Kacee Johnson departs CPA.com

Kacee Johnson, CPA.com's vice president of strategy and innovation, announced that she has ended her tenure as a full-time employee there.

Johnson, who has been in her position for six-and-a-half years, said on LinkedIn that she officially stepped away on Dec. 31.

"The past 6.5 years have been nothing short of transformative. I am deeply grateful to have been part of such a visionary organization that consistently pushes the boundaries of innovation in the accounting & finance profession," she said in her post.

In an email she said that the timing was right for her to pursue other interests she is passionate about. However, while she is stepping away from her position, she plans to stay involved and collaborate with the AICPA and CPA.com on strategic initiatives. When asked about specifics in an email, Johnson said she will still be very involved in the AICPA/CPA.com Startup Accelerator program (which she said was the most rewarding part of working at CPA.com) and serve as an overall strategic advisor to the organization working on key initiatives like the AI Symposium and Digital CPA.

In her goodbye message on LinkedIn, she thanked the AICPA leadership for helping her grow as a professional, and gave particular thanks to her research team, saying they are the true embodiment of change makers.

Regarding her immediate plans, Johnson told Accounting Today she plans to take a few months to reset and invest in some personal development interests. She added that she also completed her NACD Corporate Director certification and has been accepted to the Harvard Business School's Executive Program on Private Equity and Venture Capitalism for the first quarter of 2025.

When asked about what her proudest achievement was during her tenure, she pointed to the AICPA Town Hall.

"I'm most proud of being part of the team that developed and produced the AICPA Town Hall. It's inception was at the beginning of COVID; so many practitioners needed guidance on how to support clients and navigate all of the uncertainty. To see what the series has grown into is nothing short of incredible," she told Accounting Today.

A spokesperson with CPA.com said that they will be hiring for the position, but it won't encompass the entirety of Johnson's old role. Some of her areas of expertise and responsibility will be divided up between existing staff and whomever eventually occupies the new position.

Johnson joined CPA.com in 2018 as a strategic advisor before, in 2021, becoming senior director of strategy and innovation and then, in 2022, vice president of strategy and innovation. Prior to her joining CPA.com, she was the founder of accounting-focused tech consultancy firm Blue Ocean.

Accounting Today named Johnson a "One to Watch" in 2018 when she first joined CPA.com. She has since been named as one of Accounting Today's Top 100 Most influential People in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and, most recently, 2024.

Among other accomplishments, she was a major force behind CPA.com's generative AI toolkit. Johnson has identified artificial intelligence as one of the key issues facing the profession, mentioning it as a vital matter in both her 2023 and 2024 survey responses. She has also expressed concerns about a certain polarization and cultural divide she has observed within the profession between firms where technology is an asset that drives value and firms where it is viewed merely as an operational expense. She has also expressed some skepticism of AI leading to a technological singularity that fundamentally alters human civilization and our conception as the dominant intelligence on Earth.