In January, CalCPA will launch its Financial Leadership Forum, a statewide initiative to serve chief financial officers, controllers and other executives. The forum will be open to other managers, as well. It will offer online and live educational and networking events, including monthly webcasts. Topics will address technical issues as well as softer skills related to management.

The program comes as more companies have promoted CPAs into senior executive positions, including chief executive. While many businesses used to favor operations and marketing executives for such roles, that emphasis has changed as the strategic role of accounting departments has evolved. At the same time, many CPAs are opting for what they see as less stressful, higher-paying jobs outside the world of public accounting.

As a result, CPAs in industry are looking for better educational solutions. For example, communications is a particular weak spot for accountants, one the forums will attempt to address through workshops. Other topics include growth and profit, mergers and acquisitions, capital investment and ethics. "We don't want to be viewed as a public-practice-only organization, but instead as one that serves the needs of all CPAs," says Clar Rosso, CalCPA's division director of programs and communications. "We're seeing an increasing number of CPAs starting in, or moving into, industry after getting their licenses. We want to help them develop personally and professionally."

CalCPA is coordinating the forum with the group's 14 local chapters and its partner organization, the California CPA Education Foundation, and hopes the effort will boost membership. The 31,000-member organization sees the state's 18,000 industry CPAs as an untapped source, since only about 5,100 of them are members. CPA organizations in Texas and Florida boast a higher percentage of industry membership - closer to 40 percent. By 2012, CalCPA hopes to double the number of industry CPAs and at least equal the percentages in these other large states.

The chief financial officer of one of California's largest commercial banks says the increased networking opportunities may be "more important than the educational part of the program."

"Folks are good about sharing best practices and mistakes they made," says Dennis Wu of San Francisco-based United Commercial Bank and a former Deloitte partner. "If you’re networking, you don’t look at somebody as a competitor." He adds: "I think the creation of a leadership forum is overdue."

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