting has a problem, but he brings his personality into his posts. And it sounds like with your brand, you talk about life as much as you talk about business and the job. Would that be fair?
Yeah, yeah, definitely. You know, I think with we talk about work-life balance and work-life integration a lot. I think that's part of it for me too, is that it leads together. Like part of my personality is accounting for sure. Part of my personality is Buffalo. you meet, you know, I kind of laughed when you said about Mark Koziel being, you know, more bullish in accounting and, really, you know, being passionate. I mean, that's just, he's from Buffalo too. Right.
So, you know, we, make a big joke about it that Buffalo is kind of part of our, personality.
that make sense. What about the future for you? You presumably have come into this role wanting to right some wrongs and bust some myths and break open some opportunities and enlarge the vision for the young people and these leaders coming through.
Speaker 1 (16:56.078)
Yeah, I think the future, mean, we're going through that right now with the Rise 2040 project. And it's our visioning strategy project. And I think it's absolutely phenomenal because, you know, I keep saying to people, so we're looking out to 2040. Every 15 years, the association goes through a new strategy and visioning project looking out 15 years. And we've been very accurate or horizons.
is sunsetting in 2025, but a lot of what we predicted in horizons was accurate. And I get a lot of people now with, you know, technology and AI saying, you know, being a little pessimistic and saying, well, how am I supposed to plan for 15 years when I can't even figure out what's coming around the corner? And, and I think part of my response in that usually is, well, one, should we know what's coming around the corner? Right? We have, we've been too oxidized goal on, you know, kind of the strategy and long-term planning for
Exactly
Speaker 1 (17:47.406)
you know, public accounting and for the profession where maybe we should know what's going to come down the road, but we just haven't given the time and attention that it needs. So I said, I think this is a great reset, but also, you know, looking at 2040, take this opportunity to, to explain and put your input as to how you want the profession to be in 2040. You know, I think right now the sky's the limit that because there's so much change and transformation and business models and
alternative practice structures, think now is really a time where we can say, hey, this is how we want the future to be. And maybe by 2040, there's not a busy season. Maybe we're working regular hours and technology is allowing us not to have to work that 60 to 80 hour week. That might be a pipe dream, but it's something that could be possible. We just have to believe in it enough to do it.
Let's pray the end of busy season comes before 2040 lexy because that is a major bugbear for many people coming in. They hear about the grind and the long hours and the lack of work-life balance and mental wellbeing. You're talking about 2040s. Traditionally, you've looked back, haven't they? It's a historical role. We're auditing what's happened in the past, but more and more that trusted advisor role you've spoken about is future thinking. So we all have to have that mindset of what is coming up, but not just what's coming up.
How can we interpret what's coming up to advise our clients and our peers in the best possible way? That must be a big part of your remit.
Yeah, I mean, for me, it's more so in the professional development and leadership side as to what we're going to be facing as far as challenges and opportunities within the profession as it relates to talent development and understanding succession of business strategies, right? For all of these firms, we have a lot of baby boomers that are retiring in the next 15 years. Yeah. Well, not even 15 years, probably five to 10 years. Do we have enough capacity as far as the pipeline to fulfill that gap?
Speaker 1 (19:41.134)
right of what they're going to leave behind. So that's really what I'm focusing on. But I think, you know, we, as I mentioned, with the high school students, you know, we talked about current events and I think what the best thing that emerging professionals can do right now is really to pay attention to those current events because it changes so quickly. We have to be more on our toes now than ever to really understand how to be that trusted advisor. But are we, we taking those opportunities?
Mark has talked a couple of times in his professional opportunities updates. He has a former, I'm not sure if it's a client or a friend that owns a manufacturing facility in North Carolina. And they mentioned that they were being improperly tariffed on some of the supplies that they were importing. And we said, well, that's a great opportunity for accountants as advisors to say, well, let's take a look and do a study and see if we can get some of that refunded and, you know, really understanding the landscape of it. Because in the U S right now you have one opportunity.
to get a claw back on those tariffs. If you miss something, then that's it. So, you know, it's a little bit more of a longer term project, but have we started to have those discussions with our clients? And I think that's the value add piece of it, right? Is not necessarily always looking back historically, but looking forward to the future and creating opportunity to really advise our clients and help them navigate this turbulent time that we're sitting in from a global economy perspective.
And given you have one eye on the future, lexy, would you be so bold as to make a couple of predictions for us that you feel are definitely going to happen in the next few years for the world of accounting?
Yeah, you know, I mean, I can definitely say, you know, we, this is kind of part of our future 2040 project and we about hard trends. Yeah, we talk about hard trends and soft trends. The hard trends are really demographics, government regulation and technology. So those are things that you don't have influence over necessarily that are going to happen. Those are the certainties.
Speaker 2 (21:24.066)
Give us a glimpse.
Speaker 1 (21:38.08)
And then the soft renders are typically the uncertainties, things that you have power to influence. know, so, so I definitely think as far as certainties for the profession, technology is not going to slow down. We are going to continue to evolve with technology. We're going to have to evolve our business practices with that as well, regardless if you're in management accounting or public accounting, you're going to have to change the way that you do things. So I think a lot of it is going to be open, opening up yourself to change and those opportunities for change. Like you said, I know.
