Ken Kelly Named Chair of Maryland CPA Society Board

Kenneth Kelly, CPA, CGMA, a former senior vice president and controller for S&P 500 spice giant McCormick and Company, has been named chair of the 2017-18 Board of Directors of the Maryland Association of CPAs.

Kelly was installed as chair as part of the MACPA’s Annual Meeting on June 26 in Clarksville, Md. His term runs from July 1 through June 30, 2018. He succeeds Lisa Cines, CPA.

“I’m incredibly honored and humbled to be named chair of this incredible institution,” said Kelly, currently a founding consultant with KK Advisory, LLC. “The MACPA is one of the most forward-thinking organizations I know, and it’s vision — to help accounting and finance professionals everywhere become future-ready — excites and energizes me. This is an exciting time to be a CPA, and I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work.”

Kelly has been a tireless advocate for the profession and a visionary for its future. He has served on the Board of Directors that guided the recent joint venture between the American Institute of CPAs and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. That joint venture resulted in the Chartered Global Management Accountant (or CGMA) designation.

He also is an associate member and former Executive Committee member of the Committee on Corporate Reporting for Financial Executives International, and is a Maryland delegate to the AICPA’s Governing Council. Prior to joining McCormick and Company, Kelly served as controller for Fortune 500 company Black & Decker.

“We are honored to have Ken at the helm of our Board of Directors,” said MACPA Executive Director Tom Hood, CPA, CGMA. “He is a visionary in every sense of the word, and his experience as an architect of the future of our profession is an invaluable asset for our association and the CPAs we serve. Maryland’s CPAs are fortunate to have Ken on board.”

The MACPA’s full slate of directors also was installed during the association’s Annual Meeting on June 26. Those directors include:

Vice chair: Samantha Bowling, CPA, CGMA, partner, Garbelman Winslow CPAs
Secretary / treasurer: Ray Speciale, Esq., CPA, associate professor, Mount St. Mary’s University
Immediate past chair: Lisa Cines, CPA, director, Radius
Christine Aspell, CPA, audit partner, KPMG, LLP
Raj Bhaskar, founder and CEO, Hurdlr
Avonette Blanding, CPA, chief financial officer, Maritime Applied Physics Corporation
Wallace Boston, Ed.D., CPA, CGMA, CMA, CEO, American Public Education, Inc.
Mark Cissell, CPA, CEO, president, director, KatzAbosch
Robert Jirsa, CPA, partner, RSM US LLP
Andrew Page, CPA, vice president and corporate controller, Under Armor
Keith Parker, CPA, financial advisor, Morgan Stanley