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How can professional accountants use their skills to anticipate the future? Tom Hood, Executive Director and CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs, talks about the top skills accountants need in this age of artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine learning. The number one skill? Empathy and relationships, with collaboration and anticipation next.

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Tom Hood

CEO, MACPA & Business Learning Institute

Tom Hood, CPA, CITP, CGMA, is the CEO of the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants (MACPA) and the Business Learning Institute. He is considered one of the most influential leaders in the global accounting Profession and was named the Second Most Influential Person in Accounting by Accounting Today for the past eight years. Hood uniquely combines three vital traits: He sees the future of the profession clearly; he discovers or creates supremely practical ways to move the profession toward that future; and he generates tremendous enthusiasm for the move in everyone he meets.”, quoted in Accounting Today.

In 2012 Tom was named one of LinkedIn’s Top 100 Influencers and now has over 800,000 followers on LinkedIn and Twitter. He was also one of the first five thought leaders inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame by CPA Practice Advisor. His passion is helping CPAs and organizations be future-ready through his work at the MACPA and the Business Learning Institute that provides state of the art learning curriculums, strategy and leadership development for the Top 500 CPA Firms, Fortune 500 corporations, non-profits, and State CPA Societies.

He has been the CEO of MACPA and BLI for twenty-two years and was a CFO of a highway construction company before that. He graduated from Loyola University – Maryland with a degree in Accounting and has a Masters in Finance from Johns Hopkins University.