Ralph Albert Thomas

As chief executive officer/executive director of the NJ Society of CPAs, Thomas has been the face – and voice – of the accounting profession in the state for two decades. With the New Jersey flush with a budget surplus and federal infrastructure dollars while still attempting to fully recover from the pandemic downturn, his counsel on fiscal matters will be more important than ever.

Thomas has been a prominent advocate for the needs of businesses and the professionals who advise them. The new recreational cannabis industry getting geared up presents a complex set of financial problems, but Thomas and the organization he leads have been sorting out the implications.

And as always, government officials and business leaders continue to grapple with the traditional concerns about doing business here. High taxes. Cumbersome regulatory processes. Competing priorities at all levels of government. Thomas and the NJCPA will be front and center of all the debates. And, New Jerseyans hope, the solutions to some of the state’s most intractable problems.