Oakland CPA Elected Chair of CalCPA
Will Focus on Improving Leadership Involvement by Minorities
REDWOOD CITY, CA — Oakland CPA Chris Yahng has been elected chair of the California Society of CPAs. He hopes to increase the involvement of minorities and women in the leadership of the 28,000-member organization.
“Over the past 30 years we have made great strides toward increasing the number of women and ethnic minorities in the profession, and I believe CalCPA’s membership reflects that, but our leadership does not,” Yahng said in a message to CalCPA’s members.
To promote more leadership involvement by minorities, Yahng plans to revive CalCPA’s leadership institute, a series of daylong workshops that teach leadership skills. He also hopes to increase the frequency of meetings among CalCPA’s current leadership and to encourage CalCPA’s 14 chapters to sponsor more meetings for young and emerging professionals.
Yahng was born in China as World War II raged. His family fled from Japanese forces and eventually moved to Connecticut.
Although his father was an accountant, Yahng chose to study economics at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. He eventually earned a master’s in business administration with a concentration in marketing from Emory University, Atlanta.
After Army service, Yahng worked for Crown Zellerbach in San Francisco as a systems analyst and customer service office coordinator from 1970 to 1976.
Thanks to the suggestion of a roommate—John Benson, CPA—Yahng decided that accounting would be a more rewarding career. He took seven accounting courses at California State University, Hayward (now California State University, East Bay), and earned his CPA license in 1976.
After working for two accounting firms, Yahng started an Oakland firm in 1981. Four years later, Benson joined him, and they formed Benson & Yahng, better known as BAYCPA.
Yahng is a member of the board of directors of the Oakland Rotary Endowment and is a past president of the Wa Sung Service Club. He also has been on the board of St. Paul’s Episcopal Elementary School, the Greater YMCA of the East Bay and the Rotary Club of Oakland.
Yahng and his wife, Susan, reside in Oakland. Their daughter, Michelle, recently graduated from George Washington Law School and is studying for the bar exam.
In his spare time, Yahng enjoys skiing, biking, hiking, fishing, traveling and white-water rafting.
