Sponsors fled from the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) recruiting event earlier this month amid political pressures to silence diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives by the Trump administration, according to a report from Bloomberg.
NABA hosted a recruiting event on June 3-6 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The convention not only serves accounting firms, it helps banks and financial advisory firms with recruiting. In light of the change in the administration in Washington, D.C., the latest event served as “a litmus test of the impact of Donald Trump’s executive orders attacking what he calls ‘illegal DEI,’” as Bloomberg put it.
In previous years, the event attracted thousands of attendees.
The large-scale event maintained its traditional sponsors, Deloitte LLP, Wells Fargo & Co., and JPMorgan Chase & Co. High-profile accounting firm PwC and the Internal Revenue Service made an appearance as well.
ANTI-WOKE NONPROFIT SENDS LETTER TO TOP LEGAL FIRMS IN AMERICA WARNING ABOUT DEI
However, several other notable companies were not present.
Bloomberg reported further that “more than two dozen named sponsors from previous years, including American Express Co., Meta Platforms Inc. and Walt Disney Co., were missing from the list this time around.”
According to the report, “Attendance was down from last year, when almost 4,000 students and industry professionals took part. Deloitte, the title sponsor, kept press out of the sessions it underwrote and declined to make featured panelist Lara Abrash, the chair of Deloitte US, available for interviews.”
Leaders of local NABA chapters said that they struggled with finding sponsors for local events as well.
Joshua Nwozor, the vice president of NABA’s Boston chapter, said that they’ve “gotten pushback” and some “companies that used to sponsor NABA events say they don’t want to have their name” associated with the event.
NBA DEI CHIEF LESLEY SLATON STEPPING DOWN: REPORT
The accounting industry in general is struggling to attract individuals to the profession, with KPMG Chief Executive Officer Paul Knopp calling it “a brewing crisis that will impact accounting firms and corporations,” especially while the industry has implemented artificial intelligence in streamlining many tasks of the profession.
NABA’s CEO Guylaine Saint Juste told Bloomberg that the current political climate may have thwarted efforts to recruit non-White applicants and potentially address the industry’s worker shortage.
Bloomberg noted that the accounting profession is predominantly White with only 2% of partners and Certified Public Accountants being Black.
“The political climate has made changing that a challenge for Guylaine Saint Juste, NABA’s CEO since 2021. She said that when she took the job, she felt ‘the organization had either lost or forgotten that it was created on the back of the social justice movement,’ and didn’t reflect the pent-up anger of the moment,” Bloomberg reported.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX NEWS
American Express Co., Meta Platforms Inc., and Walt Disney Co. did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. The organizers of the NABA event did not immediately respond to a request for comment either.
Read the full article here
