Career moves

The Internal Revenue Service appointed four people to high-ranking positions at the agency.

Steve Bennett, Intuit’s CEO and president, plans to step down at the end of the year, the tax and accounting software developer said.

The Office of the Chief Accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission has chosen three professional accounting fellows who will be working with the office for two-year terms starting this fall.

Grant Thornton named David Auclair as head of the accounting firm's National Tax Office.

Roel Campos, one of the two Democrats on the five-member Securities and Exchange Commission, announced plans to return to the private sector next month, further tipping the balance on the panel as the SEC continues to issue and enforce regulations affecting accountants.

Accounting firm Armanino McKenna LLP has formed a division that will act as a media-consulting firm under the leadership of a former newspaper publisher.

In its second merger of the year, Pittsburgh-based CPA firm Malin, Bergquist and Co. LLP has combined with a firm based in nearby Erie, Pa.: Diefenbach Delio Kearney & DeDionisio.

Ray Schmidt, chief information officer of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, is stepping down after five years to take a job in the private sector.

General Electric vice president and comptroller Phillip Ameen has joined the advisory board of BNA Tax and Accounting's Accounting Policy & Practice Series.

Carol Stacey, former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporate Finance, has become vice president of The SEC Institute, an organization that holds conferences and workshops around the country to explain SEC and PCAOB rules and regulations.

The Internal Revenue Service named Linda Stiff as the replacement for outgoing Acting Commissioner Kevin M. Brown.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday that Chester Spatt, Chief Economist and Director of the Office of Economic Analysis (OEA), will leave the agency to return to academia at the end of July, according to an SEC press release.

Sage Software has hired a new head of human resources functions in North America, appointing Lisa Codispoti as chief people officer.The company, a subsidiary of the U.K.-based Sage Group, employs more than 5,000 people.

The Institute of Internal Auditors has appointed Gerald D. Cox as chairman of the board and elected a slate of other board members.Cox heads the internal audit partnership at South West Audit Partnership in Yeovil, U.K. Joining him on the board is Patricia K. Miller, a partner at Deloitte & Touche in Pleasant Hill, Calif., who was elected as senior vice chairwoman.

Smart firms realize it’s better to hire a good guy and teach him the right skills than to hire a skilled psycho. Resumes tell employers something about skill sets, but little about candidates’ personalities. It takes the right interviewing techniques to figure out which people will be the best fit for your firm and to avoid hiring nightmares. Linda Bryan, owner of Dallas-based Tamlin Software Developers, was the poster woman for how not to select staff. “I was a disaster,” she confesses. “I hired some real goofballs, really weird people that didn’t work out.” These poor decisions resulted in a high turnaround, which can financially burden any company, as well as some embarrassing situations. One day a Fortune 100 drug company client came to the computer consulting company’s offices to discuss a large project and was waiting for one of Bryan’s new hires—someone who seemed “very business like and sharp”—for nearly two hours. She never would have expected the excuse he provided when he made his grand entrance. “He was supposed to show up at 9 and at 11:30, here he comes barreling through the conference room door and his hair is all disheveled and his suit is actually torn on the sleeve and we all just look at him and he says, ‘I’m sorry I’m late. There was this exotic bird and I’m an exotic bird lover and I jumped through a wired fence [chasing it] and it ripped my coat.’ He just went off,” Bryan recalls. “I just thought ‘You’re so fired.’ That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I thought I have got to get better at this.” She started asking advice and others told her she needed to hire on attitude, not aptitude. When she thought about it, she realized that she had hired people who had the right skills on paper but not the right personality. She found a book called “The Smart Interviewer,” which taught her how to ask questions that would allow her to get to know candidates to better determine whether they would fit into Tamlin’s culture. Only if they pass that part of the interview do they get tested on their technical know-how. “I started using that interview process and we started calling it the Good Guy Test. The first thing is do you have the right attitude/the right personality to fit in here. Then the second thing is do you have the right skills. It’s the reverse of what I used to do,” Bryan says. “Since then we’ve had some good longevity and some really good people.” It is not uncommon these days to have prospects meet their future colleagues to see how well they jibe. Some companies invite candidates to lunch. Others have subordinates interview their potential bosses. Just because a candidate doesn’t connect with the rest of your staff doesn’t mean he or she is not a talented individual. Every firm has different policies and ways of doing business. It just means that this particular individual is a bad fit for your particular firm’s needs. It behooves both the employer and employee to figure this out before signing on the dotted line and risk having to “mutually agree to part ways” soon thereafter.

-- James A. Smith, managing director at the CPA firm of Smith, Jackson, Boyer and Bovard, was named chairman of the 27,000-member Texas Society of CPAs. Smith will serve a one-year term. Joining Smith as TSCPA officers are Steven R. Goodman, chairman-elect, Houston; Barbara Bass, secretary, Tyler; Jeff Gregg, treasurer-elect, Seymour; and Rance G. Sweeten, treasurer, McAllen. In addition the following will serve on the TSCPA executive board: Rick Baumeister, Fort Worth; John Broaddus, El Paso; Penny Dear, Austin; Dora J. Dyson, Gatesville; Janet B. Johnson, Houston; B. Jean Lein, Austin; Edward L. Lette, Austin; Jerry L. Love, Abilene; Tracy B. Stewart, College Station; and Fred Timmons, San Antonio.

Internal Revenue Service chief counsel Donald L. Korb has named Stephen Kesselman to become deputy chief counsel, operations, succeeding IRS veteran Donald T. Rocen. Kesselman is currently serving as counsel in the IRS' Small Business/Self-Employed Division. Rocen, who has held a number of posts in the Office of the Chief Counsel for 15 years, will leave the service July 27 for the Washington law firm of Miller & Chevalier. Lon B. Smith, associate chief counsel of financial products and institutions, will now become national counsel to the chief counsel for special projects. He has served in the Office of Chief Counsel for 30 years.

Tax and news publisher BNA has named Robert P. Ambrosini to the post of vice president and chief financial officer. Ambrosini, who officially began with BNA June 18, has held CFO posts at such organizations as Black Entertainment Television and Texfi Industries. He also was senior vice president finance and accounting for the National Geographic Channel. Ambrosini also serves on the board of the Washington Hospital Center Foundation.

Resources Global Professionals, a global consultancy and professional services provider, has appointed Colleen Cunningham as regional managing director overseeing its New York, New Jersey and Connecticut region. Cunningham, who prior to coming aboard RGP headed the 15,000-member Financial Executives International for four years, will be responsible for managing the six offices while overseeing operations, financials and recruiting. A CPA, she began her career in public accounting with both Touche Ross and Coopers & Lybrand and spent 13 years with AT&T as assistant controller of AT&T Capital.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board named insider C. Gregory Scates as deputy chief auditor. In that role, Scates, 53, will provide technical direction in the development of the board's standards. He will report to Tom Ray, the PCAOB's chief auditor and director of professional standards. Scates, who came aboard the PCAOB in 2003, helped develop Auditing Standards Nos. 1 and 3, which deal with reporting on audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB and audit documentation. He also has developed staff guidance on technical auditing matters, and led various current standards-setting projects. Prior to joining the PCAOB, Mr. Scates was associate chief accountant in the division of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission.