The 1,377 individuals who successfully completed the 2007 Uniform CPA Examination in Illinois were honored by the Illinois CPA Society at their annual New CPA Banquet held on May 29. Special recognition was given to individuals with outstanding achievement on the exam.

The State of Illinois produces a large number of CPAs each year. According to statistics from the Illinois Board of Examiners, it ranked 5th nationally in the number of candidates taking the CPA exam in FY07. Illinois also exceeded the national pass rate by more than five percent.

The Illinois CPA Society presents top scorers with the Excel Award, established in 1984 by the Society’s Board of Directors. To be eligible for the Illinois CPA Society’s Excel Award, candidates must achieve a combined average score of 90 percent or above on all sections of the examination within two consecutive testing windows and be in the top five percent of Illinois scores.

There were a total of 11 individuals who earned the Excel Award this year. Three of them received Excel Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for achieving the top three scores in the state. This year’s medal recipients are:

Excel Gold Medal
John Berger, Jr. - New Lenox, IL
University of Notre Dame

Excel Silver Medal
Ryan Meals - Naperville, IL.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Excel Bronze Medal
Kevin Johnson - Chicago, IL
University of Notre Dame

The other Excel Award recipients are:

Garrett Behling - Oak Park, IL
University of Utah

Jonathan Enslen - Wheaton, IL
University of California, Berkley; Northern Illinois University

Tyler Henshaw - Wildwood, MO
Indiana University, Bloomington

Vanessa Lynn - Chicago, IL
Loyola University

Susan McAndrew - Oak Park, IL
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Ryan Mistarz - Apex, NC
Indiana University Northwest

Jakob Thompson - Warren, IL
Illinois State University

Katie Williams – Sherman, IL
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"It bodes well for the quality of CPAs in the state to have a pass rate above the national average. And the large pool of talented candidates puts the profession in a better position than most to weather boomer retirements," said Elaine Weiss, president and CEO of the Illinois CPA Society. "We look forward to the energy and ideas the next generation of CPAs brings to the workplace. Congratulations to the Award recipients and welcome to all of Illinois' new CPAs."