New England's contact member

David Powell is Chief Executive of Chartered Accountants Worldwide Network USA (CAW Network USA), based in Boston MA. This organization is also known as the Association of Chartered Accountants in the USA (ACAUS). David had previously been president of ACAUS 2015 - 2018 and before that Chapter President of its New England chapter. The focus of the organization is on networking and education for Chartered Accountants living / working in North America. David is a thought leader on the future of the finance profession, working with major accounting bodies and professional firms on the impact of technology on future talent and skills requirements. Has lived and worked in multiple countries/cultures and has been both a consultant and a ‘customer’.

David was born and raised in Swansea, Wales. He attended Cardiff University and earned a degree in Accounting and Management Studies. He did further professional studies and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte Haskins and Sells. He spent 10 years with DH&S / Coopers and Lybrand Deloitte. Here. he focused on selling / implementing /supporting / training clients and internal staff on financial consolidation and management reporting solutions. David is an FCA of the England & Wales Institute.

David has significant experience in hotel software management and accounting systems, having worked at senior levels at Holiday Inn Worldwide (now Intercontinental Hotels Group) in Brussels, Belgium and Starwood Hotels (now part of Marriott) in Braintree, MA. He moved from Brussels to the USA in 1998 as the worldwide process owner for accounting for JD Edwards (ERP software), in Denver.

After leaving Starwood David was recruited by Cognos at the start of 2007, to build a North American specialist services practice for Cognos’s Consolidations software. Cognos was later acquired by IBM and David moved into Global Business Services as a Finance Leader in the Business Analytics Global Center of Competence. He was responsible for Finance focused solutions using IBM software assets. He then moved into a Global Brand Manager / Finance leader role for IBM's Outsourcing division (Cognitive Process Transformation), until January 2018, when he started working as an independent financial transformation consultant. David took on what became his current role with ACAUS / CAW Network USA, in February 2019.