Mr Crombie, an audit partner at Polson Higgs, said in an interview the institute had spent a lot of time sorting out its governance.
"It was a pretty brave decision by the council to downsize itself. It was a representative council but that was a down side in itself."
A committee of the institute had worked through many issues before selecting the right people for the job. The June council meeting had approved the new board which started work officially on July 1, he said.
The council had been reduced from 42 members to 25 who would meet twice a year. Auckland, which had previously had 13 council representatives, now had three. The board would meet nine times a year, Mr Crombie said.
The other board directors are: Liz Hickey, a member of the New Zealand Securities Commission and Adjunct Professor, Auckland University department of accounting and finance; Murray Jack, chief executive of Deloitte; Allan Newman, director of Sadler Oakly Newman Ltd, chartered accountants, Masterson; Craig Norgate, director of Rural Portfolio Investments, and PGG Wrightson; Neil Paviour-Smith, managing director of Forsyth Barr; Doug McKay, executive chairman and chief executive of Independent Liquor (Auckland and Melbourne); Hugh Rennie QC, a barrister in commercial and public law.
Ex-officio members are institute president Linda Turner, vice-presidents Dinu Harry and Ross Jackson and chief executive Terry McLaughlin.
Mr Crombie said the recession had resulted in the accountancy profession coming under close scrutiny.
While that presented many challenges, it was an exciting place in which to be.
New Zealand ran the risk of being swamped by international standards that were not relevant to this country.
One of the issues was the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) which were relevant to larger companies but less relevant to farmers and smaller partnerships of "mum and dad" companies.
One of the issues the board would be addressing was ensuring that New Zealand accountancy graduates had the best possible qualifications to ensure they could be hired when they travelled.
Attracting students willing to study commerce had also become a major issue for the profession, Mr Crombie said.
Many universities function on research-based funding, making it harder to attract the same sort of funding for commerce.
"It is challenging but something we will be addressing."
