Q. Is leadership something that comes easy for you?

A. For myself, it's something that I've had to work at to be a good leader. As an accountant you start off in school and you think to yourself that you're going to sit behind your desk and work on spreadsheets and schedules and so forth. But really being an auditor and being a part of a public accounting firm is a lot more than that. So part of that is taking on more of a leadership role as we progress within the firm and supervise staff and provide the guidance and the mentoring. It means eventually taking a leadership role either as partner ... or in my case as managing partner and now leading the office as we move forward.

Q. Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 in response to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals. How has it changed the way your firm does business?

A. I wouldn't necessarily say things are done differently. We've always had a focus on quality and making sure that we provide quality services for our clients. We are obviously very cognizant that there are other people looking even more closely at what we're doing and that we need to make sure that we're doing the right thing.

Q. How has the relationship between the advisory and accounting businesses changed over past decade or so?

A. When you look historically, the firms' often had a consulting practice, which we no longer do. There is to a certain extent more of a distinction now because of the independence requirements. The distinction is there because we need to make sure that while we want to help our clients to the extent we can if they are an audit client, we need to be very cognizant that we need to maintain our independence and not to impair that. So that distinction really comes into play when we try to make sure we are not doing something for our client that we shouldn't be and that would impair our independence.

Q. What was the impetus for Ernst & Young shedding its consulting business?

A. If you look at Ernst & Young, for example, we divested our consulting practice even before Sarbanes-Oxley came about. Part of it is has to do with the firm's strategic vision and where it wanted to be headed versus other firms that divested themselves of their consulting practice after Sarbanes-Oxley came about. I think it really just depended on where the firm saw itself going, its vision and the focus that it wanted to have on how it was going to serve clients.

Q. Have you seen a trend of corporate directors taking classes to improve their knowledge of corporate governance procedures?

A. That is happening here in Hawai'i and everywhere. A lot of companies now — management and the board members — are very cognizant of their fiduciary responsibilities and aware of the fact that they need to understand governance, they need to understand Sarbanes, they need to understand what is occurring in the company. So there is now much more emphasis on education and training at all levels in the organization, including board members. We assist our clients in providing them some of that education. It's making everyone aware of what their responsibilities are and making sure that everybody understands what the requirements are and what needs to be done to be in compliance with all those requirements.

Q. Some smaller companies have complained that new reporting requirements under Sarbanes-Oxley are burdensome because they don't have enough personnel.

A. I think initially when Sarbanes-Oxley came on everybody thought it was a lot of work, and it was a lot of work initially for the companies to implement it. But now three years into it and you look at it, it has had its benefits: increasing investor confidence in the companies. Companies also have found ways to become more efficient and to improve their controls and improve the way they do things. For the smaller companies, a lot of them are looking at Sarbanes-Oxley and what makes sense for them to implement and what makes sense in terms of how they could benefit from having improved internal controls. They're also looking at ways they can start to do things now as opposed to waiting until they are actually required to comply.

Q. You recently were promoted to managing partner. How has that changed things in terms of your day-to-day responsibilities?

A. Fortunately for me I had a very good mentor to follow, Larry Rodriguez, who was the managing partner before me. He and I worked very closely together and he provided me with a lot of guidance along the way such that the day I effectively took on the title of managing partner, I had already been taking care of some of the responsibilities. So it didn't happen overnight — today I'm one thing and tomorrow I'm the managing partner. Fortunately he's still here in the office and that's allowing a nice transition in our roles.

Q. You are involved with several nonprofit organizations. How did you decide on which boards you would serve?

A. There are a lot out there and a lot of them have very good board members and they are always looking for people to assist. I got involved with them partly because of my accounting background. A lot of organizations now look to set up their board structure in such a manner that they have a more diverse group of people. If you look at a lot of boards of not for profits, they try to have attorneys, accountants, financial people, human resources and just a diverse group of people. I help the role on various boards in terms of a financial and accounting background. I was past treasurer for the Honolulu Zoological Society and currently the audit committee chair for Easter Seals Hawaii, and I'm currently on the board of Hospice Hawaii. Easter Seals and Hospice Hawaii play into my background and experiences because they are both providers of health services. My experience here at the firm is heavily weighted toward healthcare.

Reach Alan Yonan Jr. at ayonan@honoluluadvertiser.com.