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For 50 years, the CMA program has adapted and evolved to ensure it continues to give management accountants an edge.
The CMA® (Certified Management Accountant) program has grown exponentially since its earliest days in 1972, attracting professionals from a wide range of industries, countries, career stages, and job titles. Sixty-one individuals passed the first exam in December 1972 and earned the right to call themselves a CMA. In the years since, more than 100,000 individuals have similarly achieved the distinction. What began as a program initially available in about two dozen U.S. cities has grown into something more far reaching and influential: Today, accounting and finance professionals in 119 countries around the world proudly call themselves CMAs (see Figure 1).
The evolution of the CMA reflects the determination of IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants) and ICMA® (Institute of Certified Management Accountants, an affiliate of IMA that oversees the program) to adapt to the changing demands of the profession. It demonstrates the organization's commitment to fulfill its mission to serve the profession and provide assurance that those who earn the certification possess the skills required to perform exemplary work. It's a story of resilience, adaptability, and commitment-one that began a half century ago.
Attesting to Proficiency
The idea for a certification that would attest to the qualifications and proficiency of management accountants originated in the mid-1940s, more than two decades after the National Association of Cost Accountants (NACA, as IMA was originally known) was founded in 1919. It took another 20 years for the association and its then-president, Joseph L. Brumit, to appoint a Long-Range Objectives Committee to consider the matter.
Given a time frame of three years, the Committee developed a comprehensive report, unveiled at a national board meeting in June 1968, which included a section titled "Recognition of Educational Attainment." In six short paragraphs, the initial spark of the CMA was lit: "The Association shall develop and administer comprehensive examinations in the field of business education. Upon the successful completion of such an examination, the candidate shall be awarded an appropriate title." Also described were the qualifications needed to sit for such an examination and the need to charge fees.
That initial report led to the creation of an ad hoc committee to...