We measure what matters.
For more than 15 years, the Accounting MOVE Project has been the profession's truth-teller on talent retention, leadership diversity, pay equity, and workplace culture. We're not here to make you feel good about your DEI statement. We're here to show you where your leadership pipeline is leaking, why your best people are leaving, and what the firms winning the talent war are doing differently.
What Is
The Accounting MOVE Project?
The Accounting MOVE Project is the profession's most comprehensive annual benchmarking initiative on talent retention, leadership diversity, and workplace equity. Since 2010, we've helped accounting firms build stronger leadership pipelines through data-driven research, practical insights, and recognition of firms leading the way. We don't just measure progress; we provide the roadmap to achieve it.
Founded on a proven methodology developed in 1998, MOVE has transformed how industries understand and advance women and underrepresented talent. In accounting, we've become the trusted standard for firms serious about turning diversity, equity, and inclusion from aspiration into competitive advantage.
What does MOVE mean?
The MOVE methodology has been used since 1998 when Joanne Cleaver developed it to support Working Woman magazine’s first “Top 25 Companies for Executive Women” list.
Pay equity programs, analysis and measurement. MOVE is not a salary survey but does examine how employers hold managers accountable for pay equity, and how employers address equity gaps.
Leadership, management and technical training and development, especially operating positions that involve profit and loss responsibility – key for rising to top leadership.
Flexible work practices are only effective when they drive business results. MOVE examines not just the existence of programs such as telecommuting, wellness and dependent care benefits, but also how they directly support productivity and business results.
Hands-on business development and supplier diversity demonstrate a company’s investment in the business-building skills of its women employees and women-owned businesses.
Our Story
From Magazine Research to Industry Standard
1998-2010
Joanne Cleaver develops MOVE for Working Woman magazine's "Top 25 Companies for Executive Women" list. The framework proves that measuring Money, Opportunity, Vital Supports, and Entrepreneurship reveals what actually works.
2010-2022
Partnering with the Accounting & Financial Women's Alliance (AFWA), Cleaver launches the Accounting MOVE Project, the profession's first comprehensive benchmarking on women's advancement. For 12 years, MOVE provides the data CPA firms can't get anywhere else.
2022-Present
Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk takes the helm at the 2022 AFWA Women Who Count Conference. Under Bonnie's leadership, MOVE partners with the Center for Accounting Transformation, expands to 75+ participating firms, and challenges the profession to move beyond good intentions to measurable progress.
MOVE'S Reach & Impact
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Professionals RepresentedMeet the Team
Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
Heidi Holmberg
Accounting MOVE Project Supporting Partners
