Josh Elder, CPA


Josh Elder, CPA, an assistant vice president and senior internal auditor with MidFirst Bank in Oklahoma City, says he owes Uncle Sam quite a bit. “I would… still give credit to the


United States Army and the drill sergeants who drove home the ethos of what makes this country great,” Elder said. “Being able to spend nine years with the opportunity to build relationships with future leaders prepared me for where I am today. Toward the end of my time in the Army, I realized the professional skepticism I gained along the way gave me the itch necessary to be a successful auditor.” However, the self-proclaimed Army brat and former soldier for the Army National Guard, says his most significant professional achievement is far less glamorous. “To date of course, it would be


surviving the first year of public accounting and desiring to come back for more,” Elder said. “You spend the first year really trying to rationalize if you learned anything at school or whether you’ve been fooling yourself. Ten you come to the realization that academia provides for solutions that work, and the real job typically gives you problems with some or no answers.” During his time in the Army


National Guard, and after a deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom, Elder earned his bachelor’s degree from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, Oklahoma. An OSCPA


member for five years, Elder has actively participated as a member of the OSCPA Young Accounting Professionals (YAP) Committee since 2012 and as a member of the OSCPA’s Banking and Other Financial Institutions Committee since 2015. His talents come as no surprise to those


who have worked with him. Kelly Schwarz, CPA, a partner with Arledge & Associates, P.C. in Edmond, Oklahoma, said she first got to know Elder when he began working there in the summer of 2007. “He immediately became a vital part of our audit team with his positive attitude, his innate ability to grasp the technical accounting issues that we encounter in our profession and his ability to communicate effectively with all levels of client personnel,” Schwarz said. “Joshua’s career in the accounting profession was temporarily suspended in the fall of 2008 when his National Guard Unit was deployed for a year to Kuwait. He readily embraced this request and considered it an honor to serve his country.” For Elder, his military assignments and


his work assignments shared similarities. “Having gone to basic training…you get exposed to some unique tactics to build discipline, which public accounting is no different,” Elder said. “Similar to basic training for the strongest army on the planet, those early years were training me for the rest of my career, and the camaraderie and bonds created will last a lifetime.”


“We are all the hero in our own story.” ~Mary McCarthy


JOSH’S TRAIL MIX


If I weren’t a CPA, I would be: Te credential doesn’t define us, it’s more. I’m a CPA so I can be [insert whatever you want because CPAs are awesome].


One thing I won’t be caught dead doing is: Jumping out of a plane – maybe I’m missing something but it seems like it was discovered from evolutionary regression. I mean was the conversation, “Yeah we can land the plane or, and stick with me on this, we could just jump out and let the pilot land on his own”? I just don’t understand it.


Who is your current celebrity crush? Pass. Pretty sure my wife will read this.


You’ll never catch me wearing: Dress shoes with no socks – apparently that’s a thing these days. I guess there has been a genetic breakthrough where men are born without feet that sweat.


What was your first concert? Aerosmith – Joe Perry melted my face. I’m still recovering.


March/April 2017


CPAFOCUS 17


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40