A lot of accountants are a little hesitant when they hear the word change. They kind of start to freeze up a little bit and start to think about what does this mean? But I think embracing change is going to be a key factor in how we navigate the landscape of the profession over the next 15 years. Demographics as well, you know, I think part of what we're seeing is we need to be better mentors to our emerging professionals because we're losing so much knowledge in that capacity from a baby boomer perspective and partners that are going to be retiring.
We need to have enough people to fulfill that workforce and technology is going to help us do that for sure. I don't think it's going to replace jobs. I think it's going to enhance how we do our job. But I also think too, we need to now start that succession planning today and start to take those emerging professionals under our wings. Take them to your client meetings, even if it's just to sit in and listen and kind of be a wallflower.
Right. Let them have those opportunities to learn how to best advise their clients, open them up to the conversations that we're having behind closed doors to say, Hey, you know, this is a, this is maybe a confidential matter that we're dealing with clients on, but this is how you learn and grow. Right. We need to, we need to start doing a better job of shaping our pipeline because as much as we have a pipeline issue coming into the profession, I think we also have a pipeline issue of getting people to stay in the profession.
Yeah, good point.
Speaker 1 (23:28.096)
And I think that's where our area of focus truly needs to lie in the next five years, because I think we need to make sure we're succession planning correctly and having those future leaders really step up and feel that empowerment to do so.
Sounds like the future is in great hands, lexy, with you and your team and the great things that you're doing. Just one question to finish. When I ask people like Mark Koziela and Calvin Harris and other CPA leaders, whose responsibility is the brand of accounting?
They will say it's everyone's job, but it defaults to the associations and institutes and societies and the governing bodies. You presumably would say it is everyone's job, but to that degree, people need to have a personal brand. need to be more vocal and more visible and tell better stories. What advice would you give to anybody that aspires to that kind of a role in being a little bit more personally branded and intentional with increasing their authority and influence?
Yeah, I would definitely say it definitely is everyone's responsibility, right? can't, the profession can't lie on the sole shoulders of, you know, the five CEOs in the top 100 firms. Yeah. You know, the Mark Cozgill, for example, you know, he has done a phenomenal job navigating, especially his first seven months as CEO of the association, but it can't just be on him, right? So I think it's everyone's responsibility to tell a better story. And I would just say be authentic.
I think a lot of people can read through kind of the fake aspect of, you posting too flamboyantly? I love the posts that share about the struggles. And I think we need to share our struggles, but in a more positive light. So I know that sounds a little bit contradictory, but share the struggles that you had, but share the lessons that you learned from those struggles. You can't tell me that you never learned a lesson from failure or mistake.
Speaker 1 (25:16.47)
So I think us being able to be more vulnerable and authentic with ourselves and share that with our audience is a lot better because, you know, I think so many younger professionals, you know, you go on TikTok, right? And you see all these self-made millionaires and you think, I want to be that person. But that, you know, one minute segment is sharing all of the good things that they're experiencing today, but it doesn't necessarily always communicate the struggles of what they face to get there.
And I think sharing the struggles and being vulnerable is something that's really ideal for us to say, hey, you know, we didn't get here overnight. This is, this is kind of what we went through and the work that we put in to do it. And not to say that the hours and, you know, all the, the sleepless nights should be a badge of honor by any means. But I think it's to say that it's okay if you don't know where you are today and struggling to figure out that pathway. Cause we all went there. We all did it. We didn't just appear here overnight.
I agree with the authenticity and even the vulnerability, but many people watching, listening, lexy will be thinking, well, I'm the expert. I'm the trusted advisor. I'm the professional. I'm the one with the qualifications. I shouldn't be showing any weakness. I shouldn't be admitting that I'm struggling or I don't know with things. Just square that circle.
Yeah, I think that's the humanity of it though. think part of the problem is, at least from the lens of the profession that we've kind of built up, I know we say we need to be a better storyteller, but I think in the past the stories have been more so about, I am the expert, there's no room for failure, there's no room for mistakes. We have to be perfect. We've taken the humanity out of the profession, and I think that's something that we really need to bring back into it because technology cannot replace humanity.
Technology can try to replace perfection. It can try to make things as efficient and as straightforward as possible for you and give you the right answer. Obviously, we love for technology to always give us the right answer, but it takes, it can't replace the humanity of what we do in the relationship building and learning from your mistakes and helping shape those lessons and teaching others below you those lessons of, here's where I made these mistakes. I don't want you to make them as well.
Speaker 1 (27:25.1)
And I think that's beauty of the storytelling and being authentic is that it just brings humanity back into the profession and makes us forget about all the hours and kind of being the workhorses, right? We are people at the end of the day. And I think that's the beautiful thing about it is that we have such a diverse profession to really share that.
Yeah, you put it beautifully. This is Leaders of the Ledger podcast on behalf of CPA Practice Advisor. I've been your host, Rob Brown. We're shining a light on people that are really making a difference in the accounting profession. lexy Weber, you've been a wonderful guest today. Thank you so much for sharing your journey, your passion and your insights and for being such a great ambassador for this wonderful profession.
Yeah, thank you for having me, Rob. I absolutely loved it.