with CBA President Joseph Rosenbaum , CPA
With nearly 30 years of experience in the profession , CalCPA member Joseph Rosenbaum , CPA was appointed to the CBA by Gov . Gavin Newsom in May 2022 . He was elected to serve as CBA president for 2024 and served as secretary / treasurer in 2023 . Prior to his tenure as president and secretary / treasurer , Rosenbaum was a member and chair of the CBA Enforcement Advisory Committee from 2012-20 .
Professionally , Rosenbaum has been president at Rosenbaum & Co . since 2011 , and prior to that served as a partner at Ernst & Young LLP and partner at both PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Arthur Andersen & Co .
Along with being a CPA , Rosenbaum is Certified in Financial Forensics by the AICPA and has nearly 30 years of experience in complex litigation and investigation matters , including cases involving allegations of civil and criminal fraud .
We spoke with Rosenbaum about his experiences and what CPA professionals can expect to see from the CBA this year .
Q : Tell us how you landed in the CPA profession . Believe it or not , I didn ’ t intend to become a CPA . It ’ s sort of a circuitous route I took , but one that seems somewhat inevitable in hindsight . My father was an accountant , but I wanted to be a corporate litigator . We had some family friends who did that , and I thought it was a very interesting career choice , and one I would be suited for .
I was advised not to take what was then the common undergraduate programs for law school , which were political science , English or even history , but rather to take something like accounting or engineering . When I went to school , I did choose accounting as my undergraduate major at Ohio State University . After graduation I applied and was accepted to law school . So far , so good on my intended career !
I had the opportunity , however , to play on a rugby tour in Ireland while I was in law school with a team from Indianapolis . At the conclusion of the tour , I decided I would stay a little bit longer and postpone a quarter of my law studies . I got a job in construction and played more rugby with one of the local Irish sides .
When I came back to school , rather than just try to catch up with my classmates , I decided to postpone real life a little bit longer and entered business school , so I was working on an MBA at the same time as my law degree .
As if that wasn ’ t enough to keep me busy , a couple classmates and I formed a chapter of an international business association called AIESEC , which was founded around the end of World War II to help re-establish business connections around the globe . The way it works is your chapter goes into your local business community to find internship opportunities and then you throw your name in the hat , and people are matched up with these internships and off you go .
As it turns out , I was the first in our group to raise my hand , and I was selected to go to the Netherlands and do an internship with the accounting firm Arthur Andersen & Co . That still wasn ’ t my career choice , but once I went to The Hague and
14 CALIFORNIA CPA MARCH / APRIL 2024 www . calcpa . org