IMA’s new partnership agreement with Conselho Regional de Contabilidade do Estado de São Paulo (CRC-SP) is already yielding positive results, as senior IMA^® (Institute of Management Accountants) leaders recently traveled to Brazil to speak at a major conference and to meet with representatives from key corporations.

Under an agreement signed this past June, IMA and CRC-SP pledged to help support the international advancement of the management accounting profession in Brazil through IMA membership and CMA^® (Certified Management Accountant) certification. CRC-SP is a federal entity that represents approximately 150,000 accounting professionals and 20,000 accounting firms in the state of São Paulo. It is responsible for certifying, enforcing, and educating its members. IMA also has a longstanding partnership arrangement with the National Association of Executives in Finance, Administration, and Accounting (ANEFAC), which over the years has helped IMA build support in the region.  

A key element of the agreement with CRC-SP is the mutual participation in each other’s conferences. Therefore, Lisa Beaudoin, CMA, CSCA, CAE, IMA senior director of business development; and Jim Gurowka, CAE, IMA senior vice president, global business development, in November served as speakers at CRC-SP’s Convecon. Convecon is a bi-annual accounting conference, hosted by São Paulo’s regional accounting council; the recent gathering attracted more than 3,000 attendees. 

During the conference, Gurowka served as keynote speaker, delivering a presentation titled “Financial Leadership in a Digital Age.” Beaudoin served on a panel discussion on the topic of international certifications for accountants. The IMA team also hosted a luncheon gathering for academic attendees at the conference, where Beaudoin discussed the resources IMA has available for the academic community and IMA’s various scholarship, award, and recognition programs. In attendance was a representative from the University of São Paulo, an elite institution that is endorsed under IMA’s Higher Education Endorsement Program.

Pictured directly below are Convecon attendees [from l. to r.]: CRC-SP VP of Professional Development and Former ANEFAC President João Carlos Castilho Garcia; Beaudoin; CRC-SP President Marcia Ruiz Alcazar; and Gurowka.

Gurowka delivers a keynote address at Convecon.

Beaudoin with a large group of academics who attended the IMA luncheon gathering.

The trip also included three significant corporate visits: (1) with finance leaders and staff at Caterpillar’s facility in Piracicaba, which is the company’s largest manufacturing operation in the world; (2) with finance leaders and staff at Johnson & Johnson’s offices in São Paulo; (3) an event at Petrobras, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, in Rio de Janeiro. At Petrobras, Beaudoin discussed “Financial Leadership in the Digital Age” and the relevance of CMA certification.

Beaudoin with members of the accounting and finance team at Petrobras.

Commented Beaudoin, “We are very much interested in supporting the growth of management accounting and to strengthening the skills of accounting and finance professionals in this region. We will continue to seek out new opportunities for mutual cooperation, including attracting additional institutions to IMA’s Higher Education Endorsement Program and to extending awareness among corporations about the advantages of hiring CMA-certified professionals.”

For more information about CRC-SP, please visit this website.