ACFE expresses gratitude to departing president

You might notice a new picture above. If you don’t recognize me, I’m John Gill, and I’m honored to be the new president of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Accepting this esteemed position came with mixed emotions, however. Our outgoing president, Bruce Dorris, J.D., CFE, CPA, recently left the ACFE to take some time for himself and his family before he begins the next chapter of his career. I’ll miss him a great deal, as I’m sure many of you will.

Bruce started with the ACFE in 2007 as our program director. One of his main responsibilities was teaching. I’d just developed the CFE Exam Review Course in 2006. Bruce taught with me at the second offering of that class, which was a huge success. It was so successful that we received multiple teaching requests from all over the world. When Bruce became the ACFE’s president and CEO in 2017, he had to step back from teaching because he was traveling even more miles to meet with all of you at conferences and seminars around the world.

During his tenure as president and CEO, the ACFE membership increased from nearly 80,000 to more than 93,000. He guided us through the COVID pandemic at a time when it wasn’t clear what the future of our association — or our profession — would look like. I’m proud to say that under his leadership we emerged from the last few years stronger and more stable than ever before. We owe Bruce an enormous amount of gratitude for all the time, dedication and energy he has given to the ACFE’s membership and its employees.

It makes sense that we now separate the president and chief executive roles. It’s my pleasure to announce that John Warren, J.D., CFE, is the ACFE’s new CEO. John formerly served as the ACFE’s chief strategy officer, and I couldn’t be prouder to work with him in leading the ACFE.

So, back to why my picture is here. While I most recently was the chief training officer, I began my career at the ACFE in 1995 as its first general counsel. But with only 25 employees and 12,000 members, no one at the ACFE at that time had just one job. I was the legal counsel in the mornings, and a major contributor to Fraud Magazine in the afternoons. I also wrote course materials for seminars and developed self-study courses. I soon realized I needed some help.

So, in 1996, we hired John Warren as associate general counsel, and he followed the same routine. He did legal work in the mornings, and in the afternoons, he wrote and compiled the very first Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse. If you have ever seen The Fraud Tree, you can thank John Warren for that.

Since those early days, our positions within the ACFE changed several times. John Warren was the general counsel for many years, and I served as research director and vice president of education. But the one thing that never changed was our dedication to the ACFE and its members.

Although we’re sad that we’ll no longer be working with Bruce, you can be certain that John Warren and I are excited about these new roles and look forward to continuing the vision of our founder and Chairman Dr. Joseph T. Wells, CFE, CPA, in providing quality service to our members and the best anti-fraud training in the world.

John Gill, J.D., CFE, is the incoming president of the ACFE. Contact him at President@ACFE.com.