Adam Larson: 00:05

Welcome back to Count Me In. I'm your host, Adam Larson. Today, I sit down with Amer Al Ahbabi, the first Emirati on the IMA global board of directors and a leader in finance in The UAE. We talk about his path in accounting, how earning the CMA changed his career, and the importance of community in our profession. Amer shares advice for anyone thinking about pursuing the certification or joining IMA and reflects on what it means to give back and help others grow.

Adam Larson: 00:30

This conversation is one you won't wanna miss. Well, Amer, I'm really excited to have you on the Count Me In podcast today, and I figured we could start a little bit by you could share a bit about your professional journey. How did you get into accounting and finance? What led you to where you are today?

Amer Al Ahbabi: 00:50

Good. Thank you, Adam, for having me today. I'm really happy. So I've studied accounting back in 2012 at the United Arab Emirates University. And, you know, the the cool thing here is that I was comparing between finance and accounting.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 01:09

And I thought that I saw that accounting goes into a lot more details, a lot more into numbers. Then I decided, I'll be an accountant. And, yeah, I finished my bachelor degree. And from there, I my relationship with numbers and accounting has been very quite well. I enjoyed the cost accounting classes.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 01:35

I remember at the university, I took cost accounting one, two, and three, and they wish there were more instead of the other subjects. So, yeah, I really love numbers and accounting as well.

Adam Larson: 01:46

Yeah. It it it really takes that love for numbers, that love for understanding how those things work. When I've talked to other people who kind of has said the same thing where they really zeroed in because I took some accounting classes and I knew it wasn't for me, but I know that for other people, it's for them. And then when you and I first chatted, you had mentioned, the CMA kinda played a big role in your development. So maybe you can talk a little bit about the CMA and its and its

Amer Al Ahbabi: 02:09

Definitely. So, see, I finished my bachelor degree. I joined, the state audit institution. It's the federal, auditing body of the government. And, luckily, my line manager had a lot of certifications.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 02:25

One of them were the was the CMA. And I I was thinking what are those behind after his name in the email signature, c b a, c m a, c I a. And I thought I I investigated that, and I went into details, and I realized that there is something called the CMA, which is a certified Nigerian accountant, the IMA, the community. And I started studying for the CMA. I didn't pass from the first exam.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 02:56

I repeated it, especially part two. I remember it was tough with the essay, but it was really, really fun. And, after that, I joined the IMA community. I joined in 2017 as a board secretary, I remember, with the team there. I learned a lot.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 03:17

And from that time, my relationship with IMA is continuing up to where I am now.

Adam Larson: 03:26

So were there certain skills in that you that you gained by earning after earning the CMA that kinda helped you in your professional life?

Amer Al Ahbabi: 03:33

Yes. Definitely. I'll tell you one very good thing that I learned from the CMA. See, time management. I remember once you were in in a stress trying to finish the exam and certain number of MCQs trying to understand which is the right or wrong answer, doing all these techniques to be on time, I think, punctuality.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 03:57

Number two is managing your studies, managing to finish the syllabus before the exam date, reviewing them. It was really something different than the academia and the university exams that we are having there. Also, how to analyze numbers, especially in cost accounting, especially in companies. Now I really enjoy going into companies and checking financial statements, reports, cost accounting reports, seeing how well they are doing, how well their numbers are there. Is there any window dressing?

Amer Al Ahbabi: 04:33

Is there anything hidden, between the numbers? So cost accounting see, I believe every, entrepreneur who's entering into any business, he needs to understand numbers. You know, it's crucial that you are investing in a company or you are an owner of the company or if you even have stocks in any company. You need to understand those financial statements. Right?

Amer Al Ahbabi: 04:56

And cost accounting, gave me the infrastructure for this knowledge and how to assess this company and how well are they doing.

Adam Larson: 05:08

Yeah. That's great that you're able to kind of, help understand how organizations are working. And and and and you mentioned, like, that entrepreneurs and and business leaders should all know how, like, the numbers work. Are there other skills gaps that or within the profession that you feel like that can be bridged in through these skills, especially through, like, the CMA and and working with, organizations like IMA?

