New CalCPA Chair to Focus on Improving Financial Reporting, Literacy

Redwood City, Calif. (July 21, 2004) -- The new chair of the California Society of CPAs plans to focus his term on restoring and enhancing the public's trust in financial reporting and in CPAs through improvements in corporate governance and financial reporting.

Specifically, CalCPA chair D. Paul Regan will call for new standards requiring the primary or principal preparers of a public company's financial reports to be a CPA with an active license.

"As certified public accountants, our duty to protect the public should be paramount in every action we take," said Regan, the San Francisco CPA who took the helm at CalCPA on July 16, succeeding outgoing chair Steve Wimmers. "The corporate scandals of this decade have impacted the public's trust in financial issues and professionals. This trust is the cornerstone of our financial markets, and it must be restored."

Regan will also continue CalCPA's commitment to improving financial literacy throughout the state. The 28,000-member group currently facilitates free Dollars & Sense workshops and works with local schools to provide basic personal finance education.

Regan, president and chairman of Hemming Morse Inc. and managing director the firm's Litigation Services Group, has spent the last 30 years as a forensic accountant.

-- WebCPA staff

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