Date: 2025-10-05 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028300
ORGANIZATIONS
CAW NETWORK USA
The successor to the Association of Chartered Accountants USA ... ACAUS
CAW NETWORK USA
The successor to the Association of Chartered Accountants USA ... ACAUS
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
My own personal connection with Chartered Accountants Worldwide Network USA goes back a long time.
Going back to the early 1980s Angus McDowell and I established a professional office located at 1301 Avenue of the Americas, in Manhattan, New York. Angus operated an accountancy practice and I focused on international consultancy work for the United Nations, World Bank and international clients.
Angus and I collaborated wherever it made sense. He was a Charered Accountant (Scotland) and I was a CA (England and Wales). Both of us had considerable international experience, with much of my experience within the corporate world!
Early on in the McDowell/Burgess collaboration, we became the American representatives of the British Institute of Directors ... until the members in London realized we were about 30 years younger than the rest of their members! Clearly ... that could not stand, and our relationship was terminated.
Over a number of years, many Chartered Accountants based themselves in the McDowell/Burgess offices brefore moving on to bigger and better things.
After the debacle with the Institute of Directors the idea for a professional organization of Chartered Accountants emerged. in part this idea emerged after a massive amount of fruitless discussion with the American CPA organization about reciprocity between American CPAs and Chartered Accountants from the UK and Ireland.
Quite early on, Angus started to collaborate with Sandy Needham who joined Angus and helped build out the accounting firm. During this time, Angus became the CEO of the fledling Association of Chartered Accountants USA ... (ACAUS). Some few years later, I think Sandy became the second CEO of ACAUS. I was never in consideration, because I was spending far too much time away from the USA in all sorts of distant places ... actually in more than 50 different countries around the world over a period of about 30 years!
I had mixed feelings about ACAUS rebranding itself to bceome Chartered Accountants Worldwide Network USA and then merging into the Chartered Accountants Worldwide Network.Several years into the merged organizations, I am not entirely comfortable with what has emerged.
Part of that is that as an octagenarian, I am less flexible than I was when I was younger ... but more substantively, I sense that the global organization of Chartered Accountants is going to be even less agile than what is needed.
I think my biggest concern is that CAW maybe good for Chartered Accountants in the short run, but the world needs CAs to do some hard thinking about how best they can contribute to management that will deliver a better world ... not just in terms of more and more profit for owners, but for all people, everywhere. I see modern accounting as being the current version of a system that has been in play since the early part of the Victorian era and way overdue for a substantial upgrade!
Angus died several years ago. I am still plodding along ... with plenty of dreams about how the world could be a better place.
Not to mention nightmares when it comes to Trump, Vance and Musk!
Peter Burgess
What is Chartered Accountants Worldwide Network USA?
On 19 November 2020 ACAUS (The Association of Chartered Accountants USA) and Chartered Accountants Worldwide (CAW) joined together to form Chartered Accountants Worldwide Network USA.
Chartered Accountants Worldwide Network USA is the first regional network to be established by Chartered Accountants Worldwide to support over 7,000 Chartered Accountants who are living and working in the USA and to help us raise the profile and reputation of our profession in the world’s largest economy.
Chartered accountancy is a global profession, and never has it been more important for us to think and act together, as a connected global community. CAW Network USA will provide access to a wide range of relevant Continuing Professional Development courses and events, both live and on-demand and networking opportunities. It will also help to increase the strength and visibility of the Chartered Accountancy brand in the USA.
What benefits do Chartered Accountants Worldwide Network USA members get?
CAW Network USA will provide a number of benefits including:
- Access to a broader network of Chartered Accountants in the USA and globally, connecting our 7,000 members in the USA and the CAW Network of 1.8m members and students worldwide;
- Access to broader range of relevant CPD and events, online and in person;
- Enhanced support for members, including a helpful platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration, in particular at these challenging times, to keep economies moving;
- Access to on-line training targeted at Chartered Accountants who want to take advantage of Mutual Recognition Agreements to become US CPAs, and
- Increased visibility and strengthening of the Chartered Accountancy brand/profession in the USA.