Carla McCall, CPA, CGMA

Managing Partner

Carla is Managing Partner of AAFCPAs, a U.S. Top 100 CPA and consulting firm based in New England. She is also former Chair of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). In 2024, Carla was named one of Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People and one of the Most Powerful Women in the Accounting Profession in 2020-2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 by the AICPA and CPA Practice Advisor Magazine. Her dynamic executive leadership, bold practicality, and enthusiasm to embrace change is setting the standard for mission driven, growth organizations.

Carla has been an instrumental force in the evolution of AAFCPAs, responsible for driving the expansion of services for our sophisticated clients beyond the core audit and tax, such as outsourced accounting, wealth management, robotic process automation, IT and cyber security, system selection and implementation, and data analytics. She thinks about the client in everything she does and puts AAFCPAs’ customers in the center, at the core of our business, to provide a positive experience and meet their evolving needs.

Carla recognizes the importance of setting an influential tone at the top to inspire AAFCPAs’ people-first culture and core values. In 2011, she launched AAFCPAs’ Women’s Opportunity Network (WON), which serves as a platform to ensure women have a clear path to leadership. In 2017, recognizing the need to expand on diversity, equity, and inclusion, Carla launched the firm’s Inclusion & Belonging initiative. In 2018, she established the firm’s Innovation Lab and Changemaker Challenge, where team members are encouraged to question everyday processes and think like entrepreneurs. And in 2021, Carla launched the firm’s Automation Initiative, supported by the firm’s in-house Data Analytics/Robotic Process Automation team, to help our teams realize measurable results through more efficient and effective working infrastructures. “We can only grow by nurturing and embracing innovation that helps us ‘work smarter, not harder’,” said Carla. In 2022, she launched the firm’s Zip2CPA credentialing accelerator program as well as the firm’s E3 Intern Accelerator Program, designed to provide opportunities for new accounting professionals who are traditionally underrepresented in the industry.

Carla commits a great deal of her personal time to mentoring young professionals and serving nonprofits so that both may benefit from her knowledge and experience in order to thrive. She leads with authenticity, and her commitment to service, volunteerism, and purposeful work is contagious. She inspires new pathways to growth, sustainability, and excellence.

Education

Bentley University – Bachelor of Science, Accounting

Accolades

Accounting Today’s 2024 Top 100 Most Influential People
Most Powerful Women in Accounting (2020-2024) – AICPA/CPA Practice Advisor Magazine
Power 100 (2024), Power 50 (2023) – Worcester Business Journal
Top 200 CPAs List (2024) – Forbes
National Managing Partner Elite List (2020) – Accounting Today
Outstanding Women in Business (2018) – Worcester Business Journal
Inaugural Harry C. Bentley Alumni Achievement Award (2017) – Bentley University
ATHENA Leadership Award (2016) – United Way of Tri-County & MetroWest Chamber of Commerce
Women Up Leadership Award (2013) – Boston Business Journal
Women to Watch Leadership Award (2013) – Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants

Publications

Service

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) – Board of Directors, Immediate Past Chair
Association of International Certified Professional Accountant – Board of Directors, Immediate Past Co-Chair
AICPA Governing Council, PCPS – Former Executive Committee
Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants (MassCPAs) – Former Chair of the Board
The Jordan Porco Foundation – Former Founding Board Member and Treasurer
Center for Women and Business at Bentley University – Former Leadership Mentor
Strong Women, Strong Girls, Inc. – Former Founding Board and Finance Committee Member

Contributed Insights

Carla McCall Reflects on AICPA Chair Term with Message to the Profession

As her term concludes as 2024–25 Chair of the American Institute of CPAs and co-chair of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, Carla McCall, CPA, CGMA, AAFCPAs’ Managing Partner, offers a message centered on leadership, transformation, and human connection. McCall, the 111th chair and only the seventh woman to serve in the role, uses […]

Embracing a Human-First Culture: The Key to the Future of Accounting

Redefining the Value and Sustainability of Profession The accounting profession is at a crossroads, facing pivotal moment in which it must redefine its value and sustainability to remain relevant in an ever-evolving business landscape. One of my key platforms as AICPA chair is focused on this very issue, emphasizing the need to rethink how the […]

Pursuit of happiness: AICPA Chair Carla McCall emphasizes people, positivity

Journal of Accountancy (April 16, 2025)- A chair, by definition, is stationary. A chair, when occupied by Carla McCall, CPA, CGMA, is anything but. “Some chair roles are like, ‘Oh, you’re the chair, but you don’t really do much,’” McCall said. “This chair position is immersed in the profession.” McCall’s tenure as AICPA chair has […]