I received a message from a friend of mine on Sunday afternoon that took me by surprise. Someone on LinkedIn had posted a quick note. Three words: ‘Vale Paul Drum’.
I got the message that something had happened to Paul Drum, the man who had been front and centre of advocacy on tax matters for many years for CPA Australia.
Paul passed away last Friday. He died on the day he took time out to play golf.
Paul was somebody who I got to know when I first began dealing with the accounting profession in the mid-1990s. His tax career spanned the public sector, public practice and then his lengthy stint with CPA Australia. He worked at the Australian Taxation Office and worked as a practitioner.
These roles made him well suited to the task of looking at tax policy through the lens of members of a professional organisation that had people dealing with tax across the full spectrum of the business community.
It is a tribute to the generous soul that the accounting world lost on Friday that Paul Drum’s associates and industry contacts have complimented his career and expressed shock at learning of the fact that he has exited stage right long before anyone that has known him would have thought possible.
The accounting world is a small village in Australia and his colleagues across the professional accounting bodies such as the Institute of Public Accountants and Chartered Accountants – Australia and New Zealand have noted the depth of his contribution and mourned his passing. His knowledge and humour have been remarked on by other people he touched over the years.
My engagement with Paul was initially one as journalist and industry contact. It was almost ten years before I crossed over and became the policy adviser for a professional body. I joined the National Institute of Accountants back in 2005 and Paul then switched from being an industry contact I pestered for contemporary developments to somebody who was a colleague with similar strains, pressures, anxieties and goals of attempting to persuade bureaucrats and politicians that certain policy directions were healthier than others.
People like Paul don’t just leave behind their immediate family – a wife and two daughters – but they exist this world with a larger family, a broader network that they have touched over the many years of service to a profession.
I had hoped to record a podcast with Paul this month. We spoke about it the other week when professional bodies were arguing for greater leniency at the present time from the Australian Taxation Office.
I rang him when a story appeared on another web site about concerns related to the ATO’s stance on lodgement deadlines. I never imagined that that conversation with Paul – someone I greatly respected - would be my last.