Happy New Year!

I am looking forward to a robust, exciting year for Integra International and our members.

Although the pandemic caught all of us by surprise and 2020 was a challenging year, we all learned valuable lessons and supported each other in various ways.

We pivoted to an increased internal social media presence by sharing ideas, issues and solutions. We worked closely with our members to ensure they would be connected to each other for support and guidance.

As we have all been learning and adapting to these new ways of doing business, it will only make us all more efficient. In 2021 we will continue to provide platforms in which we can share ideas and best practices.

Despite the challenges of 2020, we were able to grow our membership from 123 firms to 142 firms. We anticipate this growth to continue in 2021 with the addition of solid members in strategic locations. Integra is one of the fastest growing accounting organizations in the world and connects every member with over 5,000 professionals and many well-known and respected subject matters’ experts. As an agile organization, we will continue to explore areas in which we can increase value to our members and their clients.

As entrepreneurs, many of us appreciate the fact that our association provides more freedom to operate our firm in the way we believe is the best, as opposed to a network which may require less flexibility. We will continue to ensure that our members are the highest quality of firms, who will take care of your clients with the same level of expertise and attention you would offer them.

We are fortunate to have a dedicated group of both regional and global Board members. In addition to working with clients in their own firms, our Directors provide valuable time to our organization and guide Integra through both long-term strategic issues and day-to-day operations.

I would like to welcome and applaud those new Board members who joined us in 2020:

 

Global Board:

Brian Hunter, Britta Kötteritzsch, Roby Almog, Bill Sims, Franz Schweiger, Steve Austin, Giuseppe Scibetta, Don DeGrazia, Carolina Perez, David Borg, Jeff Taraboulos, Tito Scibetta, Mark Fiato, Helen Volska, and Ted Chiba.

AAANZ Board:

Bill Sims, Brian Hunter, Don DeGrazia, Carolina Perez, Les Adler, Mark Fiato, Greg Marino, Gerard Esposito, Néstor Centeno, Stephen Radachi, Matt Hatfield, Jim Ketter, Scott Keen, and Wayne Soo.

EMEIA Regional Board:

Franz Schweiger, Britta Kötteritzsch, Giuseppe Scibetta, David Borg, Tito Scibetta, Helen Volska, Roby Almog, Francesc Bellavista, Stefanie Feiste, Thorsten Stielow, Jeroen Vanderlinden, Christos Michaelides, Domenico Merlino, Ali Ebeid, and Sai Purshotham Batchu.

 

In closing, we look to a very bright future together in 2021 and we hope to return to face-to-face conferences as soon as this becomes comfortable. Face-to-face meetings are critical to the success of Integra. It is during these meetings that we really get to know each other on a personal level and gain comfort in referring business to each other. We will take care in planning such conferences as soon as we are able to obtain a reasonable level of attendance while paying close attention to the safety of our members.

Wishing you a successful New Year,

Brian Hunter,  Chair