As chief executive officer/executive director of the NJ Society of CPAs, Thomas is the face of the accounting profession in the state. And has been for two decades. This year, his tenure atop the trade group – which represents 14,000 certified public accountants – and his contributions to the business were recognized when he was named as an NJBIZ Icon honoree.
Thomas has been a key voice for the needs of businesses and the professionals who advise them. Complex tax legislation that will profoundly affect the businesses – from obscure budget language, to the 2017 federal tax cuts, to the federal COVID-19 relief aid — were broken down and analyzed by NJCPA under Thomas’s watch last year. More pandemic relief is on the way and the organization has been an important source of information about the programs.
With the state Legislature and Murphy administration agreeing to a $46 billion spending plan, Thomas is bound to be a major voice in how the budget is administered. A new industry will be sprouting up around the state – legalized recreational cannabis – and will present a complicated set of financial problems. Thomas and the organization he leads are already sorting out the implications. And as the economy recovers and businesses work toward getting back to normal operations, Thomas will continue to be at the center of it all.
