VSCPA
2021 Outstanding Member: Alan Witt, CPA
Alan Witt, CPA, has worn many hats in his lengthy accounting career — partner, community champion and now college instructor, to name a few. But he’s proudest of those three letters after his name.
Witt, recently retired as partner at regional firm PBMares — he was the Witt in Witt Mares, one of the predecessor firms that created the firm with the merger with PBGH in 2013 — is the VSCPA’s Outstanding Member of the Year for 2021, in no small part thanks to his indefatigable support for the profession, its future, and his adopted hometown of Newport News. Witt grew up in New Jersey before his family moved to Newport News during his last year of high school. He never left the city, attending Christopher Newport College (now Christopher Newport University, or CNU), where he now teaches accounting, and spending his entire career there. Bit by the bug of civic service, he spent three years on the Newport News
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City Council, but his short political career barely scratches the surface of what he did for the city. “If you’re blessed with success, you have a responsibility to pay back to whatever community you’re in,” he said. “I always looked for avenues of service that would permit me to use my skills, as limited as they may be, to help advance the community.” Modesty aside, it’s hard to find a better champion for Newport News than Witt has been over the course of his career. He worked his way up to chairman of the Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce in the late 1980s and had similar involvement with the Newport News Industrial Development Authority (NNIDA). Then-Gov. Chuck Robb appointed him to Christopher Newport’s Board of Visitors, where he eventually served as rector. Witt led the charge for several major changes that helped transform CNU from a small commuter school