Amer Al Ahbabi: 05:31

See, Adam, I remember I visited the headquarters of IMA last last year or the year before that. And the the I was introduced to the story about how IMA was formed and about the it was a community hundred years ago. And, so community here also in the chapters, I'm sure of what you know as well. It's it's a really big community. We come together as accountants, financials, even people with a for not from the background of financial or accounting come together and discuss a lot of topics.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 06:05

So it's more broader than than just a profession. It's a community full community that we could support each other. People, I believe, love to come together, discuss new topics, discuss new challenges that they are facing. You know, people get hired. Yeah.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 06:24

I mean, from those events of what I have understood. People get married. We have certain cases in Egypt. I have visited them this year in May, and they were telling me really nice stories about the IMA community there. And it's one of the most unique communities that I have went through.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 06:42

Istanbul, they have a really nice chapter with the harmony, Europe and London as well. So the communities that you know, Adam, any place I visit any place that I visit, I just check. Does Miami exist there or no? Do we have a chapter? Shall I connect with somebody?

Amer Al Ahbabi: 07:03

I met in this year only, I went to I met Italy chapter in Milan. I met London chapter, Istanbul, and Egypt. All of them were phenomenal. Every chapter, you'll understand something else. It's a different story.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 07:22

They have a different community and how they work. So I believe IMA is a community, a global community, a big community. It

Adam Larson: 07:31

is a global community, and I love that you've been able to connect with different chapters around the world. What what inspired you to kind of start volunteering and getting engaged in IMA? Because you've been you've been, connected since, you know, since it's been a while now.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 07:44

Yeah. I'm I'm, so see. I was engaged with a mission that I graduated as an accountant from the university, and I didn't have any idea about professional certification. Then what is the difference between the professional certification and the academic certifications? And it was my mission to, educate either seniors from the universities or employees, and we've done great with IME in the last couple of five years here in Abu Dhabi.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 08:15

We signed government strategic MOUs. We are teaching CMA and expanding the reach of of of of the professional knowledge, not only CMA. All the professional certification and how an accountant should scale up his skills and his technical tools that he could use to support his career path. Not only this, Adam. In the last couple of weeks or, let's say, month, AI was a really big topic.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 08:48

We did two events lately speaking about AI, one in collaboration with the Al Ain University and one with Dubai chapter. It's called the field. So so you're speaking about things that are happening. People are excited. It's more like a community.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 09:03

So I felt myself there. I was a secretary, I remember, for the board for a couple of years. Then I managed Abu Dhabi charter for three, four years. And then I went into Iraq, which is the bigger community, which is the regional advisory council of the Middle East and Africa. So we looked into a lot of challenges.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 09:25

And lately, I've been appointed in the global board. We are discussing a broader community, as said, from China to The States. So it is really, really something that I learned a lot strategically how to plan, strategically how to be a board member from the beginning, you know, from a board, small chapter secretary till the sitting on the board of global directors. So it was a really nice journey in the last eight years and looking forward for the future together.

Adam Larson: 09:59

Yeah. One thing I love to ask when I'm talking to board members, especially IMA's board members, what what skills and value do you bring to the board, and what how can you help how do you think you can help, guide IMA in a new in this direction, especially with we have IEI and all those other things coming.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 10:15

I felt there is a lot of diversification in our board. A lot of, discussions are happening from different perspectives, from different regions. We are discussing China market, states, Middle East, Africa. So there is a lot of thinking outside the box. We are a very big group, diverse group.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 10:38

We we just in the board, they discuss topics from the East to the South to the North. It's very diverse, different perspectives, different decisions that they are take. I I learned how to be thinking outside the box, checking for possibilities, how we could support our community as much as possible, in the best interest of the profession and the institution and their members. It's it's really before taking a decision, they think a lot. They they just review every possible option, what will happen if in case this happened, in case that happened.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 11:17

You know, the harmony between the board is something I felt. Yesterday, we had a meeting in a subcommittee. Everybody says yeah. And his point of view, everybody respects this point of view. We take it seriously.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 11:32

Yeah. And he and thinking strategically is one of the main points that I have learned from them.

Adam Larson: 11:44

That's amazing. And and I love when I I was just in Phoenix, and I could see the board coming out of the board meeting. And the the group of the diverse group of people, the different people from all different acts, walks of life, all different things, and you have so many and people have been they they have so many different experiences that when all those different voices come together, I can only imagine the the wonderful ideas and and thoughts that come out from it.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 12:18

Yes. And all of them care or or or all of them think about one purpose, how to support our members, how to make them satisfied as much as possible, how to scale their career path, scale their education, scale whatever. It is so it's a re I really enjoy all the board meetings that I have attended. It's really engaging, and and I'm sure I'll learn a lot more in the future with them.

