Taking the reins as CEO of the world’s largest accounting association feels like coming home, Mark Koziel, the newly appointed head of the AICPA, told CFO Brew.

Koziel worked at the AICPA for 14 years, rising to EVP of firm services, before a four-year stint as president and CEO of accounting association Allinial Global. Now he’s back, taking over from Barry Melancon, who recently retired as AICPA CEO after a storied 30-year tenure.

Koziel is starting things off by hearing what members have to say, he told us. He’s in the midst of a listening tour, and encourages members to reach out to him. He’s already received around 500 emails, and he plans to reply to all of them.

Keeping sight of small firms: What he’s been hearing the most so far is requests to keep small firms top of mind, he said. The AICPA is a large, diverse organization with members representing everything from Big Four firms to small firms with a handful of employees, to sole practitioners. Koziel believes the organization needs to change the way it reaches those members. “We try so hard to be fast and communicate once and try and hit everybody,” he said. “We shoot in the middle and we kind of miss everyone.” Instead, his goal is to “speak to our constituencies in the way they want to be spoken to” and stay relevant to each group, he said.

For more on Koziel’s vision for the AICPA, click here.—CV

Cybersecurity is still audit committees’ top priority, a survey by Deloitte and the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) found. The survey polled 237 board members, most of them at large public US companies. A whopping 93% of respondents named cybersecurity among the top three issues they’d focus on in 2025. And fully half said it was their #1 priority. Cybersecurity has been audit committees’ biggest concern since 2022, when the survey was first conducted.

Not surprisingly, then, respondents named cybersecurity acumen as the top skill committee members need to be more effective in 2025. Half (50%) placed it among the top three skills members should cultivate. And nearly as many (48%) said committee members should grow non-cybersecurity-related tech skills as well.

Three-quarters of respondents also said they’d emphasize enterprise risk management this year (76% placed it in their top three priorities), and 65% said finance and internal audit talent would be top of mind.

Grading on a curve? Audit committee members gave themselves high marks for conducting effective meetings. Almost all of them agreed that their committee’s meetings leverage their expertise (98% said they “agree” or “strongly agree”), and use time efficiently (96%), and that they’re asked challenging questions (97%). And nearly a third (31%) said that none of the survey's suggested strategies would improve meetings.

Click here for more on audit committee concerns.—AZ

The nation’s fourth-largest retailer (by market cap) has spoken.

On Tuesday, Home Depot posted Q4 2024 earnings that topped sales expectations but offered downbeat guidance.

Home Depot posted sales of $39.7 billion, a 14.1% increase year over year and a slight beat. Adjusted earnings per share for the quarter climbed to $3.13, beating analyst estimates of $3.04.

For fiscal 2025, the home improvement chain expects sales growth of 2.8% and comparable sales growth of 1%. Analysts expected sales growth of 3.27%, and comparable sales growth of 1.88%, per Investopedia.

The company also projected that earnings per share will dip 2% compared to the year before.

As CNBC pointed out, the company has placed blame on the difficult housing market since around 2023. Sales growth slowed around then after pandemic-era spending decelerated.

Speaking with the outlet, CFO Richard McPhail said those same challenges continue to plague the company, noting that “housing is still frozen by mortgage rates.”

Keep reading here.—NP

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