Professor Ian McPhee talks on the “Reminiscences of an Auditor General in Advancing the Profession”

Professor Ian McPhee has over 40 years’ experience working in the public sector – the last 10 of those years as the Auditor-General for Australia – a position he held for the maximum term from 2005 to 2015. Prior to that appointment, he was Deputy Secretary, Financial Management Group, Department of Finance. His review of CPA Australia in 2017 was a clarion call for all professional bodies to improve their level of transparency and member engagement.

He shares 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 shares 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 calls upon us all to champion our younger, up-and-coming colleagues in the accounting profession to open up opportunities and build their capacity. He highlights 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 describes key pillars of corporate governance and offers wise words of wisdom when conducting audits and forming teams, and quotes from the book ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins, by reminding us to ‘get the right people on the bus’ before deciding strategy.

The talk was given when Professor McPhee was inducted to the Global Accounting Hall of Fame® for championing auditing, assurance and public sector accounting standards and corporate accountability.

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