Adam Larson: 12:48

Are there skills that you've gained from volunteering at IMA and being part of the board that you've been able to bring to your professional life and and and your the businesses where you work to to are there skills that you've been able to say, hey. I can apply this here?

Amer Al Ahbabi: 13:01

Yeah. See, other planning things ahead, taking decisions, not not yeah. I mean, taking decisions and also not only yeah. Before, I believe, before couple of years, I was hesitated to take a decision or there there is no I I I was, yeah, I mean, thinking twice. But I may once we joined, we learned how to take decisions, how to close topics out, and how to bring topics to the table or to the board position level and to close it with a purpose, how you could serve as a board member in the right way.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 13:42

You I've been serving with serving with people way ahead of me in their career path. Yeah. And somebody have twenty five years experience. Somebody yesterday, thirty five years of experience in this profession. So imagine if I'm listening to him, how he thinks, how he gets, how he makes decisions, and how he estimates things.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 14:05

This is something really priceless. We are at the end of the day serving and volunteering our time, but at the end of the day, we are also gaining either it's a network, either it's a skill that we are gaining, either it's experience. So I believe that it had a really good impact on on on where I am now. You know, Adam? Also, there is something really nice we did last year in the RAC committee where it was chaired by mister Alhadi.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 14:35

He's also a global board member. So Alhadi had KPIs, how we could how we could record our progress in the certain time and how we could achieve with KPIs and report this to the board. And we we benefited a lot from that, how you could scale up something that important to the board and present it to them with the KPI based on the see, we we are working on a very, very diverse region, which was The Middle East and Africa. So it was a very big very big area that we were covering, and it it was really nice. It was really nice.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 15:21

The experience we gained from those KPIs, setting the KPIs and scaling thing up and measuring it at the end of our period was really nice, especially once we were preparing the report, the end of term report, it was really fun.

Adam Larson: 15:37

Yeah. That's great. So I wanted to ask you a little bit about more about the the chapters in local communities because, you know, IMA is a global organization, and and you've you've seen firsthand how the local chapters kind of really bring people together. Maybe you could talk a little bit more about that.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 15:52

Sure. See, so the local chapters, they serve the the local community in any diverse area or demographic area they are serving in. So what we were doing, we were making a small survey about what topics they want us to present during our conferences. We do graduations. A very nice topic I I saw or sorry.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 16:18

A very nice a very nice action I saw with the Egypt chapter in Skandaria and Cairo. They once they do the graduation of CMAs, they wear the full uniform of the graduation robe with the cap, and it's like you're graduating from university or school. And I really loved it. And I saw a couple of videos, and I promised them I'll be attending one of the graduation. Because, you know, they make people feel that they are they are they achieved something really important.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 16:50

And and this thing initiative came from the chapter itself, nothing to do with the IME headquarters. We we do every year, we have something called Ramadan fasting month. So we prepare food for poor people, and we distribute it on behalf of the chapter. We prepare gatherings together. It is really an the community is really nice.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 17:16

We we on every event, we have overregisters. People come from outside the community to see what IMA is doing here and what are they discussing and what topics. We do collaborations, a lot of collaborations with government entities, universities, student chapters. So I I think and I think also we should involve more into university students, not only in their senior level, but also the junior level, especially who have decided to choose accounting and finance. So this is all about our community.

Adam Larson: 17:56

What advice would you give to somebody who is maybe on the fence about kinda joining IMA or or getting getting involved in the CMA? What advice would you give to if they're kinda on the fence, they're not sure what to do, what would you say to that person?

