L-R: Prof. Brett Sutton; Ms. Roshani Perera; Mr. Hans Ferdinand; Assoc. Prof. Angie Bone; Mr. David Cartney; Prof. Ian McPhee; Senator Barbara Pocock; Prof. Brendan O’Connell; Prof. Janek Ratnatunga; Prof. Michael Tse; and Dr. Chris D’Souza.
The Institute of Certified Management Accountants (Australia & New Zealand) celebrated the induction of three outstanding champions into its Global Accounting; Management Accounting; and Social Purpose Innovator Hall of Fame categories at a gala dinner held at the RACV Melbourne on the 29th of November 2024.
Welcome
Professor Brendan O’Connell, President of ICMA Australia and New Zealand, welcomed everybody and said that management accounting has evolved from costing and budgetary control—to proving decision information such as for pricing and strategy implementation. Now the profession has gone beyond this to consider the impact of a company’s decisions on the environment, society, and government, known as ESG.
He recognised that many inductees to the Hall of Fame represent this evolution of the profession and that at this event there was an inductee from the ‘Health’ sector, demonstrating that a multidisciplinary approach in resource allocation is vital in safeguarding ‘Planetary Health’.
He concluded by saying that “While the Hall of Fame is intended to honour the people so chosen, it is also a recognition of distinguished contributions in fields encompassing this evolution of management accounting.”
Guest of Honour Address
The Guest of Honour was Prof. Brett Sutton, who is currently Director of Health and Biosecurity at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, with a focus on research and development around Australia’s health and biosecurity preparedness and responsiveness, digital health, and health and wellbeing. He, however, emphasised that he was talking in his individual capacity and not as a representative of CSIRO.
Prof. Sutton gave a thought-provoking opening address, positioning us in the sixth mass extinction in history. He reflected on the many existential threats that face us, including climate change, unequal distribution of wealth and power, gross health inequities, chronic disease epidemics, and even deep fakes and AI. He lamented that these problems are’systems problems’ and ‘wicked problems’ at that—both complex and complicated—and that even irrefutable scientific evidence or genuine interest and good intentions are not sufficient to overcome them. He implored us to not let ‘perfection be the enemy of good’ and encouraged us all to learn to move forward, even in the haze of uncertainty, towards the right answers. Together, with persistence, he emphasised that we could make both incremental and monumental changes for the sake of the planet and humankind.
Prof. Brett Sutton, delivering his speech as the Guest of Honour at the CMA (ANZ) Hall of Fame Induction Dinner in Australia.
Global Management Accounting Hall of Fame Induction
L-R: Dr. Samer Shaheen inducting Senator Barbara Pocock to the Global Management Accounting Hall of Fame. Prof Janek Ratnatunga read out the citation
Senator Barbara Pocock was inducted to the Global Management Accounting Hall of Fame for championing sustainable business practices and corporate accountability, especially on the Committee of the Parliamentary inquiry into PwC’s abuse of Australian Government secrets to enrich itself and its corporate clients. She is an Australian Senator, researcher, and academic who has written numerous books and academic journal articles on the labour market, work-life conflict, unionism, low pay, inequality, and vocational education.
Senator Pocock gave a detailed account of her and the Senate’s role in bringing PwC, a multinational network of member companies, to account for financial mismanagement. She recounts the importance of the whistleblower protections, the tenacity of investigative journalists, and the danger of vested interests and misuse of power and knowledge. Through her role in the Senate, she has tabled a number of propositions around limiting the number of partnerships and has pushed back against the ‘land and expand’ methods of snowballing Government contracts into more and more projects. Senator shared that she is driven by a desire to leave this world in better shape for her grandchildren and the generations to come.
Global Accounting Hall of Fame Induction
L-R: Dr. John Miller inducting Prof. Ian McPhee to the Global Accounting Hall of Fame. Prof. Janek Ratnatunga read out the citation.
Professor Ian McPhee was inducted to the Global Accounting Hall of Fame for championing auditing, assurance and public sector accounting standards and corporate accountability. His talk covered some highlights of his over 40 years’ experience working in the public sector in the Department of Finance and as the Auditor-General for Australia, a position he held for the maximum term of 10 years. He shared key learnings through his career journey, which began with a fateful decision to decline to have his hair cut and subsequently opened the doors to numerous roles and opportunities. Having been shepherded through his early career by a terrific mentor, David Shand, he called upon us all to champion our younger, up-and-coming colleagues in the accounting profession to open up opportunities and build their capacity. Ian highlighted the role we can all play in attracting new talent and young minds into the accounting profession through our school and university programmes to build future generations. He described key pillars of corporate governance and offered wise words of wisdom when conducting audits and forming teams, and quoted from the book ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins, by reminding us to ‘get the right people on the bus’ before deciding strategy.
Social Purpose Innovator Hall of Fame Induction
L-R: Adele Fergusen inducting Assc. Prof. Angie Bone to the Social Purpose Innovator Hall of Fame. Prof. Janek Ratnatunga read out the citation.
Associate Professor Angie Bone was inducted into the Social Purpose Innovator Hall of Fame for her impact in taking an interdisciplinary approach in championing sustainable and equitable business practices in environmental and planetary health.
Having just returned from Azerbaijan from the UN Climate Change Conference 2024 (COP29), she shared her career reflections of her first visit to Azerbaijan many years earlier as a practicing doctor. She recounted feeling helpless while managing tuberculosis in patients where conventional medicine and antibiotics offered no benefits, an experience that taught her that even medicine has its limits. As her outlook expanded to recognise the impacts that the environments we live, work, and play in can have on our health, Associate Professor Bone offered insightful commentary into the interdependence of human health and our environment. She brilliantly unpacked the definitions and concepts of planetary health and the planetary boundaries, many of which we have already transgressed, and explained how the impact on ‘human health’ can be the anchoring factor that gives relevance and meaning to these concepts for a broader audience. She championed the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to tackling these climate and health crises, and these observations were particularly relevant to management accountants who face the same issues but with a different lens.
Guests
Amongst the guests were senior public servants, professors, and senior academics from all our major universities in Victoria, representatives from other professional bodies, health professionals, senior members of ICMA and its Council, and many senior business journalists.
The ‘Health’ Professional Group
L-R: Front Row: Suzie Sarkis; Dr Katherine Ong; Associate Prof Angie Bone; Dr Annaliese van Diemen; Dr Rehana Di Rico; Sandra Falconer; Dr Evelyn Wong. Back Row: Dr Danny Csutoros; Mr Kristof Bevernage
The “Who Gives A Crap” group of Social Purpose Innovators.
The Hall of Fame inductees from previous years who attended the event were Dr. John Miller AO, a Patron of ICMA (ANZ); Dr. Samer Shahin, CEO of Peregrine Corporation; Ms. Adele Fergusen, the award-winning journalist; and Mr. Ron Pitcher and Mr. Don Rankin, the founders of Pitcher Partners.
Prof Janek Ratnatunga, CEO, Gave the Vote of Thanks