Kia ora koutou and hello.

As the end of the year approaches, I find myself increasingly focused on maximising the impact of my final months as president.

But although there are key milestones remaining in the year, which I’ll come back to, it’s important that I hold myself accountable to the priorities I set in January.

My first priority was supporting the CA ANZ executive team to mobilise the new strategy. Gathering member input, representing your voices, communicating the board-endorsed strategy and getting everyone behind a united vision for our profession has been a huge focus for me.

I’ve been mindful that not every president gets this opportunity. To serve during the amalgamation 10 years ago and then in this strategy refresh has been a privilege, and conveying member sentiment and voice has been a key objective of mine.

As with any strategy, there is some complexity – but it’s also quite simple. We have seven focus areas: sustainability, artificial intelligence (AI), member experience, ethics, advocacy, learning innovation and profession attractiveness.

AI is one that has taken off quickly. Our flagship initiative, the Certificate of AI fluency, offers a tangible credential to showcase your AI expertise. Partnered with the AI fluency self-assessment tool, which helps evaluate where you’re at with your AI learning, it is particularly useful for people like me who are starting out.

My second priority was to strengthen the attractiveness of the profession. I’m very proud of what has been achieved, particularly the launch of CA Foundations and CA Fundamentals pathways just a few months back. In both Australia and New Zealand, those pathways are opening our profession to people with diverse backgrounds and at different career stages.

They won’t change our profession overnight and our traditional pathways remain as strong as ever, but alongside our ‘Make Epic Things Happen’ campaign, we’ve made good progress towards achieving our new strategic aspirations, to be a magnet for diverse talent and positioning CAs as future-focused leaders.

Although there’s more to come, I’m very proud of the progress made on both priorities. As mentioned, there are major milestones to come this year, including reporting back to you through our FY25 annual report and our upcoming regional and main AGMs.

The annual report details the achievements and metrics across the five pillars of the final year of our outgoing strategy. These include our world-class member experience, brand and influence, development of a sustainable profession and professional body, our digital transformation and delivery, and our drive to create a culture of difference makers. It is an excellent document that showcases our strength as a membership organisation, regulator, educator and advocate.

I strongly believe in transparency and engagement with members, and the annual report and AGM are key components of this. So please, download a copy and make sure to attend the main AGM on 24 October.

Although I have some months left, I want to say thank you for all your support and I encourage any of you considering it to join CA ANZ’s governance ecosystem. It is not only an amazing way to give back, but to learn, connect and foster our amazing profession.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible over the coming months.