Amer Al Ahbabi: 18:08

See, I believe I learned a lot from Miami. Either connections imagine this other, first, once The UAE implemented the VAT, the value added tax, and nobody have an idea. We don't have any taxes here. And, I was sitting with people from p w big four, PwC, and these and and they were discussing these topics. Yeah.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 18:33

And I was just graduated two years from university. So the the the type of people you'll be meeting, the the knowledge you'll be gaining, you'll be ahead. Trust me. It's not about you are graduated from any university, about how relevant are you in your field, how well are you connected to your community. Either you are an engineer, either you are a doctor.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 18:58

If you're not getting yourself involved into these communities and also updating yourself with the new topics within the same within the same community, you'll be outdated. So so IMA will give you this update, either it's webinars, events, conferences. You'll do a lot. And number one, priority is networking. I made a lot of friends from IMA communities here.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 19:28

I'm we work together. We did business together. We so it's a wonderful community. So if you if you wanted me to rate it out, I'll say 40% community, 40% knowledge. Communities, which is includes networking.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 19:44

And the knowledge and and 20% is that it will give you see, anybody comes to me and he knows that I am a CMA or as whatever certification I have, he know what standards or what level of education I have. So so so these three key players are really important for you and for your career path in the future, and you should consider them. And I encourage a lot students to participate into student chapters, employees to participate in their local community chapters. I know places that we didn't have chapters, and people were contacting us as I may we wanna open a chapter here. So and it was successful because people have without the people and their willingness and their passion for for for whatever profession they are in, they couldn't build something that's scalable or something they could be proud of in the future.

Adam Larson: 20:42

Mhmm. Well, and we're we're all people first before we're accountants, before we're professionals. We're humans. We're humans who have have very similar experiences. It may be in different regions of the world, but we all deal with issues in life and being able to come together as humans first and then have a passion for the community, for the accounting community, making sure that, you know, we're holding businesses to standards, making sure we have those internal controls in place to make sure that, you know, organizations aren't just, you know, doing everything for the bottom line, but are doing it for whatever your passion is and for whatever it is.

Adam Larson: 21:15

It's it's more than just that. And I love the the stories that you've been telling and how you're seeing that it's a community. Like, you said, like, even that the local chapter, you know, feeds the local community for folks who aren't able to like, that's more than just accounting, and it's coming together as people. So I think this is, you know, this has been a great conversation, and I I love chatting with you and chatting with, especially with with new board members. And, you know, is as you look at your role in the IMA board of directors, what are some things you hope what's the impact you hope to leave and the legacy you hope to leave with IMA?

Amer Al Ahbabi: 21:47

See, I'll be I'll I'll tell you one thing. I've I've been proud that I'm the first Emirati to be a global board member, and I'm the only one from the GCC region. So this is a this is a very big milestone for me and for the region as well. We'll be we'll be hoping to expand the professional sector here in The UAE, educate people about the profession and, how we could take it forward. The percentage of people who are satisfied here sorry, certified are, is not that pleasant.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 22:24

I don't think, we we did a study three years ago. We were less than 5% of the people who have any sort of certification, professional certification in accounting or finance. So we are trying our best to scale it up, especially with the new certification that I may have introduced, FMAA. And, also, this certification have been introduced by Arabic language. It is a very good milestone.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 22:53

We believe and it was a success in Egypt and Saudi, but not here in United Arab Emirates. The the English version was more pleasant and successful here. We are we are also trying to, increase the number of members that we have, increase our family and members and community, specifically in the region and The Middle East and other places of the world. We are planning, to be honest, to, prepare, like, roundtables, with with with the regions and how we could yeah. And across knowledge between chapters and countries, which I believe is something very important for us, especially we have just launched the corporate tax here in the country, and I think getting knowledge from people who have been dealing with corporate tax from fifty years is will be beneficial for us as well.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 23:54

So mainly, we're speaking here about transforming the knowledge, getting to know each other more professionally and also as a community wise.

Adam Larson: 24:07

Mhmm. And I think that's wonderful because, you know, it it's it's great to have to have you on the board because when people see, oh, wait. There's somebody who's like me on the board, and I can connect with that organization. I think it really it really helps bring us together as as as a community and an organization. Well, Amir, I'm so honored to have you on the podcast.

Adam Larson: 24:27

I'm so honored to, get to know more about you, and I really hope that our audience has gotten to know you and just your your journey a little bit more and that they we can continue to all connect as a community at IMA. And I just wanna thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

Amer Al Ahbabi: 24:40

Thank you, Adam. Well, I enjoyed speaking to you and hope to see you soon in The States. This

Announcer: 24:48

has been Count Me In, IMA's podcast, providing you with the latest perspectives of thought leaders from the accounting and finance profession. If you like what you heard and you'd like to be counted in for more relevant accounting and finance education, visit IMA's website at www.imanet.org.