One of this month's feature articles "Scottish Emigration and U.S. Accountancy" tells of the contribution Scottish emigrants made to the development of the accountancy profession. But the story doesn't end there. In 1995, Euan C. Menzies, a Scottish Chartered Accountant, was appointed president and CEO of RIA Group, a subset of the Thomson Corporation and a major vendor of information services to the accounting profession. The group is comprised of the Research Institute of America, Warren Gorham & Lamont, Practitioners Publishing Company, and SCS/Compute. Their products are to be found in one form or another in most practice units and tax departments throughout the United States.

Menzies qualified as a CA in Scotland in 1984 and began a career in public accounting with Thomson McClintock which, at that time, was the U.K. firm associated with KMG Main Hurdman in the U.S. As was fashionable at the time, he sought a tour of duty in some distant place--Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa--and, in 1984, ended up at KMG Main Hurdman in New York, where he worked until shortly after KMG's merger with KPMG Peat Marwick some three years later. After learning that continuation with KPMG would require that he become a New York State CPA--which because of New York's educational requirements would have meant returning to the classroom--he took a position with the Thomson Corporation in the office of the controller. From there he went on to be the chief financial officer of a group of publishing companies owned by Thomson and then to the position of chief executive of RIA. There he was successful in moving the subscription products of RIA from substantially a print basis to its present 75% electronic form. Menzies was able to envision the place of the CD ROM product as the preferred research tool.

In 1995, with the grouping of the tax and accounting information services companies under the RIA Group, Menzies was given the job of continuing to move that whole area ahead through this time of rapid change and technology-based innovation.

Menzies says that his chartered accountancy and public accounting backgrounds have prepared him well to quickly analyze complex business opportunities and quantify and present them in a manner that he and other decision makers can use and stand behind.

Menzies is in the process of preparing his group to take further advantage of technology in providing information and related tools to the accounting professional. The Scots are still among us and are continuing to make a contribution. *