The Cayman Islands Institute of Professional Accountants (CIIPA) welcomes new President and three new members of Council.

The new leadership was voted in at the professional accounting organisation’s recent Annual General Meeting. Chris Gauk succeeds Joel Dodson as President, with Francois LaMontagne taking over the role of Vice President, while James George remains as Secretary.

During the AGM, CIIPA’s 2018 accomplishments were highlighted including providing more than 100 hours of professional development across 20 training courses and the two-day AICPA CIIPA Summit, as well as raising KYD 11,000 for local charities through CIIPA social events.

CEO Sheree Ebanks provided a snapshot of the current membership noting, “61% of our members are professional accountants in business who are engaged in a number of different sectors,” she went on to discuss the launch of the Accountants in Business Committee in May of 2018, “to ensure the organisation is engaging with and serving all of its members’ needs.”

The Careers and Mentoring Committee continued to support developing future talent in 2018 with a new cohort of 19 mentors working with accounting students from ICCI and UCCI. Mentors were provided training on mentoring and coaching skills, and students went through an orientation to facilitate maximising the impact of the experience.

Incoming President, Chris Gauk discussed key areas of focus for the year ahead including AML/CFT supervision and IFAC’s International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants. On the ethics front Mr. Gauk points out, “The Code comes into effect this June, and we are rolling out focused communications to our members around the changes, and what that means in terms of our day-to-day work.” Mr. Gauk went on to say the CIIPA Council will undertake reviewing the organisation’s governance structure, and revisit key strategic objectives with a focus on purpose and the next stages of development as a professional accounting organisation.