Jo Ann has been a Nonprofit Professional Society Association Executive her entire career. Benzer Enterprises is a consulting-based organization that currently does contract or pro-bono work for nonprofits.
From 1964 to 1978, she became the Associate Director of the Wisconsin Bankers Association and served to oversee committees, development and implementation of training and educational events, and the Registrar (management) function of the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She was Secretary to the Executive Council (Governing Board) and the Director of the Wisconsin State Chapter of the American Institute of Banking.
From 1978-1997, she served in the COO function of the Illinois CPA Society, a 30,000 member state association of CPAs. She was responsible for the strategy direction, staff and volunteer leadership succession, committee oversight, and business management. The association had over 60 active committees with over 1200 volunteers, 70 staff, and conducted over 300 educational events each year. The events included the largest business and management show conducted by state CPA Societies which she developed and started. While there, she coordinated the development of the Accredited Business Valuation Credential (ABV) which is now administered by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). She was the Co-Chair of the Large CPA State Society Coalition which developed joint projects such as marketing and technologies, education, and strategy planning for the CPA Profession.
In 1998, Jo Ann was asked to startup and serve as the Executive Director of Information Technology Alliance (ITA), an association of pre-eminent technology solution providers to small and mid-sized businesses throughout the US and Canada. CPAs were then getting involved in IT consulting work and a credential was considered a must. So early on the Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP) certification was created and is now managed by the American Institute of CPAs (AiCPA). ITA members are the Top service providers of Top software / service / subscription developers, Top executives of those organizations, consultants to the IT Profession, and the CIOs and senior staff of the Top 50 CPA Firms in the US and Canada. JoAnn retired as Executive Director in 2016 and now serves as a contractor doing special projects, web-based content, marketing and database management.
On the World Stage and as a volunteer, she was a founder of Meeting Professionals International in 1972, an association of meeting professionals and hospitality executives. While there, she was a director and officer. She developed the Chapter Organization structure which it has today and was responsible for exponentially growing the organization to over 60,000 people in 75 countries and in 70 Chapters. She coordinated the development and initial implementation of the Certified Meeting Planner Credential (CMP). She was honored to be awarded The First MPI Meeting Planner of the Year in 1976.
She is married to Bob Benzer, a retired banker and consultant, and they have one daughter and 6 grandchildren.