Eric O'Link
Cleared for takeoff
| April/May 2025 Footnote
Editor's note: Updated March 26, 2025
CPAs are crucial professionals whose expertise is needed during turbulent times. With a broad range of experiences ranging from public accounting and business and industry, Eric O’Link, CPA is no first-time flier when it comes to leadership as he takes the helm as the new board chair. The controller for Anderson Dahlen, Inc. took time to talk to us about his career, his life and where he sees the industry headed in the next several years.
What is your background as a CPA?
I found accounting as a second career; my undergraduate degree is in mass communications and journalism. After college, I worked for a community newspaper, which was a rewarding but stressful job. Seeking more work-life balance, I moved to a magazine publisher, where I wrote marketing content about all things home related. Two years into that job, the housing bubble burst and it became clear that the supply of writers and editors looking for work greatly exceeded the number of available jobs. Around this time, a friend graduated with an accounting degree and multiple job offers — that sounded like an immensely better career situation!
I’d taken an accounting class in college and liked it, so I decided to pivot. I quit my job and went back to school full time, earning an MBA from St. Cloud State University with an accounting concentration that included all the classes necessary to sit for the CPA exam. I finished in December 2010, started working at Copeland Buhl in January 2011 and passed the CPA exam that summer.
Copeland was a wonderful experience. However, busy season hours were challenging to manage alongside a young, growing family, so I switched to corporate accounting in 2015. Since 2019, I have been the controller at Anderson Dahlen, Inc., a manufacturer of stainless-steel capital equipment. Seeing the process of our equipment being built and learning how it will be used is fascinating, whether it be food processing systems, pharmaceutical bioreactors or vacuum chambers. Anderson Dahlen’s management team also became involved with a business turnaround effort in Illinois through our parent company, Gray, Inc.; this has been another valuable learning experience. I’m now a part-time CFO of that company (AD Process Equipment, LLC) in addition to my controller role at Anderson Dahlen.
I love my accounting career — every day is an opportunity to learn something new. Being a CPA has provided opportunities that I couldn’t have imagined back in my journalism days.
What led you to becoming the MNCPA board chair?
My involvement with the MNCPA goes back several years. I’ve been a longtime member of the MNCPA’s Controller Forum and served on the SALT Conference Planning Task Force for a couple of years. But I was quite surprised when I was invited to join the board of directors, though I was happy to give back to a profession that gave so much to me.
Being a CPA in the corporate accounting world, I think it’s easy to let your focus narrow only to the issues that directly affect your business and industry. My eyes were opened to the broader issues affecting the accounting profession when I joined the board, particularly the problem of the shrinking pipeline of new CPAs. Serving as a board member has been an education, a privilege and a lot of fun thanks to such an exceptional group of people.
I will admit feeling some imposter syndrome when Boz Bostrom reached out to ask me if I would be willing to succeed him as chair: His are big shoes to fill, so it’s an incredible honor.
As Blue Angels pilots say, “I’m just happy to be here.”
What excites you most about the role of chair?
It’s a pivotal moment for the accounting profession. The MNCPA was the first state society in the nation to draft legislation that would provide additional pathways to becoming a CPA. We’re now seeing the fruits of those efforts with a shift in the national conversation on this topic and many other states jumping on board. I am stoked to be joining Minnesota’s delegation on the AICPA Council and am looking forward to representing Minnesota while meeting other CPAs from around the country.
I love connecting with my business and industry colleagues and want to grow networking opportunities for B&I members. Many of us corporate CPAs do not often have opportunities to meet with other CPAs, especially given the trend toward virtual CPE. I hope as chair I can increase the engagement of our B&I membership.
What do you see as the biggest challenges facing the accounting profession today?
The pipeline challenge is certainly top of mind, especially with the progress we’ve made with broadening pathways to obtaining a CPA license beyond the 150-credit-hour rule. The work doesn’t end there, however. State societies will need to work together, with the support of the AICPA and NASBA, to ensure that additional pathways do not come at the expense of mobility. Beyond such regulatory challenges, we need to promote the accounting profession to young people and champion the CPA credential as the ticket to a rewarding career with unlimited potential.
Mentioning AI feels cliché, but necessary. CPAs need to move from understanding what AI can do to using it to help us work smarter and add value as advisers and business partners.
I also see the pandemic-induced trend of virtual CPE as a threat to keeping the CPAs at the top of their game. Earning the requisite number of CPE credits by June 30 can feel like a chore, but it’s a good thing that our CPA license encourages — and requires — continual learning. Virtual CPE certainly has its place, but I believe CPAs’ move away from in-person CPE has hurt our engagement and limited learning by removing spontaneous in-person discussions from CPE sessions.
Where do you see the profession in five years?
Our profession will continue to evolve. For instance, I believe AI will play a larger role in our work than it does now. Clients and business colleagues will look to our expertise for how they can leverage the benefits of AI.
I expect we will see progress made against our shrinking pipeline and that the mobility questions raised by broadening the pathways to licensure will be resolved.
Above all, I see the profession taking an increasingly important role as a trusted source of truth in a world of “alternative facts.”
What else, besides accounting practices and the industry, do you enjoy learning about and why?
Curiosity makes for a good CPA and I find myself curious about so many subjects. I am weirdly fascinated by the convoluted world of sales tax. I also find economics interesting, especially in the way it defines motivation and behavior.
Beyond business, I enjoy learning about new outdoor places that would be fun to explore, particularly in Minnesota, but also anywhere I can feasibly visit. I have a bunch of places tagged in Google Earth and am slowly checking them off my list.
What do you like to do outside of work and why?
I probably have too many hobbies for someone who is not retired! I enjoy mountain biking, kayaking, downhill and cross-country skiing. However, aviation is probably my most intense passion — particularly air travel. I absolutely love flying, airports and watching and photographing airplanes (we avgeeks call this “plane spotting”).
In 2019, I started my own business designing and selling aviation-themed T-shirts online: Jetset Shirts LLC. I wanted apparel that showed my passion for aviation with simple, clean designs. This little side hustle has grown, taken me around the country and introduced me to awesome people in the aviation community. If not for becoming a CPA and the accounting, tax and regulatory knowledge that I’ve picked up along the way, I wouldn’t have had a clue how to start my own business.
What are your favorite airports to visit both domestic and international?
Hands down, my favorite domestic airport for the overall travel experience is Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. MSP wins awards for a reason. It’s easy to navigate, has a great mix of shops and restaurants, attractive art installations and plenty of places to sit and relax. MSP also has an outstanding aircraft viewing area at the end of Cargo Road that puts you in the middle of the airfield, with great views of jets taking off and landing.
Los Angeles International is a close runner up. Sure, the LAX traffic is horrendous, but the plane spotting is world class — there’s a huge variety of airlines and airplanes and usually perfect weather. Where else can you watch a super jumbo Airbus A380 roar 200 feet over your head and then walk across the street to get a burger at In-N-Out?
Outside of the U.S., Vancouver tops my list. The scenery is gorgeous with a backdrop of snow-covered mountains. The terminal’s customs facility has a cascading waterfall and native-inspired art. There’s an outdoor viewing platform on the south side of the airport with a busy seaplane terminal and waterfront restaurant across the street.
